Calibrating Hints & Tricks

I often hear users complain that they do not get an accurate result from calibrating their IWB.  This article offers a few handy hints….

I can’t say this for other brands of interactive whiteboard, but so far as 2Touch IWB’s are concerned, calibration is always successful if done correctly.  There is no deterioration over time so your 2Touch iwb will perform as accurately after 10 or 20 years, as it did when brand new.

How to calibrate a 2Touch iwb

Check out these links to help you with calibration of 2Touch iwb’s:

2Touch 2102 and 2150 series (supplied prior to October 2014)

2Touch TE106 (supplied after October 2014)

As you can see, calibrating a 2Touch iwb is really easy, and really quick.  You do not need any special software or drivers installed to do it.

Starting calibration

Launching calibration is best done using the calibration button.  This is mounted on the right side of most of the new 2Touch iwb’s, however many 2Touch iwb’s have been shipped with external wiring to an external calibration button.  In this case you’ll need to find it, probably near the upper edge or one of the two vertical edges, or perhaps on the connections wall panel.  Press it once to start calibration (there’s a calibration tone, and the mouse cursor will move to the first calibration position in the upper left quadrant).  To end the calibration process, either complete the calibration (four successful calibration points), or else you can cancel the process and bring the iwb back to normal use mode, by pressing the button again (you’ll hear a calibration exit tone, lower than the calibration start tone).

If you cannot find the calibration button, here’s a failsafe alternative:  Use the keyboard on your computer (connected to the iwb), to press “Scroll Lock” six or eight times in succession.  This should enter the iwb into calibration mode.  Repeat the 6-8 x Scroll Lock to cancel Calibration mode.  (Note – the use of ScrollLock in this way can be changed to another key, but you’ll need our help to do that….)

While calibrating:

No magnets! Make sure there isn’t anything else on the surface of the iwb when calibrating.  Erasers, magnets, post-it notes etc will all be detected as “touches” and will obviously throw the calibration way out.

Clear touch at right angles! Make sure your finger is always perpendicular to the surface.  That means use the pointed end of your finger, not your finger pad.  Ensure that the rest of your hand is well away from the board.  Make sure you do not allow any part of your clothing to come near the board.

Make sure your image is not too close to the top of the iwb

Be aware that the top 40mm of the iwb is no-touch as this is the region in which the optics look right at each other and cannot triangulate accurately.  For this reason the top of your projected image must never be closer than 40mm from the top edge of the iwb (the top of the whiteboard surface).  You can go as close as you like to the other three edges.  If your projected image goes too close to the top of the iwb, your touch accuracy will never be any good: particularly where it counts most around the maximize/minimize buttons…..  Get the projected image lowered down a couple of inches (40-50mm), recalibrate, and everything will come right.

Different cursors

One thing to be aware of is that (depending on how the computer is set up), the cursor may change form when a multi touch device is connected. This depends on whether the OS is primed to work with touch devices as distinct from mouse control devices.  Most commonly in this case the cursor will change from the usual arrow, to become a tiny dot.

When calibrating an IWB connected to a computer which is set up for multi touch reporting, the use of the dot instead of the arrow can cause problems:  You have to be quick to see that dot move to the calibration point….. and depending on the context, it may not be visible when it gets there.

It’s best to calibrate using a context or background colour over which it will be easy to see the cursor.

How long to touch each calibration point?

When calibrating: be aware that every time you touch the screen in calibrate mode, it is recording your touch position and trying to make sense of it.  You need to be firm and precise in your touches.  Make sure that each touch is on the calibration point for several seconds – longer than 5 seconds if you are trying to remedy accuracy problems.  The longer you hold each point (despite the feedback beep ringing in your ear), the better the accuracy gets as the board collects the data samples and averages against past records so the stored data iterates closer and closer to your touch position.  It is not unreasonable to hold each touch point for ten seconds!

If you follow the above faithfully, calibrating your 2Touch IWB will never fail to provide a perfect outcome.