HoverCam vs. iPad Clamped to a Stand

     

iPad shown with an optional mount. Is
this the best way to use an iPad in class? 

Some teachers ask, "Why do I need a document camera when I have an iPad?" True, you could clamp or mount an iPad to a stand, much as the one shown in the image. But is this the best use for an iPad, and, is it cost effective for the school?

The traditional document camera - made famous by a company called Elmo - is a dinosaur. In fact, Samsung - one of the leaders - has announced it's quitting the document camera business. But, a San Diego based company called Pathway Innovations has come out with a device called a "HoverCam" which has "reinvented" this stodgy product category. The HoverCam Solo 8 is the world's first SuperSpeed USB 3.0 "teaching camera" with 8 megapixel resolution and full-motion, 30 frame/sec speed over USB. Which means teachers can record full-motion HD video directly to their computer, and share it with students and parents. Calling the HoverCam a "document camera" doesn't do it justice, because it does so much more.

Why is the HoverCam Solo 8 an alternative to an iPad on a stand?

      HoverCam Advantages vs. iPad Clamped To a Stand

      * HoverCam is designed to be used as a document camera for classroom use. It is rugged and includes a stand and a lamp. The total cost for HoverCam’s flagship model Solo 8 is $349.

·       * iPad ($499) + optional stand ($50 - $99) is over $550, over $200 more than the cost of the HoverCam Solo 8.

·       * The iPad is designed to be used as a hand-held, portable tablet.  It’s best used that way.  By fastening it to a stand (making it stationary) the iPad’s functionality - and mobility -  is restricted. A school wastes money purchasing an iPad and tying it down as a document camera. If a teacher's iPad is clamped to a stand how are they going to bring the tablet to the other side of the room? Time will be lost unclamping it.

·        * The HoverCam’s camera head is moveable – the camera can be quickly pointed in any direction when recording video, or showing live images. Fastening an iPad to a stand makes the iPad’ s camera less flexible. As a video camera, the HoverCam is more versatile than the iPad and an optional stand.

·       *  HoverCam Solo 8 includes LED lights so it can be used in a darkened classroom.

·       *  If you drop the HoverCam on a hard floor, it’s likely to keep working.  If you drop an iPad on a solid floor, it could break.

·        * The HoverCam has a small profile, even when showing a double-sided, A3 size book.  The iPad + stand combination, as shown above, could block the view of some students.

·        *  The HoverCam – with its fast refresh rate and true 8 megapixel resolution – is a great way to show and train students how to use iPad apps. By placing an iPad under the HoverCam students can see the teacher’s hand movements and learn faster. The Solo 8 can be used to record an instructional video of how to use an app, which can be easily uploaded to a teacher's website.

      The ideal classroom would include both HoverCams and iPads working together. This can be accomplished with Splashtop software, which allows streaming of a HoverCam image to an iPad or tablet anywhere in the room, which increases mobility.

The HoverCam Solo 8 is a multifunctional scanner, document camera, video recorder and grading machine for classroom instruction, & corporate training, presentations, scanning and flipped learning. It can also be used as a USB 3.0 webcam for distance learning and virtual field trips.

(Note - this post was updated December, 2014)

退一步，海阔天空. Why Not Take a Step Back?

My colleague Ji Shen, Founder and CEO of The HoverCam who is originally from China, just shared we me words of wisdom: 退一步，海阔天空。 Tui Yi Bu, Hai Kuo Tian Kong. It means, roughly: "Take a step back, and the sky opens before you."  Often in business - especially in "start-up" mode, we tend to charge ahead in our work, sometimes getting stuck in a rut. Instead of plowing forward, why not take a step back? New options, new paths as wide as the sea and sky will appear. 

How To Use HoverCam With An iPad

I’m often asked, “How can I use the HoverCam with the iPad?”

Here are some ways to get the most out of your tablet and your document camera.

