Nuwa plans to launch the device this March. The Groningen-based company today announced a fresh cash injection of €1.5mn to boost the development of the product, which uses an inbuilt camera system, motion sensors, and algorithms to capture text written on paper.
Nuwa is targeting the product at people who still enjoy writing with a pen and pad, as the device writes on plain paper using regular ink cartridges. So, it is a fully normal writing experience.
To digitise the text, the system uses three tiny cameras with 2mm x 2mm sensors. All the data is then processed directly on the device. It exports to PDF, SVG and more formats will be announced.
So, like my previous post today, many will wonder where the data goes. Does is export directly from the local device/app to where you want it, or is someone watching the cameras? If I point my pen at someone, will it take spy photos? We’ll probably only know more of this detail after the device has been released and tested by others.
Their website’s privacy policy does though state that they collect and process personal information in strict compliance with Dutch law (i.e. EU laws). This is stated as personal sales and contact information, not the data that you produce with the device.
But with its normal price being US$373 it’s possible also that it pays for itself through the sale of the device, and not the sale of the data.
The Nuwa Pen does not require a subscription to work. However, the optional subscription (priced at $2.99/month) covers the costs associated with advanced features like Augmented Notes and Text Conversion, and this will likely require data to be passed to a cloud service for processing. So, it’s important to note that what you are getting locally is merely a digital scan of what is written. The subscription cost covers any conversion to text.
See https://thenextweb.com/news/newa-pen-smart-pen-launch-march