Comparison of Digital Scan Digital Scanner Pens

• A digital scanner pen works like a highlighter in that you roll the front of the pen over the text that you need to scan. This scanner is similar to a flatbed scanner that scans books and bulky items, but it is designed for the mobile user, who needs to scan or send documents on the fly.

IRISPen

• This handheld pen scanner allows you to capture text and upload it to your computer and the software that comes with the program will even convert the scanned text to an editable document. This pen scanner resembles a highlighter, and it can read and convert sentences, numbers and words. You can also scan standard images in grayscale, and the program can read up to 128 different languages. Other features of the device include a setup wizard and the ability to set up three user profiles. It works on both Apple Mac and Windows Operating Systems, and it is also compatible with Microsoft Excel, Word, Outlook and Internet Explorer. As of 2010, this product costs $129.

DocuPen

• The Plan DocuPen looks like a standard ball point pen except that it allows you to scan documents and save them in digital form. It comes with a rechargeable battery and 64 Megabytes (MB) of Secure Digital (SD) Random Access Memory (RAM), which allows you to store scanned documents on your pen, and it also has a microSD card slot, providing you with extra memory. The DocuPen has an organic light-emitting diode (OLED) which displays information about your memory, battery, scan modes and date and time. You can upload documents to either a personal computer (PC) or a mobile device, including Windows Mobile and BlackBerry. As of 2010, this product starts at $79.99.

ECTACO

• ECTACO/C-Pen Handheld Scanner connects to your computer via a universal serial bus (USB) cord, and it allows you to scan data from books, documents and newspapers. The scanner can recognize up to 238 languages, including Croatian, Ukrainian, Greek and English. This device also works like a highlighter, allowing you to just roll across the data that you would like to capture. As of 2010, this product costs $199.95.