I was at the annual conference of the Israeli Knowledge Management Forum and saw a presentation of a very neat tool, from one of the seemingly countless small startups we have in this country whose creativity never ceases to amaze.

The company is Streamitup, and its product is a complete learning delivery solution based on capture of classroom lectures and their delivery to students on demand at a later time via computer. This in itself is nothing unusual; we see it on YouTube all the time – and it is usually as a fuzzy distance shot of the speaker and the washed-out projection screen that leaves much to be desired. What makes Streamitup so impressive is the fact that the system serves as a Virtual Video Cameraman. You place a camera in the classroom, facing the whiteboard, and the software takes care of all the judgment-intensive actions a human camera professional would do throughout the lecture: zooming and panning to follow the lecturer as he ambles about; showing the content written on the whiteboard; showing any stuff the speaker is demonstrating; and capturing any slides and applications straight from the speaker’s computer.

To illustrate: If the professor writes long lines of text or formulas on the board, the camera will automatically follow him – but with a carefully calculated timing and framing, so what he wrote (and left behind him to his left as he moves to the right) remains visible and legible in the video frame. The output is a navigable composite of the lecturer, the slides, the materials, applications and voice, all in perfect synch and ready to consume by future learners.

Very cool technology!