- One of the big problems with whiteboards in an office
is that unlike other digital drawing solutions,
it's not savable, it's not sharable, it's not collaborative.
Basically, it's great a showing a room an idea,
but other than that, it's super inefficient.
Now having faith that technology, in some form,
has to be able to help this archaic means of communication,
I went in search of just that.
And you know what?
I think I found it.
This is the eBeam Smartmarker kit.
The concept behind this device is that you can scan
anything you write on a whiteboard,
or any flat surface like glass for that matter,
automatically digitize it and save it, as well as share it,
or even invite others to collaborate on their computers
or phones in real time.
How it works is it uses this sensor
that can either magnetically attach to your board,
if it supports it,
or it can attach using the included command strips
that you can easily peel off whenever you need to,
and they won't leave any residue.
And it then tracks the marker,
and translates whatever it writes digitally,
and imports it into a custom app.
To set it up, you turn on the sensor,
open the corresponding app on our phone
that you can download from your device's app store.
Turn on Bluetooth.
It'll connect
and you're all set.
You can also use a desktop app for Mac or Windows
that you can download from their site,
and it connects via the included wireless dongle
they provide instead.
Once it is attached to the board and paired with the app,
it'll track anything to the left or right in two
eight by five foot squares by default.
You can also go into settings though in the app
and adjust it to just one side or the other,
and even create custom dimensions, if you want.
Now the other major component of this is the marker itself.
And no, it isn't this crap ton of black markers
that the company gives you, which is nice,
it's this.
This is a casing, essentially,
that allows you to put any marker you want
that has a fine enough tip and fit.
Recommended brands are normal ones that we've all heard of.
So you don't necessarily have to use the included ones.
Once you put a marker inside the casing,
you can just start writing and instantly be able to see
what you are writing in the corresponding app.
From there it's automatically saved and you can share it
via whatever sharing service you want.
Or to someone else's account that has the app as well.
The neat thing about sharing via the app is that
you can also share via a meeting.
And that allows other people to then draw on it
with you in real time.
Of course, you'll need a computer or something
running the program when you're at the white board,
so you can see the changes that they're making.
'Cause, you know, traditional whiteboards
can't update themselves.
See, super inefficient.
Also with the device,
you can tap the button on it to save the current board
to the app and start a new board.
So now you can erase what's on the board
and start over and not lose what was already there.
Speaking of erasing, how does know that you wanna erase
something that you don't wanna save.
Well, if you used a normal eraser,
the device won't really be able track that properly.
So, they've included a digital eraser.
It takes one double A battery
and erases any dry erase marker like normal using felt.
But it has the added benefit of letting the system know
where it is in space and what you are erasing.
And just like with writing, it erases in real time.
Now the system itself isn't cheap.
It's $799 for the starter pack and a thousand
for the complete set which includes
four different colored markers.
But since the only time I've really seen a whiteboard
used that often is in an office,
it's not that bad of an investment for a company
that at least wants to try to get their conference room
to feel like it's in the 21st century.
Alright guys, hope you enjoyed that.
I thought it was interesting,
even though I don't really have a whiteboard.
Just that this tech even exists.
So hopefully some of you felt the same way
if you don't have an office to put this in.
But let me know in the comments below,
what you guys thought of this.
Would love to hear from you.
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As always though,
thanks for watching.
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