What's New in 2014

There are a lot of new things happening in the world of document cameras and visualization tools, as evidenced in the first two major conferences of 2014 (FETC and TCEA).  Here are some quick news bytes:

AverInformation

AverInfo featured a redesign of the user interface of the software that controls their document cameras, pictured below. 

It's a good move, based on my previous post, entitled “Improve This!”

ExoLabs

This is the first time I have seen ExoLabs at one of these conferences, and they made a splash with their new microscope camera and their close up camera with a mounting stand, pictured below.

GradeCam

GradeCam made a first time entry with an assessment scoring all-in-one solution, pictured below. Not a document camera, they claim, but it looks like one to me. Perhaps we can call it a single-purpose document camera?

Fujitsu

Fujitsu also entered these exhibit halls for the first time with a dedicated scanning solution, designed to bring high quality to image capture, while replacing the long-asleep flatbed scanner. This generation of hardware is called their "scansnap" line. But I am bit worried--what they were modeling might indeed be illegal.

Lumens

Standard Lumens visualizers were on display in a typically attractive booth. “Pass-through HDMI inputs” were the newest feature they were promoting. Lumens would do better to return to teacher-centered messaging. See my blog post entitled “Visualize Better Messaging.”

In the next two posts, we will highlight some of the ground-breaking trends being offered two of the document camera companies exhibiting at TCEA and FETC.