SMART Mixed Reality
A good few weeks ago SMART released an update for Notebook. We’re now up to 10.8 and plenty of new features have been added to this version to make it worth while updating.
Firstly, if you have a SMART Document Camera ( and you’re running Notebook on a PC) then you can get excited about the free trial for using their Mixed Reality system. I wrote about the development of this tool about year ago here. When you upgrade you’ll notice that you have a whole heap of 3D objects that you can use on your screen. By coupling this with a Mixed Reality cube and SMART Document Camera you can control the way you are seeing the object. Placing the Mixed Reality Cube under the camera allows it to act like a controller. When you move the cube so will the image on the screen. It’s not quite Augmented reality as we’re using the code to control the image rather than to add it (Augment it) onto the screen but it does give the sense that you are physically in contact with the object being displayed.
Interestingly, the video below does seem to demonstrate something a little closer to Augmented Reality than the recent “how-to” sheet suggests. I’m waiting for a call back from my pals at Electroboard to see whether there’s something I’m missing. I’ll comment if I find anything new out but at the moment, my understanding from the documentation (linked to below) is that you need to put the 3D object from the gallery onto the board first and then download the cube to control it.. I hope I’m wrong. It would be soo much cooler to just put the cube under the camera and have the object appear!
If you have the document camera and you want to play then you’ll need some more information and objects.
- Instructions on how to use the Mixed Reality System can be found here
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“To increase the contrast between the mixed reality cube and the background, you can use the mixed reality target matt” – Download this here
How to Update Smart Notebook:
Open Notebook and head to your “Help” menu. Choose “Check for Updates” and follow the prompts.
If this does not work you can download the file from Smart Tech directly, run the application and follow the prompts.
Here are the key new features you’ll find in Notebook 10.8
- 21 New language packs for handwriting recognition:
| Albanian | Basque | Catalan | Croatian | Estonian | Gaelic (Ireland) | Gaelic (Scotland) |
| Galician | Icelandic | Latvian | Lithuanian | Macedonian | Malay | Maori |
| Romanian | Serbian | Slovak | Slovenian | Swahili | Ukrainian | Welsh |
- Internet Explorer will now connect with Notebook when you’re downloading a .notebook file. You will be prompted to either ‘open’ or ‘save’ the file. This was removed in 10.7
- A whole host of 3D objects have been added to the gallery. They’re great! You can rotate them 360 and swivel them back and forth. The update for the gallery is very big as result – so definitely don’t choose to update this between lessons. You’ll need recess at least to download the new resources!
- A new item has been added to the main tool bar - a direct link to SMART Exchange. It’s there to remind you to visit and to share the resources you are creating
- They’ve also added a “Share on Smart Exchange” option in the File menu.
- There are some new image optimization options now so that when you bring in a picture or use the camera snapshot tool you can choose to optimize the image and reduce pixilation – handy when you want to zoom in. This also means that any images of a larger file size will have their size reduced – making your .notebook files smaller and easier to store on your network or memory stick.
- MAC users now have the transparent mode that appeared in the Windows version in 10.7 as well as the auto-hide option on the tabs.
More detailed notes are available here from the SmartInclusion WIKI
