Brainstorm breakthrough: Introducing Mimio's digital flip chart

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Brainstorm breakthrough: Introducing Mimio's digital flip chart

Bill Machrone
Contributing Editor PC Magazine
Tuesday, January 30, 2001

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I've been a long-time fan of Mimio's original product, which has suction-cups on to the edge of a white board and records everything you draw--text and graphics.

Mimio's ultrasonic sensor tracks the movement of colored markers equipped with tiny transmitters; each identifies itself so that color tracking is accurate. Resolution is good enough to read even small printing, and an add-on optical character recognition (OCR) can capture all but the worst writing. The hardest part about using Mimio is remembering not to erase mistakes with your fingers, but to use their eraser.

Virtual Ink's Mimio flipChart makes it even easier, because you don't erase when you use a flip chart. The device captures everything that you do, and you tell it to start a new page by simply pressing a button.

You can then print the pages, in color, if you like, and distribute them to meeting attendees. You can also post the notes on a Web site or email them. One of Mimio's many cool features is the ability to play back the file, stroke by stroke, as it recorded the writing. So even if you weren't there to see the way a page came together or how the arrows were drawn, you can get a sense for the flow of the diagram or the points made.

Mimio calls this "stroke over time" recording, and it's a winner.

Virtual Ink's Mimio flipChart is a winner, too. Our review has more information and pricing. Read PC Magazine's Review of the Virtual Ink Mimio flipChart.

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