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A Practical LCD Writing Tablet
An anonymous reader passes along a word about an innovative LCD writing tablet. The Boogie Board costs $30, can be written on with a stylus or a fingernail, and uses no power in the act of writing. Only erasing consumes power — from a watch battery, which lasts for 50,000 erases. The total cost per "page" comes out to only 1/15th that of steno paper. The writing surface is pressure-sensitive and "highly responsive to variable amounts of pressure," so you can make thick and thin lines.
There's no way to save whatever you've drawn onto the tablet, so it's the LCD equivalent of carrying around a small blackboard and an infinite supply of chalk. Or a whiteboard with an infinite supply of ink (of only one colour). At only $30, it's reasonably priced enough that it can cater to the niche of "I want to jot down a small note that I can hardcopy later for posterity, but I don't ever want to need to worry about my pen running out of ink, as long as I remember to change the battery occasionally".
Wow, they want almost $45US for shipping an 11oz tablet to the UK.
USPS airmail from the US to the UK for a 1lb parcel is slightly over $10.
So, it's $30 for the tablet, and $35 for the handling fee. Shame.
The thing would be awesome if I could save the screen. As it is I don't really see why I would choose it over paper since I can't save paper either, but at least paper I could store for later and write on more paper.
But it IS pretty cool.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Cuz c'mon, what can you use this for? This is an easier to use version of the Etch-a-Sketch, nothing more. Good for kids to play with, but that's about it. I guess it beats paper and crayons, though, in that you now have an excuse not to have to put up their latest 'masterpiece' on the fridge for years. It's easier to just not have kids, though. Much more PRACTICAL that way.
It looks to me that this is not an electronic device, per se. There's no ability to save because it does not detect the presence of a writing object or the state of the surface. It seems to be just a really crappy, but durable, LCD screen. When you apply pressure, you displace the liquid crystal material. And when you "erase" the board, it applies electricity to redistribute everything. In order to add saving features, the "energy-efficient" part of the device that seems to be one of the major selling points would pretty much have to go down the drain.
This is not meant to be a permanent record, and I don't know why they relate it to a pad of paper... it's more like a monochrome dry erase board.
(I am not affiliated with the makers; I have never seen one of these up close and personal; The above writing is based purely on assumption from looking at pictures and reading what it does)
You can. It's called a camera. Same as taking a picture of a whiteboard or blackboard.
Or a piece of paper!
It still gives me NO reason to use this device over something that needs no battery, and serves as archival hard copy of my idea.
Without the extra step of the camera, an electronic notepad would be very useful indeed to quickly produce pages of material that then got sent elsewhere. But needing that extra step just kills it from being more useful than paper.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Sounds like a wax coated cardboard sheet with a plastic overlay. A kids toy. I want to see a demo too. I can just imagine a waxed cardboard toy pad with a motor driven lifter for the erase ... LOL
- Tjp
I am in wallow with my inner money grubbing capitalistic pig. ... Oink!
I've been searching for the ideal "electronic graph paper" and I have yet to find anything.
That's all I want too! I don't need it to play music or videos or browse the web, or even receive anything for that matter. Just let me use it as an off-line digitizing pad and I'll be happy.
The diagram neatening would be interesting but I could skip anything except recording where I pressed, preferably with some degree of pressure sensitivity as this offers.
That said this looks like this product probably can't even address pixels.
I wondered about that too, but there's got to be something that happens when you press that causes the state change, if it would even store that raw input and have software to assemble it back into an image later that would be fine by me.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
No way to upload to a computer, no computer assistance, and $30?
I can give you a device that does the same for a tenth of the amount and the added convienence that it can easilly be digitized using common computer technology.
I call it a pencil and paper pad.
I actually didn't know there was such you controlled with two knobs too. Sounds a bit hard and limiting. Magna Doodle is probably a little bit closer with its pen and free drawing.
The Etch A Sketch toy was invented in the late 1950s by a man by the name of Arthur Granjean invented something he called ``L'Ecran Magique", the magic screen, in his garage. The inside surface of the glass screen is coated with aluminum powder which is then scraped off by a movable stylus, leaving a dark line on the light gray screen.
and Magna Doodle
The key element of the Magna Doodle is the magnetophoretic display panel, filled with a thick, opaque white liquid containing tiny dark magnetic particles. These particles can be drawn to the surface by the stylus or the shapes, or to the hidden back side by a sliding eraser bar. The middle layer is divided into a honeycomb of cells, keeping the liquid static and the particles evenly distributed across the panel. The liquid is formulated so that the particles can be pulled through it in response to the magnetic forces, but not due to gravity.
Interesting concept though. I always wanted to know how it worked :)
Or for just $9 more you can have a tablet input. I gave one of these to my youngest and he just loves it. Good luck on ever getting that kid to go back to working with just pen and paper or a keyboard and mouse. It is surprisingly accurate and sensitive, allowing him to not only write fluently, but to draw freehand and make some truly sharp artwork. me? I am lucky if I can draw a straight line.
But I just don't see the point of spending $30 on this with no PC input, when for $9 more you can have a tablet input. I'm sure the level of sensitivity on the tablet probably kills this thing, and unlike this it doesn't "die" after x number of erases.
ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
Update: After talking to an Improv Electronics representative, we’ve confirmed that they are indeed working on a recordable Boogie Board tablet that would utilize flash memory and a USB connection to save and download your work. It would be the size and model, just with added storage and USB connection. They anticipate having this new version available for sale within the year but will still sell the current base version. Price on this new recordable model would be around $50. Read more: http://besttabletreview.com/the-boogie-board-paperless-lcd-writing-tablet-very-cool-and-only-30/#ixzz0dYELgHng
Damping absorbs vibrations. Dampening is caused by moisture.