Did something like this myself, a few years ago:
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/remote-whiteboard/id52213886...
Except all you need to follow along is a browser.
Show HN: A virtual whiteboard for working or teaching remotely
131–140 of 143 posts
Re: Show HN: A virtual whiteboard for working or teaching remotely
#132That's something I've had on my todo list for ages. As others have said though, it'd be great to be able type text as drawing letters with a mouse always takes ages and looks rubbish. SVG export would be nice too, perhaps a paid for extra :)
Also, needs video/audio chat integration, in case you want to do more than watch the board getting filled up.
Re: Show HN: A virtual whiteboard for working or teaching remotely
#133Earlier quoted context omitted.
>> It's easy to add audio via skype/facetime/you-name-it though. Really? I don't think running another app to get audio is a very user friendly solution, and you'll never be able to record a session. How about Opus and webRTC or similar?
Its critical to integrate all this - else every meeting begins with a struggle to get on the same page with every app and every participant. Disclaimer: I work at Sococo
I think it's better standalone. I already have a hundred ways to voice chat.
Re: Show HN: A virtual whiteboard for working or teaching remotely
#134Oh my god. I love this! I've been waiting for a simple polished solution for this for years and years. When skype came along and then we got skype extensions, I thought they'd solve this, but oh no. Every solution that has come out so far has been mediocre at best. I'm glad someone decided to tackle this properly. I haven't had chance to try on iPad, but from the homepage it seems it'll work fine there as well?
Haha thank you! Yes it works fine on an iPad - in fact better than an laptop because using a finger to draw is so much more fluid and intuitive than a mouse or touchpad. Here's a video of me using WhiteboardFox.com to draw with my iPad: http://youtu.be/MDEHFHG1l3Y?t=1m10s And yes I had the same thoughts last year when I was looking to work with a remote programmer: "Surely, surely someone has a half-decent solution?!…
"Yes it works fine on an iPad"
Understatement - it works really well on an iPad (even my ancient iPad 1).
Re: Show HN: A virtual whiteboard for working or teaching remotely
#135Earlier quoted context omitted.
One feature that would make this a killer app in my mind is the ability to import a photo of a whiteboard and have the virtual whiteboard reconstruct what was on the whiteboard in the future. We often take a picture of the whiteboard at the end of the discussion -- being able to continue to edit that whiteboard at some point in the future would be very handy.
Speaking of whiteboard photo-digitizing: https://gist.github.com/lelandbatey/8677901 https://github.com/Flameeyes/unpaper
those links are pretty cool!
Re: Show HN: A virtual whiteboard for working or teaching remotely
#136This tool was pretty responsive to draw with using a tablet, and I'm glad the pen width isn't very large. I love using a Wacom tablet for drawing diagrams, and wish there was a good shared whiteboard tool that supported pen pressure. I didn't know if this is possible at first, but a quick search revealed http://muro.deviantart.com/ , which supports pen pressure using a plugin. Any chance you might add that kind of fl…
Maybe in the long term, but for now I'm concentrating on other things (like adding typeable text)
Re: Show HN: A virtual whiteboard for working or teaching remotely
#137Earlier quoted context omitted.
Its critical to integrate all this - else every meeting begins with a struggle to get on the same page with every app and every participant. Disclaimer: I work at Sococo
I think it's better standalone. I already have a hundred ways to voice chat.
That's the problem - are they the same ways everyone in your meeting uses? How much time is wasted on each 'conference call' working out who's there, who has the number, where's Bob!
Re: Show HN: A virtual whiteboard for working or teaching remotely
#138Earlier quoted context omitted.
One feature that would make this a killer app in my mind is the ability to import a photo of a whiteboard and have the virtual whiteboard reconstruct what was on the whiteboard in the future. We often take a picture of the whiteboard at the end of the discussion -- being able to continue to edit that whiteboard at some point in the future would be very handy.
This is (more or less) how SmartBoards work. I had one in almost every classroom from 8th grade on.
How much are smartboards? wondering if ppl can afford it easily.
Re: Show HN: A virtual whiteboard for working or teaching remotely
#139Very impressed Mark. Nicely done. Do you mind telling the technology stack?
He has commented below that the 'front end is GWT, back end is Java servlets. Database was originally MySQL but switched to Prevayler for performance reasons.' I have built a similar tool that is also an HTML5 / Canvas collaborative drawing app which uses Google Drive for storage and has no server code beyond that. It works offline (and syncs up with collaborators when you come online) and runs in Chrome, Firefox, Sa…
you have to login?
Re: Show HN: A virtual whiteboard for working or teaching remotely
#140Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is another HTML5 / Canvas collaborative drawing app that I built which uses Google Drive for storage and thus runs completely locally. Works offline and runs in Chrome, Firefox, Safari, iOS, and Android and supports touch. http://thesavior.github.io/draw/
The one thing my wife (a math teacher) has always been craving is a video solution for these - that is, write equations or annotate a document on our android tablet while she narrates, then upload the video to YouTube. Last I checked there wasn't a good offering on the play store for this.
I do that with Screenflow and a Wacom Intuos Pro, and that's a very simple set up.
I understand it's not a solution for the Android tablet, but I also thought I wanted to draw on a tablet and I've been happy with my set up - I can sit up and look forward and it feels better that way, than it would if I looked down towards my drawing hand and the tablet screen.
Just a thought. I'm one of those people who would never buy a Wacom Cintiq because I see the decoupling of "object to draw on" and "object to look at while drawing" as an incredible advantage.