Have you ever wanted to reproduce large amounts of text from a textbook or manual onto an interactive document for future reference or note-taking? If so, you’ll be happy to learn about the latest product from Scanmarker, a long-time leader in assistive technology hardware and software with integration into everything from iOS mobile devices to Windows desktop computers. Using cutting-edge patented technology, the Scanmarker Air pen scanner is an optical character recognition tool with several uses for students, writers, and special needs persons.
The Scanmarker Air features an ultra-portable design, produces few errors, and can scan directly over a wireless connection — not just at the office but on almost all your devices. It comes in both wireless and wired versions, copying text from a hard copy source to digital formats for note-taking, reading aloud, or translation. This can facilitate a clearer understanding of the scanned material. It enhances comprehension, reading ability, writing, self-confidence, and the learning process. It empowers individuals to achieve academic success, even on the go.
The role of organization in successful learning and writing
Whether you’re writing, transcribing, or retyping using Microsoft Word or a pen and paper, organization and accuracy are key to creating summaries faster and with less effort. Selecting the above key passages and important points enables users to efficiently compile quality reference and study material using cutting-edge multilingual character recognition technology paired with intuitive mobile apps. This level of organization provides an edge not only in the form of super accurate data digitization but accessibility as well.
The Scanmarker pen is an invaluable tool for those with dyslexia and other learning disabilities. Its integrated text-to-speech function is compatible with Mac, Windows, iOS and Android devices, allowing the user to hear text being read back to them in real-time whilst it is being scanned. Virtually all optical character recognition (OCR) languages are supported by this handheld scanning pen, making it an invaluable tool for users around the world with language comprehension, phonological deficits or other reading difficulties.
How Does It Work?
Think of the Scanmarker Air as a sort of digital highlighter, allowing you to scan text onto virtually any computer, smartphone or tablet. The pen is able to connect easily via Bluetooth or near-field communication (NFC) without the need for an internet connection for scanning text in English. For other supported OCR languages (Afrikaans, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch etc.), access to the internet is required for accurate scanning and text-to-speech reading.
Over 70 supported languages
Afrikaans, Aymara, Armenian, Azerbaijani (Latin), Azerbaijani (Cyrillic), Albanian, Bulgarian, Basque, Belarusian, Bemba, Breton, Corsican, Chinese (simplified), Chinese (traditional), Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Esperanto, Estonian, Faroese, Fijian, Finnish, Farisian, French, Friulian, Galician, German, Greek, Hebrew ,Hungarian, Icelandic, Italian, Irish, Japanese, Kazakh, Korean, Latin, Latvian, Lithuanian, Luxembourgish, Luba, Macedonian, Moldovan, Maltese, Mongolian, Norwegian, Papamiento, Polish, Portuguese (Portugal), Portuguese (Brasil), Raeto Roman, Romanian, Russian, Scottish Gaelic, Serbian, Slovak, Slovene, Spanish, Swedish, Swahili, Turkish, Tagalog, Tatar, Turkmen, Uzbek (Latin), Ukrainian, Welsh, Xhosa, Zulu, Quesha
The Scanmarker Air pen scanner is rated for a character recognition speed of approximately 3000 characters per minute, and can read a full line of text every second. It can easily connect to all your devices using Bluetooth connection (with a BLE dongle included for wireless connection on Windows computers). The ease and convenience Scanmarker Air features allows you to save thousands of hours cumulatively with consistent use — whether it’s for work, or simply to draw inspiration from a muse or two to overcome writer’s block.
Using the pen scanner is quick and straightforward. First, download the relevant computer application, Android software or Apple iOS app and follow the onscreen instructions. Power on the reading pen by holding down the scanner tip for 2-3 seconds, connect it to your devices via Bluetooth connection and you’re all set.
If you’re looking for assistive technology to simplify the process of scanning, editing, reading and translating large amounts of hard copy in real time, this is the pen scanner for you. With its ultra-portable design and powerful built-in battery rechargeable via USB port, you’ll find that independent reading and notation has never been easier.
Device, Operating System & Software Integration
The Scanmarker Air boasts impressive interoperability between not only operating systems, but apps as well. In our testing, we verified integration with virtually all essential productivity applications, including Microsoft’s Word, Powerpoint, Excel, Outlook and OneDrive. It also functions perfectly with web-based correspondence and social media apps like Google’s Gmail, Meta’s Facebook and Odeo’s Twitter, where a digital highlighter for marking key points and digitizing notes can also prove useful (think resumes, company memos, Twitter threads and more).
We also found that the Scanmarker Air works very well with popular mobile apps as well, including Evernote, TickTick and Mastodon. Simply use the pen scanner to scan printed text that you’d like to copy, and the text automatically transfers to your PC or phone in a live text format you can edit or share.
Are There Any Compatibility Issues I Should Know About?
We’ve tested the Scanmarker Air to ensure its functionality with practically any computer, smartphone or tablet running the most popular operating systems and applications. Here are the minimum system requirements per device, according to the product manufacturer:
Minimum System Requirements
- Windows: Win 7 and above. Bluetooth connectivity supported via the included BT-420 dongle
- Mac: OS 10.8 and above. No dongle required; bluetooth supported in Mac computers made 2012 and onwards
- iOS: iOS 7 and above
- Android: Android 4.3 (Jelly Bean) and above
Full compatibility with less established platforms may not be fully guaranteed as they aren’t listed on the Scanmarker website. Operating systems like Linux-powered Ubuntu, or smartphones running aftermarket versions of the Android ecosystem like Huawei’s HarmonyOS or OnePlus’ OxygenOS, may run into some compatibility issues with Scanmarker’s patented technology.
The good news is web-based and third-party apps like Gmail and Facebook should still work perfectly, given they run off a unified API across all devices. Moreover, users of Huawei, Nokia Lumia and Cherry Mobile smartphones are reporting no issues in their product reviews on sites like Amazon and eBay.
Comparing the Scanmarker Air to Other Pen Scanners
From our own testing and everyday use, the Scanmarker Air stands out even among the top pen scanners on the market today. It strikes the perfect balance between interoperability, accuracy, battery life, multilingual functionality, reading speed and the ability to scan wirelessly. It also isn’t an overwhelming product to users who are new to the utilization of optical text scanners, in that it doesn’t have an overabundance of features or a cumbersome, busy in-app user interface. Its size and weight also gives it an advantage over larger models like the Wizcom Reading Pen.
Easily Worth The Price
For its portability, functionality and other features, the Scanmarker Air is well worth the initial purchase price of $149. With a full year’s warranty, universal OS support and free software updates, the Scanmarker pen enables users from all income brackets to purchase with confidence. Prospective buyers also have the added protection of a 24/7 technical support hotline and a month-long money back guarantee.
Technical Device Specifications
- Supports USB 1.0 and above
- Supports Bluetooth 4.0 and above
- 5V input feed
- 100mAh battery
- 4inch 1cm input field
Package Contents
- 1x Scanmarker Air pen scanner
- 1x USB cable
- 1x Bluetooth dongle
- 1x Quick reference guide
The Scanmarker Air streamlines the tedious process of digitizing hard copy text, eliminating the single most time-consuming aspect of retyping printed materials, paperwork, reports, contracts and summaries. The 100mAh rechargeable battery provides hours of operation time, significantly increasing your potential productivity at home or at the office.
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