Nuwa Pen: analog and digital note taking

The Nuwa Pen is a new way to combine analog and digital writing. More and more people are taking notes on tablets at school, university or work. Digital writing has many advantages. However, it is inferior to analog note-taking in at least one aspect: studies suggest that we remember things we write by hand on paper better than those we simply type into a device. Nuwa therefore aims to bring together the best of both worlds.

Digitizing handwriting

At first glance, the Nuwa Pen is just an ordinary ballpoint pen. It can be used to write on any type of paper. The trick is that the pen is equipped with cameras that have been trained to recognize the ink that the pen emits. In this way, they register precisely what is being written during the writing process. This information is then stored in encrypted form on the pen and sent to a paired smartphone via a secure Bluetooth connection. There they can be retrieved, shared and edited as digital notes. The associated app will be included in the price of the pen and will be available for download on both Android and iOS from August.

For this purpose, the Nuwa Pen is equipped with a total of three cameras, a pressure sensor that can distinguish 4,096 pressure levels and an energy-efficient high-performance chip. The company behind the pen points out in this context that functionality can only be ensured when using the company’s original ink.

Price and availability

The project is being funded through a Kickstarter campaign. As part of this campaign, the new Nuwa Pen can be pre-ordered now at a price of 180 euros. This means a discount of 45 percent compared to the targeted retail price. Whether the pen will actually go into serial production and be delivered depends on demand. Anyone who is interested should therefore pre-order if possible so as not to let the crowdfunding burst.

Nuwa also wants to offer paid synchronization of what is written with calendar, contact and other apps. This feature is called Nuwa Pen+ and costs 2.99 euros per month. Those who pre-order a pen can use it for free for one year.