

IdeaPaint allows you to write all over the wall - leonardRenter
http://www.humansinvent.com/#!/12169/ideapaint-the-writing-on-the-wall/

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masto
There are several brands of dry-erase paint on the market. Where I work, it's
on the conference room walls. They need to be repainted periodically as
especially the red markers leave a residue behind that gradually builds up.
And there's always some bozo with a sharpie.

Also, read the instructions carefully. Some of these contain isocyanates and
need special handling.

~~~
gallamine

      always some bozo with a sharpie
    

Protip: If you go back over the Sharpie with the dry-erase marker, usually you
can wipe off both nicely.

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jongold
Also worth noting that it really, really stinks. Have a hotel booked if you're
doing it at home.

We did the old Prismatic office with it a few years ago and had to evacuate
for I think about 3 days (with the windows open & fans on the whole time).
Crazy smelly.

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yardie
I was about to say this. I bought a small can to do in one small area of our
kitchen. I opened it up and my immediately shut down this project. We have a
no VOCs policy in our house and this gave off a ton of fumes.

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notjustanymike
My experience with IdeaPaint has been completely dependent on who installs it.
Just slapping it up on a wall is a sure way to ruin your walls. For best
results, sand or otherwise smooth your walls and then apply multiple layers of
the paint. After that, buy a subscription to this stuff:
[http://www.amazon.com/Expo-Non-Toxic-Whiteboard-
Cleaner-8180...](http://www.amazon.com/Expo-Non-Toxic-Whiteboard-
Cleaner-81803/dp/B00006IBO5)

Beyond that, writing on the walls is an excellent creative outlet.

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hatsix
Yeah, we were totally unprepared when we applied it to our wall... it ended up
horrible.

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teh_klev
The folks at Magic Whiteboard in the UK have a good half way house product if
you didn't fancy painting the walls:

<http://www.magicwhiteboard.co.uk/category/magic-whiteboard/>

They also do a clear version:

[http://www.magicwhiteboard.co.uk/product/magic-erasable-
clea...](http://www.magicwhiteboard.co.uk/product/magic-erasable-
clearboard-25-sheets/)

I remember seeing them on the BBC's Dragon's Den and winning over Deborah
Meaden and Theo Paphitis:

[http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v...](http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=_QvguJJNilA#t=141s)

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oneandoneis2
Works brilliantly so long as you remember exactly which walls you've coated :)

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qznc
The problem is training your kids to only draw on those walls :)

... or coat every wall, furniture and surface in the house.

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nathan_long
>> ... or coat every wall, furniture and surface in the house.

... and never take them to anybody else's house.

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ohwp
Link to the Ideapaint website: <http://www.ideapaint.com/>

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josephpmay
My school has whiteboard paint on some of the hallway walls and my dad just
painted a wall in his new office with it. A few things:

1) Markers leave more residue with dry-erase walls vs. a normal dry errase
board. I suspect that this has to do with the less-smooth texture of the wall

2) It's expensive, like prohibitively so. Expect to spend thousands to paint a
single room.

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ohwp
Philips had a working concept with a beamer some years ago. It was called the
"Drag Draw". Can't find much about it but here is a movie of the device in
action: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7WsPncFFrRw>

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qznc
If you could store the resulting drawing into svg or something, it would be
great for brainstorming. Still waiting for a company to produce it.

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theg2
A few years ago I worked on a digitized whiteboard system that could be
projected onto any surface. Took input from a Kinect, or other input system
and recorded the history of the entire life of the canvas into a database that
could be exported. Even recorded audio and video for final conclusions and
wrap up.

I think we learned a lot of HCI lessons from that project, mostly about
guerilla arm. Smart boards can already do what you're looking for but they're
insanely expensive and far from portable which is what we we're tasked to
"beat".

Oh, forgot the best part, they were networked ,~20 tables at a time and used a
server to facilitate connections and store sessions between each other.

Point being, what you're looking for exists but is expensive or requires some
custom development of your own. I'd open source mine but my grant won't let me
do that.

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cscheid
s/guerilla/gorilla/ for anyone reading this and failing to make sense of that
statement :)

~~~
theg2
Ah, good catch, was typing it on the T and smartphone auto corrected. Thanks.

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stephengillie
This is cool, but I've seen it in Home Depot a couple years ago. Why is it
just now getting attention?

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lambda
Marketing push?

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alavers
We have ideapaint all over the walls and marker pots all over the place at
work. It's great to be able to convert a hallway discussion into a whiteboard
design on a whim. There are designs and diagrams on the walls everywhere, it's
like engineer graffiti. It's fantastic.

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eyepulp
We've got this in the conference room at our office. The first time we put it
on we did not sand the walls smooth enough before painting, And it ended up
being difficult to dry erase. We re-sanded & reapplied the paint, and it's
been fantastic.

Also handy for entertaining visiting nieces and nephews or our employees'
kids.

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ISL
There are some cheap panel materials available at Home Depot/Lowes that work
great as cheap whiteboards. In our first year of grad school, we spent <$30 on
a 3'x4' or larger sheet, screwed it to the wall in our apartment, and got to
work.

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Lost_BiomedE
The same idea would be an interesting google glass app, virtually draw on the
wall. It would be cheaper and potentially more useful...etc, but would not be
decorative to those not tuned in, for good or bad.

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taternuts
Am I the only one that really dislikes writing on a white-board? I love the
idea in practice but I always end up reaching for a sheet of white printing
paper in the end.

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jpastika
Clear-coat is an awesome idea! I remember seeing this a while back, but only
white was available. My kids are going to love this.

