Scrolling Whiteboard

Abstract

The modern dry-erase whiteboard has become a tried-and-true educational tool synonymous with teaching and brainstorming. The strengths of the dry-erase whiteboard are familiar to students and teachers alike. The dry-erase marker and whiteboard combination is an extremely easy and effective tool to quickly jot down ideas and collaborate, and the large surface area and high-contrast appearance makes words and drawings easy to visualize and discuss. However, the rise of digital hardware like the Apple iPad has highlighted important weaknesses with the dry-erase whiteboard. Running digital writing softwares like Microsoft OneNotes, devices like the iPad allow users to write on an “infinitely” large surface and quickly save past notes and ideas in a digital format such as a PDF. In addition, the process of scrolling, writing, and erasing are extremely intuitive. But with all the strengths of the digital writing experience, there are also an equal number of weaknesses. It is naturally more difficult to collaborate with digital writing tools, and some research shows that the lack of physical, haptic feedback when writing on a glass screen can hinder learning and handwriting quality. Our goal was to create a small scale prototype that “digitizes” the dry-erase whiteboard. We succeeded in creating a physical prototype that more than triples the total writing area of a traditional whiteboard. This prototype can also erase markings made on the whiteboard without the user erasing by hand. We have also developed an algorithm to digitize the written work using a Raspberry Pi camera. While this early prototype serves as a useful proof of concept, the design falls short in several key areas. The motor coupling was originally designed to use a set of gears, but the imprecise conveyor roller mounts allow the gears to become misaligned. The prototype also has exposed gearing which should be enclosed in a final product. There are a number of issues with the current writing surface that should also be resolved.