Document Camera Technology Blog – HoverCam

GradeCentral comes with an online gradebook. GradeCentral Assessment Software turns the HoverCam you already use for presentation into a grading machine. However, not only does it simplify and expedite grading, it also stores those grades online and allows you to run quick reports to measure how your class is performing. Reports are ran by student, by quiz or even by State or Common Core Standard.

GradeCentral is only available for the HoverCam line of document cameras.

To more on HoverCam GradeCentral Assessment Software, please click here.

To download a 30-day free trial of GradeCentral, please click here. The 30-day trial can be used with any document camera but for optimized results, we recommend a HoverCam.

For a live demonstration of GradeCentral Assessment Software, please fill out this form and someone in your part of the world will contact you shortly.

The VGA USB controls on the HoverCam Neo 3 document camera are described in the video below. Unlike many document cameras, the Neo 3 does simultaneous output to VGA and USB. You can connect it directly to a projector and run it through a computer to take advantage of the HoverCam Flex software suite. In other words, you can do both at the same time. It is the only VGA USB document camera which does this. In other cameras, the user must switch from USB to VGA. Due to the fact that you can use it in two different ways, we needed to give the camera two ways of controlling it.

The Neo 3 does both VGA and USB at 30FPS. It has three resolution settings: 720p, XGA, and UXGA. The resolution you choose will affect the framerate. For example, at 720p and XGA resolutions, the frame rate is 30FPS but at UXGA resolution, the framerate is 15FPS. This means you can choose what is most important to you – the picture or the framerate.

This video was shot with a HoverCam using HoverCam Flex.

HoverCam Neo 3 VGA USB Controls Tutorial

For more information on the Neo 3 document camera, and how it allows you to output to both USB and VGA, click here.

Electronic PiP presentations and web conferencing are still new technologies. The goal for any new technology is to enhance or simplify a task a person would perform in every day life. Some electronic presentations show a document or object under the camera but you speak as a disembodied voice. Other people imagine a web conference as showing someone’s face while you talk to them over a distance. However, this does not accurately replicate how you would speak in person. If you were in the same room with someone, you would not simply stare at them the entire conversation – at least not without it becoming a little awkward eventually. The same holds true if you never looked at the person you were talking to you. You would, of course, want to make eye contact every few minutes but you would also want to turn your attention elsewhere: an object, a document, etc.

How PiP Changes Presentations

PiP, or “Picture-in-Picture,” allows you to speak electronically in a way closer to how you would in person, seeing the speaker’s expression and eyes while also seeing what that person is talking about. Now you can connect in the same way you would in a one-on-one conversation, conveying emotion and sincerity, while still communicating important information as efficiently as possible.

The HoverCam Neo 3 visualizer includes two cameras capable of doing Picture-in-Picture. Check it out for yourself and see if PiP does not improve your presentations.

Tesseract OCR comes free with HoverCam Flex software suite. You may have noticed in the Archive tab of HoverCam Flex that there is a tab labelled “OCR.” “OCR” is an abbreviation for “optical character recognition.” In other words, it digitizes printed pages. You can take a print out or book, scan it, and have text that you could edit in your favorite word processing program.

Tesseract OCR, included in HoverCam Flex, is the same OCR engine currently used by Google. Tesseract OCR was named one of the top OCR engines in the 1995. It is considered one of the most accurate open source OCR engines available. Combined with a HoverCam document camera, it can read a wide variety of image formats and convert them to text. From that point, the digitized document can be read back to the user with Text-To-Speech.

How to use Tesseract OCR

In HoverCam Flex, you can get the best results from Tesseract OCR by scanning dark uniform letters on a white background with a font size of 10 or greater. Be certain to crop your image to just the text and try to avoid pictures or symbols. Once digitized, click on the audio symbol at the bottom of the screen to activate your computer’s Text-To-Speech.

The HoverCam allows you to record video with your annotations on top. The robust annotation software features mean many schools which do not have interactive white boards take advantage of similar technology without spending additional funds.

HoverCam Flex Annotation Software includes:

-Free form line drawing on top of live video

-Formatted circles and squares

-A mask to hide portions of the screen

-Change colors

-Alter transparency

-Quickly erase all of your annotations

-Type text on video with different styles of fonts

-Draw arrows and pointers

In combination, you can achieve many interesting effects. For example, if you wanted to highlight text in a book, you would use the line tool and alter the transparency so that the words beneath the line could be seen. If you wanted to give an impromptu quiz, you could mask answers on a test and erase or delete the mask annotations to reveal the correct response. When teaching geometry, simple shapes and vectors are a breeze – and you save paper.

