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Smart bomb technology may disrupt the classroom
19 April 2012
DALLAS–Semiconductor and sensor technology used for years to guide precision bombs and cruise missiles is making its way into the hands of teachers–for peaceful purposes.
Penveu, a mobile wireless technology from a unit of Interphase here, this week announced its first product, intending to disrupt the $1.8 billion interactive white board market.
The handheld penveu is a tear-drop-shaped device that users hold in the palm of their hand as a remote-writing device or wireless mouse. The disruptive angle in penveu does not require its own special project or screen. (Here's a link to a video demo of the technology). 
Where interactive white board solutions can cost $7,000 and above, penveu (at least for teachers) costs $499. Users can manipulate or capture any image projected on any screen or backdrop. It works in part because the technology — including a small control module that ties into a laptop and projector — embeds hidden targets on the screen, which are invisible to the human eye but not to the penveu device.
The 4-ounce device (6.2×2.1×1.2 inches) is built with a host of components once stitched together to guide smart missiles, Solomon said. His design includes
+12 accelerometers
+ Three gyroscopes
+ DSPs
+And a sophisticated optical and visual system to tie everything together.
The portability and low cost of the device are what Interphase vice president and Texas Instruments veteran Yoram Solomon thinks will disrupt the white board market in school systems. Fewer than 10 percent of the country's 31 million classrooms currently have interactive white boards, according to penveu. The larger conference room market potential is hard to accurately gauge.
"We are the occupy movement of the classroom," Solomon said during our stop at his offices earlier this year.
We agreed to hear about the technology if we would honor the company's embargo on the announcement, held this week at the Demo event in Santa Clara, Calif.
Here's Solomon discussing penveu during our visit in February:
Ahmed April 23, 2012 at 4:50 pm
Wow. These high tech gagets are popular. I've got orders for 50 of these from a customer in Iraq. I'm also getting interest from a customer in North Korea as well. They must want to upgrade their education systems.
matthew stephenson May 23, 2012 at 6:02 am
exactly what i was thinking
mike five April 24, 2012 at 9:22 am
Funny, but will probably come true.
Rich April 24, 2012 at 9:46 am
Awesome to see another productivity boosting use for miltech.
Of course, they are *not* any kind of "Occupy" movement though – if anything, his company is a great analogy of a Tea Party movement for the classroom.
Democratization (decentralized power given back to the individual presenters) of productive tools by inexpensively bringing the power of new technology to re-establish the authority of the foundation of the classroom (the process of teaching facts) while making the technology itself transparent to the process.
And simultaneously setting themselves up to create jobs, create private wealth for their shareholders, and expand the economy!
(That, of course, is the direct opposite of the "occupy" movement for government theft and redistribution.)
JLinstrom April 24, 2012 at 10:23 am
Thanks for the B.S., Rich. Occupy has stated no demand for gov't theft and redistr. ASAIK, but hey, what are facts to a patriot?
Fed up with those in charge making good bank while the country flounders and refusing to cooperate or step down when it is obvious they couldn't create jobs with a gun to their heads (not a bad idea…) – that's about all I get from their words, but since you know in your heart they have a legit gripe with current conditions, pull a repug and put false/rude/repulsive words in their mouths so we can reject them. Can I do that to you?
Jimelectr April 24, 2012 at 11:57 am
Good point, JLinstrom; we can't figure out what the Occupy 99% bozos want. They were just out there in front of my workplace this morning saying "We will not go away" on their signs. So what? Also Justice for Janitors were there, whatever that is. Gotta be lazy union pukes. We on the right side of the aisle are fed up too, with jerks like Obama making bank by introducing a trillion $ socialized medicine plan when the economy is in shambles!
Interphase deserves the highest praise for putting miltech to an educational use. They just created a bunch of jobs right there. I'm going to see if we can get a demo to use at work. Could the penveu be reverse engineered to give terrorists smart bombs, like Ahmed implied? Maybe. It's probably a lot harder than it sounds.
Gotta go; got work to do.
William Ketel April 24, 2012 at 8:40 pm
The presentation was interesting but I don't think that I saw an actual demonstration of the thing, (system), at all. It certainly does sound like a game changer, though. Now I wonder how long before Mictrosoft does one of their ripoffs on the technology and comes up with a "sort of similar" device that is quite buggy. Of course, I would like to see this device actually working, and get a description including a few more details.
Robert April 24, 2012 at 11:07 pm
WHAT A CRAPPY AUDIO
SHAME on the engineers that did it.
Crappy crappy crappy low level audio
can’t be heard
volume is too low
FIX IT ! ! and don’t do it AGAIN
Jimmy May 6, 2012 at 12:30 pm
Thanks for the contsrtuctiive criticism. =/
Niels Poulsen April 25, 2012 at 1:49 am
If it was true, I shure would buy one.
When/ if — will it be true.???
person1597 April 26, 2012 at 1:19 pm
Gosh, I personally, invented the first digital whiteboard. So that, and the tips my kid earns waiting tables ought to keep me off the streets another day.
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Patrick April 19, 2012 at 5:40 pm
Does this work with Macintosh and iOS?