Interactive whiteboard options

So one of my goals of the conference was to compare a range of interactive whiteboard products. Let's consider the options I have seen so far:

The one we all want but will never get: Promethean 500 model. This is Promothean's entry to the touch sensitive world. Like most of the entries in this field it works on camera's mounted around the edge rather than relying on pressure sensors. It is a beautiful toy, allows multiple users at once and is a very solid bit of kit. Price tag is extremely high, although maybe not unsurprising as it only comes in the 87" and 95". CDW have them for just over $4k including the projector.

The one that felt it could have been just a little more exciting: Polyvision have a reasonable interactive set up. The board is designed to still function as a traditional whiteboard. Price tag is apparently around$15k (plus projector.) The board has a small texturing and the stylus has a built in camera that registers your location on the screen. Very much tied to the stylus sadly which I feel is a real limit on several of these options. The really clever bit with Polyvision was the magnetic control strip that can be relocated anywhere and as with most of the pen-based boards this year the pen works from about 30' away as a pointer. It also had a very nice chunky mini-slate to walk around with that was designed to attach to the board by magnets. Oh by the way, the board is metal and can have magnets put on it, just as an added kicker.

The surprise star: Hitachi's offering is the Starboard FX TRIO. This allows finger-touch control as well as a stylus and multi-user like most of its competitors. It also has two features that really sold it to me, the first is the gesture recognition: when you use one finger it take that as the mouse/pen, when you use two fingers it erases. I felt this was a very nice touch. Secondly the inteli-pen is a clever mode that not only corrects your drawings to geometric shapes and your writing to text. But it allows google searches based on what you have written, along with a range of other interesting functions. I also liked the relative ease with which it integrated with other windows running, dragging an image from google straight into the presentation and so on. Just visable and of special interest to most educators is their claim of a $999 price-tag, making it by far the most affordable of the newest range of boards.

The big letdown: A disappointing note was the relative lack of anything new from Smart-tech. They seemed to just be presenting the same tech with shinier accessories. Now while I love their accessories it felt like they were falling behind a little in the game.

The extreme overhype: Teamboard seemed interesting but it felt like they were mostly be plugging the software, the actual boards doing nothing the other available options did not. With one interesting exception. The latest board they pushing allows for levels of touch. So it senses how hard you are pressing on it. This allows for hovering which; especially for mac users, could be a really interesting option.

The basic: For sheer value QOMO take the prize, their IR boards seemed sturdy and effective with touch capability. A little over-simple and lacking in bells and whistles but very capable. Definetly worth checking out.


Ok, that's me for the night, tomorrow I will try and maintain my sanity long enough to talk about the myriad interactive projectors I have seen today.