Improv Electronics Boogie Board brings the chalkboard into the 21st century

When we hear "paperless LCD writing tablet" our mind starts racing, but unfortunately the new "Boogie Board" tablet from Improv Electronics is more of an update of the chalkboard than anything. The unit is based on a power-free reflective LCD technology (similar to the technology in Fujitsu's Flepia readers), with 50,000 erase cycles, and you can draw on it with anything that can apply pressure (stylus, finger nail, blunt trauma). Unfortunately, it ends there. There's no connection back to a computer. Sure, not bad for $30, and for people who draw often and are tired of their dry erase board or burning through reams of paper it makes sense, but for anyone who draws something they'd like to keep they're likely going to have to look elsewhere.

[nerdherd Posted Jan 22nd 2010 3:37PM]

It would be nice to have one of these in my home office. No need to search for a dry erase marker or an eraser! Of course having only one color would be a tradeoff. Price is better than I would have expected.

[nerdherd Posted Jan 22nd 2010 3:41PM]

@nerdherd I just looked on the manufacturers site and saw the dimensions are 8.8 x 5.6 inches...hmmm...useful still, but not as much as I thought based on the picture. It looked a little larger than a regular piece of paper to me, but I guess I shouldn't be surprised.

[Dking7 Posted Jan 22nd 2010 3:37PM]

maybe this is a iSlate killer?
(I know it is not out and so on, but this is just a joke)

[unwynd Posted Jan 22nd 2010 4:10PM]

@Dking7 on value for money, maybe!

[whereiswaldo7 Posted Jan 22nd 2010 3:39PM]

"The watch battery will last for 50,000 erases" -giz

so that's 50,000 per watch battery. not just 50000 erases.

And I see this catching on. Right now.

[Wally Posted Jan 22nd 2010 3:41PM]

I will be buying one, what for i don't know. By the way engadget this was posted around 11.40 am on giz, a tad late aren't we?

[statelypenguin Posted Jan 22nd 2010 3:41PM]

Yeah but Tech Crunch said this beast would only be $30. For $30 consider me extremely impressed/interested.

[statelypenguin Posted Jan 22nd 2010 3:42PM]

@statelypenguin I guess you said that too. I wish I could read.

[jjrudey Posted Jan 22nd 2010 3:42PM]

I want my sheet of paper to do this so i don't get black pencil stuff all over my hand.

[Ringu Posted Jan 22nd 2010 3:43PM]

The battery is sealed: when it runs out, you throw the whole board away.

[tineras Posted Jan 22nd 2010 4:16PM]

@Ringu I'm sure plenty of people will figure out how to replace the battery on their own. This kind of device is begging to be hacked.

[Ringu Posted Jan 22nd 2010 5:30PM]

@tineras I completely agree: I know I'm getting one, and I'll be hacking the thing :-)

[Monkeytofu Posted Jan 22nd 2010 3:44PM]

Can we get a video? This is really interesting but there is not one video online of this in action. Even on the product's own website :/

[lightmaster Posted Jan 22nd 2010 3:45PM]

think that this thing is very useful especially in the design when it is necessary to do a sketch or something, to capture the form, image. http://xtas.ru

[Faceless Troll Posted Jan 22nd 2010 3:46PM]

I remember when this was called Magna Doodle.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3237/2400763770_2be0470bdf.jpg

[thespacecowboy Posted Jan 22nd 2010 3:56PM]

I love it already has 5 reviews on amazon, and only one of the people has actually used it!

Now, if they can scale this up to a dry erase wipeboard side for $100 - I'm in.

[midiwall Posted Jan 22nd 2010 4:31PM]

Yeah, and two of those comments start with "I was able to test this product at Ingenuity Festival in Cleveland last summer"... Sounds like an automated "enter your comment as you leave the demo" app.

Also, you can't actually buy one and have it shipped in the US. Very weird.

[orangedog Posted Jan 22nd 2010 4:53PM]

Isn't Boogie Board a name already trademarked by Morey for their body boards?

[MattLondon Posted Jan 22nd 2010 5:24PM]

Anybody remember the Magna Doodle from the late 80's?

It could do this, and it didn't have that few milliseconds lag that took away the feeling of natural drawing.

[gerrrg Posted Jan 22nd 2010 6:38PM]

@MattLondon

But Manga Doodle didn't have pressure sensitive touch to create wider or narrower lines, and you can't use everyday objects to mark the Magna Doodle as you can with this device.

There is a downside, however...you can't selectively erase. It's either the entire board or none.

[cosmicinglewood Posted Jan 22nd 2010 5:25PM]

Yes, and removes the opportunity to huff the fumes from the white board pens :) The whole ink, pen, chalk rhyme is out of time, now its time for a digital rhyme for digital times.

[gerrrg Posted Jan 22nd 2010 6:29PM]

THAT is unbelievably freaking awesome! :O

[engadget fanboy Posted Jan 22nd 2010 7:06PM]

This would be infinatly more useful if it included a microSD slot and a button that saves a JPEG to the card. Then you could import into some OCR software and use it. This would also be awesome as a full size blackboard.

[Rocketboy Posted Jan 22nd 2010 8:37PM]

I guess I'm just old and crusty, I cannot see a single damn reason that this isn't worthy of the Crapgadget tag.

[Stengo Posted Jan 23rd 2010 10:22AM]

From what I have read so far it doesn't seem like it will ever be possible to capture the screens content, as it most likely isn't a calculated picture, but rather the product of changing the state of those bistable crystals inside by adding pressure.
This would also explain why they would not have implemented this core feature.

sry for my english, I am not a native speaker

[JS Posted Jan 23rd 2010 12:37PM]

@Stengo

That's what your camera phone is for.

[Stengo Posted Jan 24th 2010 9:46AM]

@JS
Despite the fact that this is a mayor workaround of the problem everybody will be facing, in my case this all time available camera would be that of an iPhone 3G, which, of course, means I am screwed for several reasons

[vasr Posted Jan 23rd 2010 1:12PM]

The BoogieBoard is back in stock on Amazon. I picked up 2 to hack... I mean test.

[y0Lbow Posted Jan 23rd 2010 5:11PM]

Seems pointless

[BrentK Posted Jan 25th 2010 5:20PM]

@Steve P Jobs

Then you fancy yourself a great artist?

[sandysue Posted Feb 22nd 2010 10:15AM]

$30 is a great price only if you could replace the battery and could save your messages to recall. I have heard Improv is working on new boogie board that does exactly this so messages can be transferred to a computer. Doubt the price will be around $50 which would be great. Am amazed they can use the name boogie board. I am sure we could of thought of something better - Flash note.