PaperTube
A mobile lecture-video studio controlled from a single sheet of paper.
Built on the client's smart-pen technology, the aim was a mobile lecture-video studio for self-publishing lecturers and knowledge creators of all kinds. A more accessible tool — free, portable, easy to use — lets more people bring their knowledge into the social sphere.
The user plays multiple roles during a recording: performing in front of the camera while also controlling the recording behind the screen. Research showed the camera needs to sit roughly two feet away — arm's length — to capture a face and hand gestures. That is a good distance for watching the screen and a bad one for touching it: the body twists, and hitting several buttons quickly becomes hard.
We moved the controls off the mobile screen so everything sits within comfortable reach without interfering with the camera. The PaperTube Controller is a single sheet of paper on the desk: touching it with the smart pen starts and finishes recording, zooms, adds sound effects, changes pen type, colour and thickness.
Picture-in-Picture shows the object the camera captures alongside the handwriting, so the lecturer and the page share one frame.
PaperTube is used by professors, teachers and knowledge creators around the world. Lecturers call it the best tool for recording lectures, for its lightness and simplicity, and it keeps evolving through their feedback.