I’ve recently been gifted a cheap, cool bit of technology by a company called Improv Electronics. The Boogie Board LCD writing tablet!

Remember the magic slate from days of old?  Mom would buy one at the grocery store, to keep the kids busy for a wee while. Little did she know it’d turn me into.. a cartoonist / gadget freak!

My friend Vince called me up one day, and told me he had a cool gift for me that he’d been tracking online for quite some time. Vince has been a user of the old style Magic Slate for years, using it as a notepad beside his computer, for notes on his animation work. Perfect! However, the thing with the magic slates, was that eventually, the wax backing underneath the plastic wears out, and thus, your ability to make legible notes or drawings. Sigh. “The old magic slates are actually becoming hard to find!” said my friend. And he gave me some links to a company using a sort of e-paper for exactly this sort of use!

Improv Electronics have had a hard time keeping the Boogie Board in stock. At around $30 usd, it’s a wonderful little gadget, very fun to doodle on, and perfect for it’s intended use. I can see using mine as a quick place to jot notes at home, stuck to the refrigerator, or just to pack along in my backpack for some simple doodling now and then.

The Boogie board is thin! Very thin and light. ( Excuse my wide angle lens pics )

It also ships with a very simple aluminum (?) and plastic stylus, that extends to the size of a regular pencil.

When you use the stylus on the screen itself, you actually do get pressure sensitivity in your drawings! The less pressure you use, (and if you use something with a smaller point) you do actually get lighter and finer lines, depending on how heavily you press down. You can even do a sort of calligraphy using the other end of the pen, with it’s flat angled tip.

However this technology works, I’m not sure why, but the chosen color underneath is a sort of dull neon green. It can be a bit difficult to see in a dark room, but with lots of light, no problem. It isn’t backlit in any way.

The little watch battery that powers the thing, is supposed to be able to erase the screen something like 200,000 times. If it ever dies on me, I think I can just crack the little back open and replace the battery…

And according to the website, the logo and top can be customized, in case you buy a bunch in bulk for company giveaways.. Very cool!

Ultimately, there will be detractors in the Boogie Board camp. I for one can’t wait to see what’s in hold for the next version of the technology. ( Rumored SD card storage / usb interface. )

What I’d like to see in Boogie Board’s future: Black writing on a white background! Possible? Some of the e-readers out there already have this ability. The resolution on this device is excellent. What would be great, is the ability to upload your drawings to a computer, in a vector graphics ( .ai Adobe Illustrator or .swf -Flash ) format.. or high resolution bitmap. (Jpg or Bmp / png)

In this way, you could store and doodle drawings all day long on this portable device, get home and port all of your text / drawings over into your application of choice, for text recognition or coloring your images for use in a print document etc.

The future is a strange and rewarding place, and I can’t wait to see what more Improv Electronics brings in the next few years with this technology. Maybe some day I won’t be drawing on dead trees any longer.. I can almost see it hazily coming into focus in the not too distant future..
-C

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Also, for examples of other uses of this technology, such as color changing devices.. click here! -Link- Oo.. I want a room wallpapered in this stuff.. or skinned over my car..

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