Best of all, the annotations in HoverCam Flex work fluidly with HoverCam’s smooth digital zoom. In other words, as you zoom in or out with your mouse wheel on your image, the annotations scale appropriately to match.

This is a brief demo video of GradeCentral assessment software developed exclusively for use with the HoverCam document camera.

GradeCentral uses the HoverCam as a bubble sheet scanner. When coupling the HoverCam with the accompanying software, the GradeCentral hardware and software are effectively a “Grading Machine”.

GradeCentral Assessment Software Demonstration

Students can mark their answers with regular 2HB pencil on paper sheets or use dry erase marker on reusable plastic sheets. Our patented “AnswerKeepers” work with dry erase markers but are specially treated to avoid the glare caused by laminated pages.

This is how it works: A teacher or student drops his or her answer sheet beneath the document camera one sheet at a time. Motion detection software recognizes that a new sheet has been placed and grading begins. Recognition happens within seconds. The name of the student is played audibly by GradeCentral to confirm his or her identity. The teacher has the ability to intervene and over-write any of the automated grading at any point. Grades are generated and entered into a grade book immediately. Grades can easily be exported via spreadsheet to any Student Information System. It is a highly compatible and simple solution for schools looking to increase efficiency.

Click here for more information on the GradeCentral Assessment Software offered by HoverCam.

We have a new HoverCam phone number!

New HoverCam Phone Number

Toll Free Customer Service is 866.201.2058 and Toll Free Technical Support is 866.201.2056.

If you require tech support, the quickest response is from submitting a ticket on our website here.

As always, please take advantage of our Knowledge Base for self-help. We also have a large number of tutorial videos for you to watch at your convenience.

If you would like to place an order or need a quote, feel free to call our customer service line. This is also the best line to call if you need advice on which HoverCam would be best for you.

If you would like to fax over a purchase order, please use this number: 858.357.9945 or email it to sales@thehovercam.com

This is a call for feedback from our users. What do you think of augmented reality in the classroom? Do you use it? If yes, how?

At the HoverCam, we have been debating back and forth if augmented reality is the next big innovation or a passing fad. Tell us what you think, if only to settle our debate for us.

The Catapult feature in HoverCam Flex is a quick and easy way to get a scanned image into another program. First, take a scan. Then, left-click on the image and move it to the corner of the screen. HoverCam Flex will automatically reduce itself. Continue left-clicking as you place the cursor where you would like for your image to appear. Unclick the image. The image should drop in where you have positioned the cursor.
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The moment HP bought Palm for $1.25Bn, I thought it was a waste of money. Leveraging a lackluster OS to fight Apple did not bode well. Last night, news broke out about HP hitting the “cut” button on its PC group. Where is it going to be “pasted” is still a mystery.

It is almost sad to see an iconic company like HP to suffer such fate. Apple all but single-handedly delivered the blow to HP. Was it the sleek design of Apple hardware, the power of Mac OS, or the iPhone/iPad iOS that killed the giant? I’d say it’s the latter, along with the half million apps for iPhones and iPads.

Like it or not, software is increasingly taking center stage. A product as simple as a document camera can become great due to its software. The software is often more important than most people think.

Dozens of companies in China can make a cheap document camera quickly. Electronic components are increasingly being commoditized at an ever increasing rate. Dozens of companies will be delighted to fill the void left in HP’s absence. However, even the most meticulous Apple knock-off’s are yet to put a dent in the popularity of the iPad or iPhone.

To a lot of people, the HoverCam is an affordable document camera. We do not want “inexpensive” to be mistaken for “cheap.” We created a USB camera in order to leverage the software. In the past years, a lot of technology advances in software have taken place, yet, not a lot of educators can readily benefit from it. I see the HoverCam as a change agent to bring affordability and rich functionality to our classrooms.

In the weeks to come, we would like to share more short postings like this one about the software features of the HoverCam that matter to educators.

Ji Shen is the CEO of Pathway Innovations and Technologies, Inc as well as the inventor of the HoverCam document camera series.