Digital Pen Lets You Know How Horrible Your Spelling And Grammar Are
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Though I’d like to think I’m in the upper crust of English speakers in terms of grammar and spelling, I make mistakes. Menny misstakes, aktually. The fast communication of the internet and texting have deadened a lot of people’s feelings towards this, while inflaming the ire of others. No matter what side you back, it’s considered unanimous that auto-correct is the bastard child of a one-trick prankster and a bully who doesn’t give a shit what your intentions are. Though some of those corrections are unintentionally amusing, it will ruin far more sentences than it will AIDS. See, look at that!
Carrying the torch of “well-intended but fatally frustrating” language discipline is Lernstift, a ballpoint pen that points out your spelling and grammar errors. Stop screaming, “Why?!?” and accept the truth with me. Its creators are European couple Falk and Mandy Wolsky, he an inventor and she an education specialist, who were inspired to develop the prototype by their son’s poor written language skills.
In “Calligraphy” mode, the Linux-run pen recognizes the hand motions associated with letter formation, and vibrates once, and the “Orthography” mode will get you two vibrations for spelling and grammar mistakes. The inner workings contains sensors and a Wi-Fi module that can send information to a computer running the appropriate software that the pen is running off of its battery power.
Oh yeah, you can also write on air with it. At least, your hand movements can be transcribed and sent to your computer. So if you’re in a truck stop bathroom one day and you think of something wicked clever to write on one of the stall walls and don’t have a marker, just use this pen to take down what you’d have written. Just don’t make any mistakes, because vibrating noises in the bathroom will get you some funny looks.
it isn’t the mind-crushing aggravation I initially made it out to be, and could really help children’s writing skills develop at a faster rate, and that’s always a positive thing. And if it helps a couple of knuckleheads finally figure out “they’re/there/their,” then I’ll buy half of my Facebook friends one as a present. The pen comes out in August, but can be pre-ordered here, though there isn’t a price yet. I.O.U. it, I guess.
