OCR pen for iPad

I can't imagine such a scanner existing. It couldn't be a USB device, since the iPad doesn't have a USB port (the camera USB connection apparently works for cameras and cards that don't draw too much current). If not USB, then what? As for a conversion to Word, this story gets harder to believe.

But if there were such a device, I'd be interested.

The pen I can't speak to (try Google or the Apple Store), but there are OCR apps in the app store.

Check the app store. There are a number of scanner apps (Prizmo, OCRTools to name a couple) with OCR capabilities. You take a photo of the page, and the app then converts it using OCR.

Could it be the VuPoint Magic Wand wireless scanner discussed previously:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=12023934&#12023934

I read the older thread about the Vuepoint scanner. I have one of those and it does a pretty good job of scanning items. I use it for scanning items in large bound books that do not fit on a regular flatbed scanner. I've also scanned swatches from large flat maps, etc. You have to manually move the scanner over the page so as steady hand is needed, but the device tracks well. It saves images as jpegs and so I have always just used the image as an image.

I have never OCR'd text from its images. It has two image quality settings and at the higher resolution the image quality is quite good, so I would expect that a good OCR software should be able to create editable text.

I have not tried plugging the SD card into the iPad photo attachment yet, but after reading all this I will give it a try.

Finally got around to trying the Vuepoint Scanner with the iPad. Worked flawlessly. Scanned a part of a newspaper then plugged the scanner's USB cord into the iPad camera kit and the iPad found the scanner's memory card (microSD) with no problem and imported the image. The scanner puts the files into a folder and named using standard camera protocols which is probably why this works so well.

Nice little combination since the scanner runs on AA batteries, very portable duo and the image quality is very high.

If there are OCR apps for the iPad that can read jpegs, I would guess that getting text into the iPad this way should work.

Does it include file options other than jpg?

I just ordered it yesterday - from all the documentation I read, it looks like jpg is it.

The Vuepoint only saves in jpeg. Two resolutions LOW and HIGH. I have not tried OCRing any images to create text. When purchased it does not come with any memory. You need to buy a microSD card. The fact that it works so easily with the iPad through the camera kit may make it a good choice for those looking for a scanner to use with the iPad.