OpalMan's Full Review: I.R.I.S. s.a. IRISPen™ II Executive Handheld Sca...
I was looking for a scanner or other input device capable of reading barcode. I acquired this pen as it meets that need and can also function as a line scanner. I did encounter a few problems, which I shall go into in detail below. The odd thing about this pen is the wide difference in its behavior under different operating systems. My experience has been that Windows 2000 Pro is a more business-like than Windows XP Pro. As a professional device, this pen bears that out. It performs far better under Windows 2000 Pro.
What is the IRISPen II Executive
This pen is a handheld scanner capable of scanning a single line of text at a time. It is supposed to be able to recognize up to 55 languages as well as barcode. The Executive model reviewed here is also capable of text to speech translation in 10 different languages. Unlike most other barcode scanners I have seen, this one connects via an USB connection. It is powered through the USB cable and has a little sensor on the tip of the pen to detect when it is pressed against a page to scan. This saves power as it only powers the scanner when it is being used.
Installation
This is where the divergence among the Operating Systems begins. I installed this on both a Windows 2000 Professional computer and a Windows XP Professional computer. After going through this process, I can definitely say that this device is a more business-like product as it even installs easier on a Windows 2000 Professional machine.
Installation under Windows 2000 Professional was a breeze. Simply insert the included CD-rom, install the scanning software, then plug in the pen and you are ready to go. There is no need to install any driver to use it. The operating system recognized the device as soon as it was plugged in and was ready to be used.
Windows XP Professional installation was not quite as simple. The software installation was just as simple as under Windows 2000 Professional, selecting the defaults throughout the process. Unfortunately, under XP, a driver is needed. The instructions tell you to install the file from the CD not the one installed with the software. During the process a window pops up to warn that the file has not been certified with Win XP and may cause problems if installation continued. The instructions said to expect this and simply click ‘Yes’ when it appeared. I found this particular quirk in the installation very unprofessional. It went through almost the whole process, and then rebooted the computer. Uninstalling everything and making a second attempt yielded the same results. After some assistance from tech support (I’ll go into that later) I was able to finally get the device working on the fifth install. One of the problems was that, contrary to the documentation, the pen had to be connected directly to the computer, not through a powered USB hub. This was annoying but workable.
Performance
Now that the installation was complete, it was time to put this thing through the wringer. I started with a document printed on a laser printer on the Windows 2000 machine. I scanned one line at a time, all the way down the entire page. I scanned with varying speeds, varying sizes, and even bold text. IRIS claims that this pen can achieve nearly 100 % accuracy. This is not much of an exaggeration, as I found only 2 incorrect characters on the entire page. The documentation and packaging indicates that the pen is capable of scanning up to 1000 characters per second. While I can’t verify the exact numbers I can say this, I could not drag the pen across the page fast enough in a straight enough line to exceed its speed. Next, I tested the variety of applications that would accept the input of the scanner. All of the Microsoft Premium applications accepted the input without a problem. WordPad and notepad also did just fine as expected. To really give the pen a test I decided to try it out with three different proprietary applications. Every one of them accepted the data as smoothly as the Microsoft applications. Finally I tested the barcode scanning. I tried a number of different media with barcodes, an invoice, a number of boxes, as well as a number of CDs. Everyone scanned in perfectly. The only trouble I experienced was in scanning from a glossy surface such as a magazine. The page must be perfectly flat and the fonts cannot change when scanning glossy documents. Overall, this pen exceeded my expectations under Windows 2000 Professional.
With heightened expectations from my fantastic experience under Windows 2000, it was time to test the pen out under Windows XP Professional. Unfortunately, the pen could not maintain the high standards it had already set. First off, accuracy suffered a little bit. The 99.9 % dropped to about 97% on the same document. Speed was also a little bit of a concern as I was able to outrace the pen’s ability. While I did exceed its speed ability, I could not have maintained that pace and it was unrealistic to begin with. Both the speed and accuracy encountered remained approximately the same across all applications. Another area of discrepancy was in the barcode scanning. For some reason, under XP, the pen consistently dropped the last digit of every barcode. I was told this was most likely human error as I was lifting the pen too soon. I wonder how many people who use this under only one operating system buy that one. While not at the standards of the same pen under Windows 2000 Pro, the XP tests were still respectable.
The interface to switch between text, barcode and hand-written reading is very intuitive. Simply click a button and you are ready to go. The pen also includes a button that can be programmed to perform different functions for both a click and a double-click. I had mine programmed for tab and enter and it worked flawlessly across both platforms.
Technical Support/Customer Service
I did attempt to resolve my installation problem on my own by reading the faqs and other documentation online on the support part of the IRIS website. The support pages, at least for the IRISPen II, were extremely disappointing. They consist of about 10 generic questions and answers and a link to email them with your questions. It does not provide much in the way of troubleshooting. I chose the email option as I was stuck at that point. There is a warning on the site indemnifying the company should you so much as get slightly rude with the rep they can revoke any tech support they do offer. As with the Win XP installation warning, I found this rather unprofessional. I originally emailed my question on Saturday. Figuring that they would need a little time to respond, I expected a response by Monday evening after I returned home from work. Disappointment again. I finally heard from them on Thursday, and they didn’t even address the question I asked in email. They just asked me to uninstall and retry, again. Although not particularly fast, tech support will stick with you until they fix your problem or you stumble across it through sheer dumb luck. I can’t give them full credit due to the lack of alacrity, nor their overwhelming knowledge of their products, but they do get above average marks for their courtesy and their willingness to stick with the problem until resolved. I was disappointed that the tech support person I worked with unable to determine he was dealing with someone who knows a little more about computers than the average Joe off the street and work with me accordingly.
The Bottom Line
I can definitely recommend this device to anyone looking to use it with Windows 2000 Professional. You can’t beat its speed, accuracy or flexibility under this operating system. Provided you understand its limitations, it can be a quality device under Windows XP as well. Compact and easy to use, I would say that it is a bargain for just about anyone.
Handheld pen-sized OCR scanner Scans up to 1,000 characters per second Supports up to 56 foreign languages Reads font sizes from 6 to 22 points Text-t...More at Amazon Marketplace
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