We’ve all tried to use our camera phones to capture whiteboard notes, doodles, and other documents, but oftentimes poor image quality and odd perspectives can make them illegible. JotNot (iTunes Link) is a nifty new application that just went live on Apple’s App Store that allows users to take photographs of documents using their phones and runs them through an advanced filter that makes them much easier to read. The application is available on the App Store for $3.99, and the first ten TechCrunch readers to send a request to promo@jotnot.com will be given access codes to download the app for free.
Using the application is simple: first, you take a photograph of the whiteboard, receipt, or document that you’d like to store as a photo (you can also import photos that you’ve previously taken). The application presents a blue box with four corner markers, which you drag to the corresponding corners of the document in question. The application then takes around thirty seconds to process the image, correcting for any issues with lighting, color, and even perspective (if you initially took a photo of your document at an angle, the final image will look as if it was taken front-on).
There are a handful of web-based services like Qipit and Scanr that offer similar functionality, but some businesses object the prospect of having to upload potentially private and confidential notes and documents to a third party website. JotNot’s image processing occurs entirely on the iPhone, so this isn’t an issue.
In my testing the application seems to work very well, handling papers, notes, and even somewhat-crumpled receipts without much trouble. But while it does a great job at converting these documents to image files, there’s still one potentially major flaw: there’s no way to convert those images into searchable digital documents, which is something that is offered by the aforementioned web-based services. JotNot plans to eventually incorporate optical character recognition (which converts photos into digital text documents), but it sounds like this is still fairly early in development. In any case, the application works perfectly for casually taking photographs of your documents to ensure that you don’t lose them, and is one that I’ll probably wind up using pretty frequently.
Android users can also check out a beta version, though that version does send files back to JotNot’s servers, making it prone to the same privacy issues as the web based services. And if you don’t like JotNot, a similar application called Whiteboard Capture is available for the iPhone.
This is awesome. It straightened your tilted image of Home Depot Receipt. Neat!
We are thrilled that so many people are interested in JotNot! Unfortunately we ran out promo codes within the first ten minutes, so we are unable to give any more out. Thanks for your interest in JotNot!
-Abe from JotNot
Really good application.
thanks for the ‘heads-up’. I’ll check it out.
Well, ditto. Here in India, we use the iPhone to scan curry for spiciness.
…. It works better with chicken – not so good with rice. My iPhone has become very, very sticky after dropping it several times in my curry,
Anjali Sen
From India
lol, then your hands and fingers must be sticky ALL OF THE TIME !!!!
Gentlemen, get with the program. The iPhone is also used as an eating utensil in India. You hold it with your RIGHT hand, dip it in the bowl of curry, put the bowl to your mouth, and sweep and slurp.
You guys are fucking morons. Racist assholes. You guys are a disgrace to your motherland (if you have one)……..
…. maybe. In India, “sticky fingers” has a different meaning than it does in America. We consider it a sign of culture here.
Anjali Sen
From India
Dude, it’s “stinky” fingers with an “n”. We consider it a sign of male virility. Or fish curry.
You guys are fucking morons. Racist assholes. You guys are a disgrace to your motherland (if you have one).
You guys are fucking morons. Racist assholes. You guys are a disgrace to your motherland (if you have one)……
Promo code only works for ITunes US… Thanks for nothing!
Wow, good job reacting in an appropriate manner and being polite.
If your promo code does not work, send it to me!
The guys at JotNot are in the same office space as us and have been following their progress for a while … I am a big fan of brainstorming on whitboards but hate when I have to copy it back, so I find this app pretty cool and useful !
Thanks for the article. I actually bought it yesterday and it works great.
It’s a pretty nifty app indeed. I’m a pretty digital person, and I hate to keep around little pieces of paper that I’m going to need for something down the road (like expense reports!). This app is perfect for a lot of those uses.
I also use Evernote (which does have character searchability), but JotNot is a more streamlined version for taking pics of whiteboards and small papers, and I love the feature that straightens the image.
Good work getting this out there, I’ve already downloaded my copy and will be looking forward to having this be one more integral part of my soon to be paperless world.
I’ll take a code if you’ve got any left.
This looks cool. As a grad student many of my groups use whiteboard. This is a great way to keep track of notes and discussions. Thanks!
What a GREAT application!
I wonder how well it works with large pages (e.g. 8.5″x11″). Also, I wonder what format they are stored in. It would be nice if it is PDF, so they can be transfered, viewed & stored on a PC/Mac.
HereAndNow,
Hi, Nick from JotNot here. Thanks for your comments and interest.
It works well on 8.5″ x 11″ notes. Currently we’re storing the photos as JPEGs so they can be synced easily with iTunes. When iPhone OS 3.0 comes out we will be storing them as PDF’s as well.
If you have anymore questions feel free to ask.
Nick Sillik
You could easily send the image to your Evernote account to be OCR’d and then it would be searchable.
I ride the subway to work and often find myself writing notes or creating diagrams on small pieces of paper. JotNot provides me with an elegant and efficient way of digitizing those notes — nice work.
JottNot buggy for me {seesmic_video:{”url_thumbnail”:{”value”:”http://t.seesmic.com/thumbnail/iuyG8j4H2q_th1.jpg”}”title”:{”value”:”JottNot buggy for me ”}”videoUri”:{”value”:”http://www.seesmic.com/video/DjYCx1AYc0″}}}
Jim – We’re sorry that the app crashed for you. We will contact you shortly, so that we can work this out. Alec.
JotNot crashes here during enhancement process. Screen goes dark for few seconds and returns to springboard.
Rodrigo, we are very sorry that the app is doing that.
The phone might be running out of memory during processing (image processing needs a lot of memory)–rebooting the phone may help because it frees up memory that other programs may have reserved but not freed. Please get in touch with us and know if this helps: support@jotnot.com.
