eBeam – Make your whiteboard smarter
My first posts have all been targeted at tools that students can use. This gadget, while handy for anyone who uses it, is most likely to be found in the hands of the classroom teacher.
The eBeam Whiteboard, made by Luidia Inc., has been an amazing tool for group meetings and brainstorming sessions.
What’s in the box?
The heart of the system is the eBeam receiver which is available in USB-only or Bluetooth connectivity models. It sticks to the corner of your whiteboard using one of the three provided mounts – magnets, suction cups or adhesive. I have never had the guts to permanently attach the mounting clip with the adhesive and, in truth, I don’t think I would want to. One of the really nice features of the device is the ease of setup, so being able to move it from room to room is great.
Also in the box are four electronic marker sleeves. Pop the top of the sleeve and add your standard dry erase marker – I recommend the bullet tip instead of chisel. Each sleeve is color coded so matching marker to sleeve is the hardest part of the process. To go with the markers, there is an electronic eraser so that when you erase the physical board, the electronic version will follow.
Finally, the box has a reasonably long USB cable and, in the case of the Bluetooth edition, the wall power adapter.
Getting Started
I have found the USB version to be the easiest to set up but, when you work through the first-time connection issues with Bluetooth, it is really nice not to have to worry where the computer is in relation to the device.
The first time you use the eBeam, you will need to install the software from the included CD or download it from the Luidia site. Once connected to your eBeam, you will need to go through the calibration for your whiteboard. Successful calibration is a matter of telling the software which corner of the whiteboard you stuck your receiver in and clicking two other corners as directed so that it knows the boundaries of the whiteboard.
At this point, your now-smart whiteboard is ready to use. You can, however, go one extra set up step to get some extra functionality. The eBeam has a small plastic strip with two icons – a printer and a new page. The strip is statically held to your whiteboard. Select the control strip’s calibration option in the software to tell the receiver where it is. Now you can print to your default printer everything you put on the board just by clicking the icon on the control strip. You can also instantly save a full board and get a new electronic page by clicking the new page icon on the strip.
“Did Anyone Take Notes?”
Whether giving a lecture or working collaboratively to generate the Next Great Idea, the product of a meeting can easily be lost depending on the note taking skills of the attendees. The eBeam is going to save everything written on the whiteboard, in the color that it was written in, to its software. It can even record the whiteboard and play back the entire session as a movie, including the audio if you have a microphone attached to your computer.
You can then output the pages you created as a powerpoint presentation, jpeg, tif or bitmap images or as a PDF. You can also send the native capture file to anyone else with the eBeam software.
The eBeam also has the ability to create a virtual whiteboard that is hosted on the Luidia servers so that, even in distance education, you can share the board with your students.
Dollars and Cents
The USB version of the eBeam Whiteboard retails for $750 while the Bluetooth edition comes in at $1200. A quick search shows the street price to be about $675 and $1080.
Update
I had a problem with my System 3. For some reason, I wasn’t able to connect using BlueTooth. It has worked in the past but not on my current machine. I followed the instructions on the support pages at Luidia but didn’t have any luck so I used their contact form. Two things happened.
- I was contacted by support on the SAME DAY. Now, I did send my eMail during business hours but still… Impressive. Luidia promises one business day response.
- The support tech (Steve P) didn’t treat me like an idiot. This was SUCH a pleasure. He recognized that I was comfortable finding and deleting plist files and whatnot and gave the appropriate directions without the need to give me step-by-step instructions that would have slowed us both down.
My eBeam receiver will be going in for a check up to see what it going on with the bluetooth module. I wish that other companies backed their products and customers so well.
