
OpenBoard – An interactive whiteboard for schools and universities - buovjaga
http://openboard.ch/index.en.html
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franga2000
Annoyed by Promethean's software, I was about to start working on something
like this. Not because their software is completely bad, but because an update
removed something that many professors relied on and there's nothing even a
school full of programmers and computer scientists can do about it. I don't
understand how workflow-critical software like that isn't open-source (not
even saying free software, just accessible source code). I will be taking a
close look at this and possibly throwing some dev time your way if I think I
can get our school to use this.

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eggy
I was using a feature in Skype where I could do video and have an interactive
sheet open with a choice of red, blue or green ink to see who was drawing at
the same time. I think this was 2007. I was overseas and was doing homework
with my kids. It's still in Skype, but I believe only the business version or
with Office 365. It was free then. I don't see many options now that are free
and are interactive.

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ifoundthetao
Anyone used this?

I'm looking for a solution at home, but I think I'm looking for something a
little more interactive, as in an open source style SmartBoard.

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lbotos
If you can live with a very basic solution you could build a Wii Smartboard:
[http://johnnylee.net/projects/wii/](http://johnnylee.net/projects/wii/)

I did for a few years :) Was great!

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saganus
A short time later after I found out about Johnny's work I tried to build my
own as well and it was great indeed.

When doing research on how to build one, I was having issues with the
methodology I was using ( a very naive one), so I actually emailed Johnny
asking him for pointers and he actually responded!

His very short email just said (and I quote): "it's called a planar
homography"

After digging a lot and tracking some research I found an explanation of the
algorithm and things kinds just clicked. It was amazing.

So... if someone reads this and is figuring out how to do something similar,
search for that :)

Edit: I actually found the paper!

[http://research.microsoft.com/apps/pubs/default.aspx?id=6725...](http://research.microsoft.com/apps/pubs/default.aspx?id=67258)

Very interesting read if you want to figure out how to warp coordinates from a
camera to the screen

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mkesper
Previously I used [https://github.com/Sankore/open-Sankore--
install-](https://github.com/Sankore/open-Sankore--install-) (on windows for
my employer, successfully), but the project seems to be dead. So I'm glad
there is something active.

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krisives
What is the chalkboard software that some mathematics and programming folks
use on YouTube or when streaming?

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c3534l
You mean like Khan Academy? MS Paint. Seriously.

~~~
krisives
Like these: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dCvB-
mhkT0w](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dCvB-mhkT0w)

There are some other ones where the presenter isn't on screen but it's the
same software (or looks identical in writing style)

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tga
It's hardware, not software :-)

"The lightboard itself is made up of a heavy duty frame, a 3/8” sheet of low
iron glass (commercial name starphire,) and a string of LEDs to wrap the edges
of the glass to shoot light inward to make the neon markers pop on camera."

[https://devcentral.f5.com/articles/lightboard-lessons-
behind...](https://devcentral.f5.com/articles/lightboard-lessons-behind-the-
scenes)

~~~
krisives
Love that he does it in shorts with a formal shirt up top.

