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Pen Scanner Reads, Translates

Handheld IrisPen scanner reads text and handwriting--even translates foreign languages. But not all features worked in our tests.

By Dan Littman, PCWorld   

The IrisPen transfers data to the parallel port of your PC and draws power through a bypass on the keyboard port. The parallel pass-through worked well, and I was able to use a printer while the IrisPen was hooked up. Drawing power from the keyboard bus allows the scanner to operate without AC power. The pen also has a tiny battery pack for use with notebooks that don't support an external keyboard.

IRIS Idiosyncrasies

So why can't I give this product an unreserved recommendation? For one, its design is of limited utility. The IrisPen's small size is an advantage when working with irregularly shaped objects such as thick books. And its 6-foot cable gives you freedom to roam a few steps away from your PC. But it scans only one line of text at a time, which makes for a tedious process even after you get the hang of it. And although the IrisPen's graphics mode lets you capture bit-map images, its narrow lens restricts it to a series of half-inch bands--and you can't stitch a series of scans together. In addition, the IrisPen is somewhat colorblind: It doesn't recognize red or any but the darkest shades of blue.

The IrisPen comes in two versions, a $199 basic model and a $299 "executive" version. The IrisPen Executive, which I tested, provides the higher-end features such as the ability to read bar codes. In addition, it allows your PC to speak the text as you scan it, and can also read hand-written numerals. If you buy one of the three optional translation modules ($79 each), you can translate between English and Spanish, English and French, or English and German as you scan.

The IRIS French and Spanish translators I tested made awkward errors. But the translations were still good enough to allow English-only speakers to understand the gist of translated documents. In my experience, that's as good as it gets with any translation software. But the IrisPen stumbled over my attempts to translate large chunks of text. According to IRIS, the pen should be able to translate paragraphs or whole documents copied to the Windows clipboard--but despite exhaustive testing and a call to tech support, I couldn't get it to translate even a paragraph of text. So I was confined to clunky, line-by-line translations.

A final point of irritation: You have to have the pen hooked up at all times to get the software to run--even if you're downloading documents and don't need the scanner.

The IrisPen has its uses. But the average buyer would be better off with a more conventional scanner.

Note: As of 2/17/99, the IRIS Web site is malfunctioning and causing serious browser problems, so the link has been removed from this story. The company can be reached at 800/447-4744 or 561/395-7831.--Editors