I’m running into the same issue. The “Enhancing” progress bar never moves and the application eventually exits.
Nick from JotNot here. We’re sorry about this issue, and as Abe said earlier it seems to be a memory issue. We’re currently working on a fix. We should have an update available on iTunes very soon. We’ll keep you posted.
For updates you can check our blog at:
http://blog.jotnot.com/
I’ll also be keeping the twittersphere (did I really use that word seriously?) up to date at:
http://twitter.com/nsillik
I paid money for this and expected some functionality. I am seeing the same crashing as described above.
We were able to help Jim out–check out the great video he made showing how to use JotNot on his blog the “Seattle Specialist”.
http://www.thes...specialist.com/
If still available I’ll take a code. Thanks!
Ill have a code if any available too please! looks cool!
I’d like a code if you still have them available.
Yeah, it works really well. I was a little skeptical at first that the iPhone resolution would be good enough to capture all the detail of the whiteboard. Fortunately it looks like they have some image processing tricks up their sleeve, and things came out totally readable.
Thumbs up for this cool app. It’s nice to see people writing useful stuff
May I please have a promo code? Thanks!
Couldn’t you insert the image into an Evernote note and then evernote would make it searchable?
Very cool. I love that it can straighten out the image for you.
Abe from JotNot here,
BrianR is absolutely right! Evernote and JotNot make a great combo–Evernote allows you to search and organize your notes while JotNot makes those notes more legible and printable.
I have already used this app to digitize a few documents in my office and was amazed at how readable all the documents appeared after they were processed. Very cool app…
jotnot works well for me. I downloaded a few weeks back and didn’t realize how useful it would be till I had it — much better than the camera which doesn’t adjust the picture so that I can read the text. Now it feels like one of the basic functions of my iphone.
As a teacher, I deal with a stream of handwritten papers (homework from kids, notes from parents, etc.) Jotnot sounds like a great way for me to digitize all that paper.
JotNot Demo {seesmic_video:{”url_thumbnail”:{”value”:”http://t.seesmic.com/thumbnail/qL7JhVzNhS_th1.jpg”}”title”:{”value”:”JotNot Demo ”}”videoUri”:{”value”:”http://www.seesmic.com/video/SB9eCDbYhn”}}}
This is really great. I’m thinking I can get rid of most of those little notes I’m writing myself.
Crazy App!
Amazingly useful application! Great way to get rid of paper clutter, without throwing out that vital receipt you need.
I think for $3.99 this is a bargain.
this is really easy to use! I’ve been using it to simplify my day-to-day office issues…notes taken on paper during meetings…can’t type as fast as I can write, but hate having paper lying around…as well as for retaining receipts from business trips.
Looks awesome!!
OMG it looks really cool.
The pictures I’m taking with my iPhone are not clear enough to do proper OCR – when I zoom, the letters are always blurry. I have a steady hand, and I even use Night Camera to stabilize things.
Is there a “proper” distance to take pictures of text?
Abe from JotNot
Pascal,
We just grabbed Night Camera and tried to recreate your experience. Unfortunately problem here seems to be the inherent pixel limitation of the iPhone camera which is just too low for current OCR programs. We found that breaking up a letter-size document into two or three pieces works best.
So, the best I can get is blurry «scans» of my receipts?
Abe from JotNot again,
Pascal, have you looked at:
http://www.grif...roducts/clarifi
We just ordered one (haven’t got it yet) but it looks like it improves on the default lens.
Abe from JotNot again
Forget to mention that an update that we’d like to add is adding the ability to “stitch” together multiple JotNots.
Looks interesting, but 4 bucks and a lot of bug reports in the comment thread make me a little hesitant.
It’s let me be more like iphone
This thing is great. From a technical standpoint I doubt that any of their algorithms are revolutionary, but what they have done is identified a need and really done an excellent job of addressing it.
Other iPhone developers could learn a lesson from this (I’m looking at you fart app guys).
Abe from JotNot
We have a ton of ideas on what features to add next to JotNot, but we’d like to hear from you. We just added a poll to our blog to find out: http://blog.jotnot.net. We can’t wait to see what you have to say!
Still not working reliably for me. I have been able to get it to work without crashing about 25% of the time. (that’s based on about 10 trials) Once it froze my iPhone with a white screen and would not let me force reboot for about 5 minutes.
Jim
Love it! This makes a world of difference for anyone who deals with a lot of paper documents but wants to reduce clutter or better organize their office.
I just bought JotNot, and I’m having the same “crash during enhancing” problem others are reporting. iPhone 3G, OS 2.2.1. I want to love this! Help make it work.
Nice post! Check out my site too at http://macmaniapodcast.com.
Love the app. Just a note to the author based on the receipt used here, I wouldn’t hang a hinge with a plastic anchor.
Wow, that looks really handy. Now if only I had an iPhone…
Great app. As a junior employee, I’m always the one stuck behind in the board room, transcribing the whiteboard after meetings. Now and can snap a few quick photos and then go hang out with the big boys!
I have needed this application for a long time. I travel on a regular basis and have a difficult time with receipts. My accountant is always upset with me. Thanks so much. Allison
neat app, i’ll have to check it out! i’ve definitely found myself frantically writing down the contents of a white board many a time…no more!
I can be a horrible note taker, but now I can quickly transfer other people’s notes to my phone for use! thanks!
I made a simple web based version here: http://utilitym...t_photo_to_scan
It’s nowhere near as good as theirs appears to be but it’s a start. It will at least straighten the documents.
Just bought this – it works great (so far) on whiteboards. Much better than expected.
Way to go MobiTech 3000, LLC!!!
QUESTION: Does anyone know if these receipt images are valid for tax / IRS purposes?