The Nuwa Pen Wants You to Grasp AI with a Camera-Packed Writing Tool for Automated Digitization
With three cameras in the tip, motion sensing, gesture recognition, and 4,096 pressure levels, this pen packs in the smarts.
Extended reality startup Nuwa is looking to put a little artificial intelligence in your grip — literally — by embedded enough technology into a pen for it to track and digitize your writing, on any surface.
"With Nuwa Pen, you can write, draw, and scribble on any paper - from sticky to butcher paper - freeing you from the constraints of special paper notes," claims Nuwa's Marc Tuinier of the company's third product launch. "With AI-powered technology, Nuwa Pen provides two hours of continuous writing and recharges in just 15 minutes, keeping you focused and distraction-free."
The core concept behind the Nuwa Pen is simple: it writes on paper, like any other pen. Unlike a regular pen, though, it tracks the tip's movement and pressure with enough accuracy that it can digitize the writing or drawing — transmitting it to a smartphone, providing both a visual representation of the original and recognizing the text for full-text search.
Inside the pen, aside from the ink, is what Nuwa calls the TRIDENT imaging system — three cameras each capturing a 1.63mm image diagonal to track the pen's movement. While its rivals rely on patterned paper, though, the TRIDENT imaging system, linked to an Arm Cortex-M4 microcontroller, combined with orientation and gesture sensors and a 4,096-level pressure sensor, is claimed to work on any paper suitable for a regular pen.
The pen will work subscription-free, the company promises, but only for transferring notes as-written; automated text conversion and what the company calls "Augmented Notes" for automatic recognition of items like to-do lists and phone numbers requires a subscription, priced at $2.99 a month with the first year included in the purchase price.
The company is now crowdfunding production of the Nuwa Pen on Kickstarter, with physical rewards starting at €179 (around $197) including a pen, three ink refills, accessories, and a charging case which can top up the pen's internal battery five times before needing to be charged itself. Devices are expected to be shipped this May, the company has confirmed.