The HoverCam is a great
way to show images on an
iPad and train how to use apps.

First, the HoverCam is an excellent way to show a large screen image of a tablet (or smartphone) screen.  Just put the tablet underneath the HoverCam, and the high resolution, true 5-megapixel sensor of the HoverCam Solo 5 displays the tablet screen crystal clear. The advantage of showing the tablet screen this way is the audience (or class) can easily follow the instructor’s hand movements, making it easier to comprehend how the teacher is using the tablet.  And with the Solo 5 being the world’s fastest 5-megapixel USB document camera, there’s not much blurring (and less blurring than there would be with high-resolution USB document cameras from other manufacturers).

If you’d like to use the iPad to control a HoverCam, a great way to do that is with an app called Splashtop, which allows you to control your computer screen with the iPad.  With the HoverCam attached to your computer and with Splashtop installed on your iPad you can control all HoverCam functions with the iPad. The camera images can be simultaneously seen on the iPad, the computer and the projector and you can annotate and manipulate the HoverCam image with the iPad.  Splashtop also has an app to turn the iPad into an “interactive” tablet / whiteboard.  Our technical service department has thoroughly tested Splashtop. The application installs easily and works perfectly.  We recommend it.  (Of course Android tablets such as LearnPad that are Splashtop compatible also work well with HoverCam.)

We occasionally run into a person who says, “I don’t need a document camera.  My tablet has a camera.”  We believe – as do our customers – that both products can co-exist in the classroom.  A blogpost next week will explain why.

Sweden To The HoverCam: "Det Ar Bra!"

My favorite things about Sweden are herring, midnight sun, cross country skiing and the teachers.

Each year in January we attend a conference called BETT, which is not just the largest education technology trade show in Britain, but all of Europe. And one of my favorite things about BETT is the Swedish teachers, almost 4,000 of them, who travel to warm winter London to see our products.

Our European Sales Manager, Anders Wik, is from Gothenburg and with “Gotteborg Humor” entertains the Swedish visitors to our trade show booth with tales about our products. It’s good fun and by the end of the 4-day exposition I’ve heard his

Anders setting up the HoverCam booth

at BETT in the UK, January 2013.

spiel so many times I’m speaking Swedish.

  This week, we will launch the HoverCam Mini 5, the world’s smallest document camera, in Sweden at SETT, Scandinavia’s largest education technology conference.

SETT is an acronym for Scandinavian Educational Technology Transformation. This is the 2^nd year for the conference, which attracted 4,500 teachers, ICT (Interactive Communications Technology) instructors and school administrators from 3 countries last year.

The goals for the conference are to introduce new digital technologies to the classroom to increase student achievement.

According to HoverCam’s Swedish resellers, the Mini is ideal for teachers who instruct at multiple schools, because it weighs less than 250 grams. The HoverCam Mini allows instructors to scan paper documents, and also to capture images with the camera that can be shown on interactive whiteboards in class.

“Many teachers are using the HoverCam to create instructional videos,” says Anders.

The HoverCam Mini 5 will be displayed at SETT by the Swedish instructional technology integrators AV Huset and ITM, which will highlight how HoverCam can be used by teachers as an instructional technology tool. (One of the highlights of BETT – the UK show – is meeting up with AV Huset and ITM on the streets of London for a concert, samplings of British ale and good stories.)

HoverCam’s products will also be showcased by two companies highlighting the HoverCam’s capability to work with OCR (optical character recognition) software, ICAP and Svensk Talteknologi.  OCR software allows text from book pages scanned with the HoverCam to be converted from text to speech, which is useful for students with visual impairments. The scan quality of the HoverCam works well with OCR software.

“The HoverCam is user friendly,” says Anders. “The software is in Swedish and easy to install since it is embedded in the unit,” he said. HoverCam products appeal to teachers in Sweden, Norway and Denmark because of the good video quality, ergonomic design and multi-functionality. “Each HoverCam is also a scanner and a video recorder,” says Anders, “And it’s affordable for schools.”

