[AG-TECH] SmartBoard + Screens?

Jason Leigh spiff at evl.uic.edu
Wed Aug 29 09:42:26 CDT 2001


David,
at EVL we have mounted a plasma smartboard on a cart with PC and wireless
keyboard.
That way we can reconfigure as needed.

We had considered making the touchscreen part of one of the AG screens but
after having used the touch screen software we decided against it. The
software is pretty compute intensive and response time can slow down if it
is competing with AG video rendering.

See
www.evl.uic.edu/cavern/continuum
for a sketch of our room configuration.

Jason

=============================================================
Jason Leigh, PhD
spiff at evl.uic.edu              Electronic Visualization Lab (M/C 154)
EVL Phone (312) 996-3002         University of Illinois at Chicago
EVL FAX   (312) 413-7585         851 S. Morgan St. Room 1120 SEO
http://www.evl.uic.edu/spiff     Chicago, IL 60607-7053


> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-ag-tech at mcs.anl.gov [mailto:owner-ag-tech at mcs.anl.gov]On
> Behalf Of Gary Refka
> Sent: Wednesday, August 29, 2001 9:06 AM
> To: bernholdtde at ornl.gov; ag-tech at mcs.anl.gov
> Cc: bernholdtde at ornl.gov
> Subject: Re: [AG-TECH] SmartBoard + Screens?
>
>
>
> David,
>
> Sounds like you have the makings of an interesting
> room.
>
> One approach we use and like, copied from Argonne's
> Library, is the use of multiple walls.  The front or
> main wall is used for remote participants and whatever
> is the main focus of the current session.  The side
> walls, or in your case the SmartBoard, would have
> supporting material such as presentations, chat or
> local room participants video images.  This breaks up
> the room logically and seems to improve the focus of a
> meeting by creating a central point for the
> participants.
>
> Having a continuous screen does not seem to be
> critical as long as there is a large enough main area
> to support the sessions you will be conducting.  In
> one of our installs we have two projectors covering a
> 18'x5' area and a third projector shooting on a
> adjacent wall 9'x5'.  This has worked out very well
>
> Good luck.
>
> Gary Refka
> inSORS Engineer
> ---- "David E. Bernholdt"
> <bernhold at jumby.csm.ornl.gov> wrote:
> > In the conference room we're building, we don't have
> a huge amount of
> > space.  In total it is about 14' (front/back wall) x
> 22' (side walls).
> > The room was originally two, and in the middle there
> are vestiges of
> > the original wall in the form of a 20" projection
> from the side walls
> > (think of a ~10' wide dorrway or portal in the
> middle of the room).
> >
> > I'd like to have a 3-projector tiled display for the
> AG _and_ a
> > SmartBoard (interactive whiteboard) that could be
> used with AG or
> > separately.  The "portal" in the middle of the room
> makes it hard to
> > position a whiteboard on a side wall so as to be
> uniformly visible.
> >
> > So I was thinking of a couple of options, and I'd
> appreciate comments
> > on the relative merits of each from those with more
> experience...
> >
> > I could put the SmartBoard and the AG display on the
> same wall
> > (four-across) only if the AG video is pretty small
> (~ 3' x 2.25'
> > each). Advantage: the AG display would be
> uninterrupted.
> > Disadvantage: it would be pretty small.
> >
> > If I made the SmartBoard _part_ of the AG screen, it
> could be 4'x3'
> > per image.  The disadvantages I see are (1) since
> the SmartBoard has a
> > small bezel around it, there is no way to avoid a
> small break in the
> > continuity of the screen, and (2) I don't know how
> closely I can match
> > the optical properties of the SmartBoard in the rest
> of the screen.  I
> > think I can partially counter the first problem by
> arranging for the
> > screen edge to overlap the SmartBoard bezel, but
> there will still be a
> > small visual "glitch".  The wall is not completely
> flat, so we're
> > going to have to engineer a screen surface anyway
> (can't just paste on
> > WallTalkers stuff).
> >
> > I thought about other approaches, like trying to
> build/buy a large
> > screen that would hang just in front of the
> SmartBoard, but that would
> > (1) prevent use of the SmartBoard with the AG, and
> (2) give two
> > different focal plans for the projector associated
> with the
> > SmartBoard.  The latter problem would require an
> additional projector
> > or refocusing to switch back and forth.  It seems
> like zoom functions
> > are usually available on projector remotes, but not
> focus, so this
> > would quickly become tedious for ceiling-mounted
> projectors.
> >
> > I don't know how important display size and
> continuity are to AG
> > users, or how to balance one against the other.
> Feedback and
> > suggestions welcome. Thanks!
> > --
> > David E. Bernholdt                   |   Email:
> bernholdtde at ornl.gov
> > Oak Ridge National Laboratory        |   Phone: +1
> (865) 574 3147
> > http://www.csm.ornl.gov/~bernhold/   |   Fax:   +1
> (865) 574 0680
> >
> >
>
>




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