Dutch startup Nuwa has created a pen—an ink-on-paper pen—that they say can digitize your handwriting and sketches, and even make the text searchable. In other words you could scribble your notes in a regular notebook, export that to a device, and their app would convert your handwriting into digital text that you could cut-and-paste or search for a keyword in.

There is, however, a catch: While exporting notes is free, converting it to text requires a $2.99/month subscription. And frustratingly for designers, who are likely to be interested in exporting sketches on paper into digital form, there's no word on what resolutions, file formats and export options beyond their app you'd have.

Interestingly, the tracking is accomplished by an on-board camera and (of course) "AI-powered technology." The battery is said to be good for two hours of continuous writing, and takes 15 minutes to top up via USB-C.

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The Nuwa Pen has been successfully funded on Kickstarter, with 27 days left to pledge at press time. Buy-in starts at $197, and they throw in a free year of their aforementioned subscription service.