HoverCam products were first introduced to North America in 2010, where 100,000 HoverCam units have been installed in schools. We began working with Anders and  exporting HoverCams to Sweden in May, 2011.

This is how I sound after speaking Swedish for 4 days. (Full disclosure: I hired a Swede to play the part of me in the video.)



For additional information about the HoverCam in Sweden, please visit the company’s Swedish website www.thehovercam.se For additional information about the SETT Conference, which runs April 17 – 18 please visit www.settdagarna.se/en For additional information about HoverCam products in North America please visit www.thehovercam.com or email contact@thehovercam.com

HoverCam Allows Any Teacher To "Flip" The Classroom & Create Flipped Videos

The success of the Khan Academy and the use of online recorded videos to demonstrate problem solving which students can access at any time is turning classrooms upside down.

Welcome to the world of "flipped learning" where the teacher's job is not to lecture and pontificate, but to coach, made possible by the high-speed web which hosts a world of instructional videos and education content. The concept of a flipped classroom is where students learn the concepts online at their pace (easily repeating when necessary) and the role of the teacher in class is to answer questions students couldn't figure out on their own.

Khan Academy and Internet searches will yield many results on how to solve specific types of exercises, but for those times when teachers feel compelled to create and post their own content online, what's the easiest way to create a high-quality instructional video? If the teacher doesn't have a stand or tripod for the smartphone, tablet or camera, attempting to make a recording by placing a device on a stack or books (or something more unstable) puts the device at risk.  And, where to find a special stand (with a clamp) that would hold a camera positioned over paper pointing down?

The HoverCam offers an easy solution. Essentially, a HoverCam is a high-resolution camera on a stick with software that allows recording in high-definition HD video.  Here's how it works.  The instructor plugs the HoverCam "document camera" into the USB port of a computer and launches the software. Next step is to position the paper or instructional materials directly under the camera and make sure everything is lined up. Then, press the record button in the software and the video is recorded directly to the computer's hard drive.  Because the HoverCam has a microphone, sound is also recorded. Viola, instant video on the computer which can be posted using HoverCam's software to a website, attached to an email, inserted into a PowerPoint and uploaded to Dropbox, Evernote, YouTube and other cloud services.

In addition to recording flipped videos, the HoverCam can also be used as a "document camera" to show live images of papers and solid objects to the class; used as a scanner to scan & file multiple documents or student assignments; used as a high-resolution webcam for distance learning and Skype; and used to grade tests.

Here's a step-by-step video tutorial from HoverCam's website showing how to create a flipped video for the classroom:



The HoverCam is priced right for schools with prices starting at $219 and is sold through a network of education specialist resellers throughout North America.  The company offers a free trial of its units to education institutions.  For additional information, please visit the company's website at http://www.thehovercam.com/teachers

Can HoverCam Get College Students To Do What Their Parents Couldn't: Clean Up Their Rooms?

HoverCam Mini combines features of
camera, camera & video camera into
one pocket size device.

How cool is scanning?

Yeah, right. LOL.

Not so fast. The HoverCam has developed this new device that combines the capabilities of a camera with a scanner. Oh, and it fits in your pocket.

So?

So you can take it to the library and scan articles and convert the text to OCR to assist with writing research papers.  And everything you scan you can upload to your Evernote account.

What else?

HoverCam reduces the need
to carry (and keep) so many devices.
Don't be this guy.

The next day, you're making a presentation to your class and you want to show the widget you made with the 3-D printer so you pull it out and place it underneath the HoverCam for everyone to see. Your "document camera" is much sleeker than the large monster on the lectern. You zoom in and out showing the fine details of your 3-D object. And, since you've already written an app for your widget, you place your smartphone under the camera to show the class how the app works (and everyone sees the phone's screen clearly).

That's pretty cool.

