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Nuwa Pen accused of misleading Kickstarter campaign

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Nuwa Pen: The Digital Notetaking Pen

Back in January 2019, the Nuwa Pen was introduced at CES in Las Vegas as a three-camera-containing ballpoint pen that could convert your handwritten notes into digital form using OCR and AI smarts to extract the relevant data. It claims to be able to create a calendar event if you wrote “Meeting with Chris at 6 pm Tuesday” on a Post-it. The company has recently launched a Kickstarter campaign that provides an up-to-date vision, but does not fully reflect the current state of the product.

Functionality of the Prototype

In April 2019, Nuwa’s founder and CEO Marc Tuinier admitted that the prototype the company brought to CES was only working partially and was a “rush job”. At that time, the company could capture very simple glyphs accurately but only a single stroke at a time. Drawing a more complex shape such as a house would be beyond the pen’s current capabilities.

Despite this, the company claimed that it has the prototype working properly in “chunky boxes”, but that the final integration of the technology into the pen’s form factor is not complete. The company also shared that the model displayed when drawing and digitizing in its video is the bulkier version with a “chip on a dev board” to increase control over the software.

The Kickstarter Campaign

The issue lies with the Kickstarter campaign video “Nuwa Pen: The Journey so Far….How we got here?” wherein the CEO spoke of “exact digital representation” of handwritten notes that can be transferred to the digital device. However, the prototype I tried out in April was not capable of this function. Nuwa Pen aims to achieve this by fine-tuning the embedded software to integrate with the small-sized version. Although the company has developed a functional pipeline in controlled environments, it still faces difficulty in minimizing the integrated software since camera development is crucial for the pen to operate.

Conclusion

Nuwa Pen shows promise in bringing the world of handwritten notes and digital technology together. However, the product is not currently fully functional to meet the expectations of the Kickstarter video. The company claims to be continuously working on fine-tuning the technology and is transparent in communicating changes in the delivery timeline to backers.

FAQs

What is Nuwa Pen?
Nuwa Pen is a ballpoint pen that can convert handwritten notes into digital data using OCR and AI technologies through three cameras integrated into the pen.

Can Nuwa Pen create calendar events?
Yes, Nuwa Pen can create calendar events based on specific notes, such as “Meeting with Chris at 6 pm Tuesday”.

Is the current prototype fully functional?
No, the current prototype is only capable of capturing simple glyphs with a single stroke at a time. Drawing complex shapes is still beyond the capabilities of the pen. The final integration of the technology into the pen’s form factor is also not yet complete.

When will the Nuwa Pen be shipped?
The first batch will be shipped in December, with the Kickstarter batch in March 2020.

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