Making old things new again

Last month my parents dropped off a box of 'stuff' that had obviously been sitting at their home for a long time (circa 1998 at a guess).

Inside was an assortment of sporting trophies, keepsakes and even a few school textbooks.

I was reminiscing over my sketchbook when I remembered an impulse purchase I'd made a few months ago.

Rocketbook is an Indiegogo funded project. It isn't anything particularly innovative. In reality it is just a notebook and most people would think it was a standard notebook. However, it has two really cool features:

1. It uses the Pilot FriXion pen which is erasable using a microwave 
2. It has icons around the outside of the page borders

So what is so magic about that I hear you say?

Well, using the Rocketbook app the icons around the page border quickly converts your handwritten notes and drawings into digital images and stores them in pre-determined cloud locations.

This means that I can write meeting notes and save them directly as minutes. Or create visual representations and have them emailed directly to my class. 

Image from the Indiegogo campaign site

Pretty cool huh?

While I worry about the cost of the FriXion pens, and I'd have liked a Windows based app as well, I can see this being very useful.

Image from the Indiegogo campaign site

How useful? Well, I still think that Office Lens will be my tool of choice. It doesn't require a special pen or an OS specific app. And it works with whiteboards and pretty much any surface. Mostly, however, because I am a user of Microsoft OneNote and it is the tool best suited to that application. 

However, I could certainly see the Rocketbook trying to merge the best of old and new technologies. And I am happy to spend a few dollars to support this! 

Note: The Indiegogo campaign is finished, but it is anticipated that further sales will occur due to the considerable interest during the campain.