Customer Reviews

Wizcom InfoScan IS1000 Pen Scanner

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

I recently purchased the infoscan and must say that it pales in comparison to its competitors. I own 2 C-Pens that are similar to the infoscan and they are much better. The essential problem with the infoscan is that the turnaround time (ie. the time required for the scanned information to be stored into the pen's memory) is too long. It takes 2-3 seconds per line of scanned text which is frustrating when scanning any amount of text (in contrast, the C-Pens (600C and 800C) only take about a second). The character recognition is average (about 90-95% versus the 95+% with the C-Pens). The screen is of lower resolution and quality. The ergonomics are not as good (poor button placement and a larger overall device).
One additional note, the manufacturer will not accept returns of their product if not bought directly from them.
In summary, most of these issues are minor with the exception of the turnaround time which makes this item pale in comparison to the C-Pen product line. These devices are great when they work well (C-Pen) and frustrating when they work poorly (Wizcom).

(update 11/07), Yes I'm updating 4 yrs later only because I'm selling it. It really does work, the problem lies more in the sociology of actually scanning. While it is faster than typing, its slower than highlighting. Once I've highlighted, I found that I was too lazy to go back and scan. I've been experimenting around with voice recognition software, Dragon Naturally Speaking 9, and found that this method is even faster than scanning and as accurate. We'll see if this will get me off my lazy PhD butt and actually start to capture some of what I read.

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Before I bought this pen I looked at most of the reviews for other hand held scanners on the market. It seems to be the case that either they works or they don't. In my case it seems to work perfect. Well perfect as in about 5 mistakes in about a hundred words, in other words abouth 1 in 20. This actually isn't as bad as it seems and perhaps I expected the worst but I find this quite tolerable and readable. In addition if the reviews I read are correct, there is a slight learning curve so hopefully it will get better.

(update 10/03) I have now used the pen to work on about 6 articles and my scanning error rate has dropped significantly to about 1 error/paragraph. I have found that parantheses cause problems and that some words no matter how many times you scan them will not scan correctly. All in all this pen works as well as I hoped for. (end update)

I haven't had a lot of time to play with the software but is seems to work pretty seamlessly in a Win XP box with SP 2 installed. Install the software, plug in the USB cable, plug in the pen and voila it works (actually it didn't work the first time but it turned out that I hadn't pushed the pen side plug in fully, it should click)

(...)

The trick now is actually using it.

If your interested here is a scan of a paragraph. Its about my third try.

"Recently, digital information and new fonns of information technology have become the focus of tremendous amounts of attention and energy iaan our society. excitement penetrates not the business world and the general society. but also cademia, where computer scientists, cognitive scientists, social scientists are thinking about information and the arial impacts of information technology in new ways."

When this gadget works, it's great. Trouble is, it hardly ever works. And getting it to communicate with the PC is nearly impossible. On top of that, technical support is poor. They reply fast enough. They just don't know enough.

It's a great idea. Just not ready for prime time. Don't buy it. You'll regret it if you do.

The pen scanner works fine in contrainted environment. The constraints are:
* the room must be not too dark and not too bright.
* The scan speed must be reasonable, took a while to get used to it.
* Be patient: the data saving speed of the scanner is way too long. Sometimes I feel it must have been faster if I typed the words in.
* The angle of the scanner, it took me a little while to get used to it.
* When you scan text directly to the computer, make sure you focus the window of where you want the text to be, otherwise it will end up in some place else.

In other words, don't expect too much and you'll be happy with it.

I bought one, and used for only 2 days, and then decided to return it. The turnaround time is too long. Reading speed as well as transfering data to PC is extremely low.
Can not suffer from it any more. And return it.
At the same time, I ordered a Cpen 20. It is much better than infoScan.

I was concerned about the mixed reviews of this product, but considering this scanner was so inexpensive I decided to try it myself. An instruction manual and quick start guide is included, but for more thorough instructions check the Documentation folder on the CD. After following the directions, I could not get the device to communicate with my computer. The documentation and website advise trying to change the Baud Rate on the device and on the PC, but that still didn't help. I finally got the connection to work after changing the COM Port number in the Advanced settings in Device Manager. For some reason the device is not a normal USB device, but can be found under Ports(Com&LPT) - Prolific USB-to-Serial Comm Port on Windows XP.
Anyway, I now use the device to highlight key passages in my everyday reading, which are typically only one or two sentences long at a time and from both magazines and books. I have good success with this device, but have not tried the optional image scanner or the infrared capability. I have no experience with any other pen scanner, but this is the most inexpensive one I found and includes USB connectivity and works great for casual highlighting. Once you get the connection working, and beyond the fact that this device is an ugly red, this is a good product to have. The only issue I have with it now is that I wish it was a little smaller, especially since I don't have the need for the big display to see what I just scanned.

I sure wish this worked because I could really use it. Unfortunately I had to give up on this one as the accuracy was pathetic. It was not just a matter of a few mistakes. There were so many that the meaning was lost as well. I tried hard to adjust and follow their instructions for more accuracy, but to no avail. It is being returned.

I don't know about the competitors, but the Infoscan accomplishes all my needs. No more highlighters for me! Now I can take notes in a clean, organized manner. The Infoscan isn't perfect, 'tis true, but it certainly gets the job done. Here's a scanned passage (words in brackets are wrong):

If you live [riot] in a major city, you're in a prime spot. Rural areas also have their attractions. Another possible source of people to stay in your bed and breakfast is any national or international corporation near your home. [/roximity] to any kind of tourist attraction is a plus for a bed and breakfast. A home situated near a college, university, or private school can benefit [froze] the considerable amount of traffic that always surrounds an institution of higher learning.

As you can see, most of the words are correct, and those that aren't are easily understood (right, Proximity, from). If you follow the directions, which is easy to do, this pen will work wonderfully.

Basically, the title says it all. This scans flawlessly out of a book. If you are having problems using it on a book, it is your fault for not using it right.

So if you spend a lot of time at the library, this is great. The scanning delay is a bit irritating, but it is a hell of a lot easier than keeping your book and laptop open at the same time and jumping back and forth as you take notes, or taking notes with a traditonal highlighter/pen and then having to hunt down the quote you want later.

If, however, you read a lot of photocopied articles, then you have to cross your fingers. A really good quality photocopy works okay with a few errors, but if the photocopy is even slightly blurry, or the white space is any shade other than white, this thing has a nervous breakdown and starts spitting out gibberish.

The only thing I find that's somewhat negative about this pen is that holding it and seeing where you're "going" is a bit awkward and takes some maneuvering to get book and pen positioned so that it works well.

Otherwise, the errors are predominately my fault, and it's fairly easy to get error-free text. I really like the scan-to-PC function that puts the text right into Word or another text editor.

Great product!