There's more. When you get back to your dorm your friend texts you how to solve a wicked calculus problem so you answer not a problem and pull out your HoverCam and plug it into your computer and with Skype and the HoverCam you show your friend step-by-step how to work the problem.

About the size of a chocolate bar -
the HoverCam Mini helps students
reduce paper & organize their desk.

Later in the evening you're inspired to create a blog post and you use the HoverCam (which includes a stand) to record the video straight onto your computer's hard drive where it's easily dragged-and-dropped into the blog (and also uploaded to your Dropbox account from HoverCam's software).

Your friends stop by afterwards and you want to take a group photo. The HoverCam does that for you as well, using the timer, so that everyone is in the picture.

And best of all, see all those papers on your desk, in your drawers and on your bookshelves?  You gather them all into a pile and set the motion trigger in the HoverCam's software to take a scan two seconds after placing the paper under the camera.  So you scan, scan, scan, scan and in a matter of minutes ALL of the papers in the room have been scanned and archived in HoverCam's software and you carry the papers to the recycle bin.  Viola, instant order to the dorm room.

OK, I get it. Where do I get one?

The HoverCam Mini is available to college students from the education retailer Studica. They've got the HoverCam and hundreds of software titles and gadgets at student pricing.

Cool.

HoverCam Prepares Launch of World's First "Scanning Camera"

Will the HoverCam Mini become
the new chocolate for road warriors?

With just two weeks to go before the start of CES, Pathway Innovations, Inc. (San Diego, CA) is busy preparing the launch of its much anticipated Mini 5, a new concept in cameras that combines the functions of scanner and camera for road warriors and office use.

"Anticipated" is a generous word - because in the consumer and business world there is no such thing as a "scan camera" that does what the Mini will attempt.  But in the education and professional audio visual (pro-AV) marketplace, the Mini will achieve the status as world's smallest "document camera."  For schools, this type of product is used as a replacement for the overhead projector (OHP) or opaque projector - ask any teacher what an "Elmo" is and they'll tell you it's not a furry Sesame Street Character but a tool for showing worksheets, books, 3-D objects and dissections to students in class. Elmo Corporation of Japan is the 800 lbs. gorilla in the "document camera" market. It's been 3 years since the upstart HoverCam introduced its first USB document camera with twice the performance of an Elmo at one-third the price. In a weak economy with schools concerned about budgets HoverCam sales to the K-12 education market have taken off. Now, here comes the Mini.

The HoverCam Mini 5 plugs directly into
the USB port of a computer without
a USB cable, making it convenient for
use on the road (or in an office).

The Mini incorporates features of a document camera, scanner, camcorder and camera, and fits into a pocket or purse. Despite the small size, the Mini packs powerful features including a true 5 megapixel sensor, resolution high enough to scan documents and use with popular OCR software such as ABBY Fine Reader. Furthermore, the refresh rate is fast enough to allow it to be used to record instructional videos, as a high resolution webcam for showing documents during remote conferencing and to conduct live training session showing new apps on an iPad or a tablet.

In the education market, the Mini is expected to be a hit among teachers who travel from school to school to train, and for administrators including school principals and IT directors.

What about the general business and consumer market? Will the Mini become the new chocolate for road warriors? According to Ji Shen, Pathway's CEO and HoverCam inventor, the Mini is a personal scanner, and he says jokingly, "it's the pathway to the paperless office."  The company has developed software for scanning documents, and includes links to export directly to Evernote, Dropbox, Facebook, YouTube and other Cloud Services.  In addition, the Mini will include software for scanning and managing business cards and receipts.

Is it fair to call the Mini a competitor to the ubiquitous NeatDesk(TM) or NeatReceipts(TM) scanners? No, according to Mr. Shen. "Neat has had several years to develop and perfect its receipt scanning software and we're just beginning. The HoverCam advantage is the versatility of a camera that scans documents and shoots photos and can used with Skype to video conference and and make recordings," he said.  Mr. Shen added,  "The Mini at this stage is a video presentation and quick scanning tool. But, I expect our receipt scanning software to improve with time."

