Boogie Board electronic tablet

[frostedflakes]

Saw this on another site and thought it looked pretty cool.

Going completely paperless just got a bit easier with an LCD tablet that – wait for it – actually seems to be an affordable and useful way to replace paper pads.

The Boogie Board from Improv Electronics features technology from Ohio’s Kent Displays called “Reflex LCD,” a pressure-sensitive, flexible plastic that requires zero power to retain what’s written on it and only a small watch battery to erase the screen.

According to the company’s press release:

“Because all Reflex LCDs are reflective and bi-stable, the Boogie Board tablet requires no power to generate or retain an image, and only a small amount to erase (supplied by a small watch battery, which will execute over 50,000 erase cycles). At a retail price of $29.97 USD, the Boogie Board tablet’s cost per erase is 15 times less than the per sheet cost of paper in a comparable steno notepad.

Written and graphic images are created with an included stylus or any other instrument that will apply the desired pressure (even a finger nail). Unlike traditional LCDs that have a poor response to pressure, the Boogie Board’s Reflex LCD is highly responsive to variable amounts of pressure. This allows different line thicknesses to be easily created (great for sketching) and provides a writing experience very similar to paper and pencil.”

That’s the key right there: “the Boogie Board’s Reflex LCD is highly responsive to variable amounts of pressure.” You’re able to write on it similarly to how you’d write on a regular sheet of paper. Now if only the company would produce a version that let you transfer what you’d written to your computer. Perhaps that’s in the pipeline.

Might be handy to have around the house for scribbling notes on, maybe stick it to the fridge or something. Don't have to worry about chalk dust or dry-erase markers that can dry out.

 

[lxskllr]

The 2 concerns I'd have is can you save what's written, and if you carry it with other objects, are they going to leave impressions in the display?

 

[ahenkel]

per this article http://www.maximumpc.com/article/news/boogie_board_cheap_digital_chalkboard

"Unfortunately, there’s no way to get anything off the tablet. No connecting to the computer, no syncing. This is for writing and erasing only."

 

[frostedflakes]

Unfortunately I don't think it can save notes, although it'd probably be something easy to implement in future versions if there was a demand for this, just include an SD slot and a button to dump screen contents to a JPEG or something.

When carrying it around, I wouldn't think large objects would make an impression (if that was the case, stuff like your palm would also make an impression, which would make it pretty useless as a writing pad). Sharper/pointy objects probably would, though. It sounds like the pad is pretty sensitive to writing.

edit: Yeah, as far as saving stuff it seems to be more comparable in functionality to a small chalk or dry-erase board. It's not like a note pad where you can rip a page off and start a new one of notes if you run out of space. The ability to save to SD might be a handy feature, though, hopefully that's something they include eventually.

 

[lxskllr]

per this article http://www.maximumpc.com/article/news/boogie_board_cheap_digital_chalkboard

"Unfortunately, there’s no way to get anything off the tablet. No connecting to the computer, no syncing. This is for writing and erasing only."

I could see that being useful in a commercial environment, but not so much for home use. Even commercially, real chalk has a nicer look. I'd go with slate and chalk.