"PaperShow" : Write It - Show It (it's really that easy!)
I recently had the pleasure of putting a new product called "PaperShow" through its paces to see if it would be a good fit in the trial presentation/court room environment. Papershow is similar in concept to the SMART Airliner wireless slate and eInstruction tablets, but is much less expensive at just $199 for the starter kit.
After trying a variety of configurations I'm more than happy to give it an A+ as far as a presentation tool and I would strongly suggest that anyone seriously involved in court room presentations add this valuable tool to their inventory.
The product is so simple to set up that anyone remotely familiar with presentations should be able to get it up and running withing 5 minutes; those who haven't a clue about presentations will take about 6 minutes - yes, it's that easy!
The "device" itself consists of a USB drive and a special pen and (special) paper that is unique to the system. When you plug in the Bluetooth USB dongle the setup software launches and downloads the latest version of the Papershow software application to the Bluetooth USB dongle which also serves as a Flash drive. The pen is a matching Bluetooth transmitter and the paper has a pattern that allows everything written,drawn, or outlined to be replicated on the computer screen.
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Using just the pen a you can draw in different colors, make shapes, erase, and undo by writing on Canson's (the PaperShow maker) specially made "invisible dot" paper (if this sounds familiar, it's the same Anoto technology incorporated into products such as the Logitech io Personal Digital Pen and the newer LiveScribe Pulse Smartpen).
On the right side panel of the A4 interactive paper you have controls to change the width of the pen stroke, change the colors and draw basic lines, arrows, circles and squares. You can also fill the circles and squares with a color and highlight text with the highlighting tool.
You can even erase your writing and objects on the computer with the eraser tool.
You can easily bring up presentations and use the Papershow to make real-time modifications or draw pictures like that UPS Whiteboard commercial guy. To change color and brush size, and to access other functions, you just tap icons in the right margin of the paper.
All the programming is contained in the USB drive so you can carry the program and even saved images with you from computer to computer.
(The current solution only runs on Windows at this time.)
With Papershow, you are physically writing with ink on paper, rather than an electronic tablet, and this is then projected on the screen which creates more of a “magic” effect.
But Wait! There's More......
With the PaperShow program you can also import images or PowerPoint slides and then annotate the slides or diagrams or photos "on the fly" and save them once you've made your notes.
This is accomplished by printing out the images/slides onto special 8 1/2 x 11 inch paper that has a corresponding grid printed on it; your image is printed onto the grid and you now have a guide to work with as make diagrams on it which is replicated on the computer screen (or Plasma screen in the court room).
After annotating a presentation or conducting a whiteboard session, Papershow allows you to save all of the notes as a PDF, and then print or e-mail them to anyone you would like.
Again, the cost is an affordable $199.00 (USD) and the "special paper" needed to make the process work is equally affordable at$19.98 for 200 sheets of printer paper, $19.98 for large, conference-room sized brainstorming pad (size A3) and $12.98 for small brainstorming pad (size A4) .
This is a "Must Have" in your presentation arsenal!
