First came white boards, the chalkboards of corporate America. Then came white boards that could print out a paper copy of whatever was printed on them. Now, here's the latest: a white board that hooks up to a personal computer.
The product, called SoftBoard, stores everything written on the board on a computer by having two infrared lasers mounted on the upper corners of the board. The dry erase markers are bar coded, allowing the lasers to track their position and color. Since the information is captured stroke by stroke, the playback mode works like a VCR and can be viewed at normal, fast, or slow speed. The information can be stored on a disk, e-mailed, or cut and pasted into other files.
The mobile version pictured here costs $3,995, while a wall-mounted model lists for $3,295. For more information, contact Microfield Graphics in Beaverton, OR at (503)626-9393.