·       Time Savings & Convenience

–    How does it feel waiting when using a traditional flatbed scanner that takes a minute to complete a single scan? The Mini addresses that problem by scanning in a second, and, using the motion sensor or auto timer a user can scan up to 30 items in a minute. In an office, instead of walking to the other side of the building to use a shared scanner, Mini owners will save time and reduce interruptions to their workflow. And, no more fumbling with a smartphone or tablet trying to use its camera as a scanner. With the Mini camera head set into position, scans are quick, accurate and can be filed instantly.

·         More Effective Remote Collaboration

–    During a web conference, ever try holding a document or drawing up to the built-in low resolution webcam of the computer? It was probably hard for people in other locations to see it clearly. Mini 5 attempts to solve that problem by providing crisp, clear images of documents and objects during online meetings and can be used with Skype™, GoToMeeting™, WebEx™ and other online meeting services.

·         Compact Size

–    Mini 5’s footprint takes up very little space on a desktop and is always available when needed to scan, record a video or better explain a concept over the Internet. And, it folds to fit in a pocket, purse or computer bag.

• 5MP Resolution

–      Mini 5 incorporates a 5 megapixel sensor sharp enough to function as a general scanner and to provide crisp clear images easily seen by an audience when used for live presentations of documents, 3D objects or to share images from a tablet or smartphone.

•       Fast Refresh Rate

–      Mini 5 sets a new standard in fast refresh rates for a live 5 MP USB document camera with video speeds of 20 frames per second when set @ HD 720P resolution and 15 fps when set @ 5 MP resolution. This allows for a very clear and smooth image when using the Mini 5 for live presentations or training.

•       Autofocus & Focus Lock Convenience

–      Mini 5 incorporates a tiny auto-focusing CMOS sensor and lens module. From any angle or distance, images become instantly clear. 

•       Laptop or Desktop

–      Mini 5 is designed to be easy to use on the go -- on an airplane, or on the floor of an exposition hall.  Simply plug it directly into a USB port of your laptop or ultrabook -- no cable required.  For even greater flexibility when making a presentation or to connect to a desktop, the Mini’s carry case can be converted into a stand, which connects to a computer with a USB cable. Not just a protective carrying case, the Mini’s protective case converts into a USB docking station. Clever.

·         Receipt Scanning With HoverCam "Memo" Software

–      HoverCam Memo™  software allows any receipt to be scanned with the click of the mouse or, using the motion trigger function, with the wave of your hand, allowing you to scan a pile of receipts quickly.  Generate expense reports and monthly analyses instantly.  Scan and organize in the Archive folder anything including notes, checks, invoices, mobile phone & tablet screen shots, diary pages, video clips, household inventory, and more. Upload scanned images and video directly to cloud services such as Evernote™, Dropbox ™, Facebook™ and YouTube™.

•       HoverCam Contact

–      Hover Contact™ software functions as a digital Rolodex allowing you to capture, store, review and manage all of your contacts. You can even connect with them automatically via Facebook or LinkedIn.

The company says the HoverCam Mini 5 will begin shipping in Q2 and is now taking reservations to purchase in April. The price is $299. The product will be available to the education market through a network of education specialist resellers and to the general business and consumer market through numerous resellers and online stores. For additional information, please visit the company's website www.thehovercam.com

Full disclosure: The writer has 20 years experience in the education technology marketplace and has been an importer and distributor of document cameras made in Japan, Korea and Taiwan. In the past, he was product manager of a business development project that included Elmo Corporation and is currently a consultant to Pathway Innovations, manufacturer of The HoverCam. The opinions expressed are his own, unless noted otherwise. Specifications and pricing are subject to change, but were accurate at the time of writing.