Simple Tool for Teachers - Web-Based Document Camera, Annotation Tool

[mswhite29INL]

Hi all,

 

I just wanted to share a new project I’ve been working on that might be useful to schools, teachers, and education....

There are a few options already around but for fun, I thought I would try and make a online visualizer tool. I've hosted it at VisualizerApp.com

 

What it does:

• Connects directly to webcam/visualizer and no software installs are required.

• Live feed with zoom, rotate, brightness, and contrast adjustments

• Freeze Frame feature to pause and annotate on the image

• Annotation Tools: Pen, text tool, undo, save annotated images

• Split View mode to show live and frozen images side by side

• Capture photos and Record videos directly in the browser

• Focus button for webcams that support autofocus control

• Mobile and desktop friendly

• Hosted securely with HTTPS, optimized for speed and low bandwidth

 

Please try it and feedback, it's work in progress but has been fun to build out!

[dhicks]

4 hours ago, mswhite29INL said:

https://visualizerapp.com/

Ah! Perfect! I made something similar (but more basic) a while back:

 

https://www.sansay.co.uk/pi-view/

 

But not as many nice, handy features as yours - I was thinking I might re-visit it at some point, but now I don't need to bother 🙂

 

Is your project free and available for a school to download / self-host on their own servers, just in case they have any privacy concerns about where any data might be being kept? Similarly, a simple data projection / privacy section explaining how it works and what data is stored would be a good idea for schools / corporates with a data protection policy. I'm guessing it's all client-side any no data gets sent to any server, but something explaining that would be handy.

 

Our science department were asking about visualizers the other day, I can point them at your app, most handy.

[Sanchez]

I've been looking for something like this for use with our Chromebooks. Will definitely be trying it out with staff.

Edited April 27, 2025 by Sanchez

[timbo343]

We use Yawcam but the picture is grainy. Then my tech found this - https://us.ipevo.com/pages/visualizer - which is free however we've had to reghack it a bit to get it working smoothly.

 

VisualizerApp.com looks to be the better all rounder and would be interested to hear about where the data is being transmitted back to - if any.

 

Also, if there is an option for a PWA or a local install that would be really handy.

 

Definitely useful with Chromebooks and those staff using the HUE cameras.

 

Will VisualizerApp.com be free forever? Usually webapps like this are free to start with then a subscription model is soon released.

[mswhite29INL]

Hi all, thanks for the quick replies!

This is just a web-based project, but I could create a ZIP file so you can run it on your own web server, or even from a file share. I might also convert it into a Chrome extension if needs be.

Good point about privacy, I'll add a privacy notice, but just to be clear: no data is sent to any server. It's a very basic HTML/JS webpage.

Also, this is just a fun project, so there’s no warranty or guarantee. If people use it, I’ll keep improving it to make it better and more robust.

If you have one of their cameras, the best online app is:
https://apps.ipevo.com/pwa/visualizer.app/

 

Many thanks!

[dhicks]

On 27/04/2025 at 19:08, mswhite29INL said:

If you have one of their cameras, the best online app is:
https://apps.ipevo.com/pwa/visualizer.app/

Honestly, I think I prefer yours 🙂 A couple of comments / niggles:

 

- If you zoom in, you don't seem to be able to move / drag to change the zoom-ed area, which would be handy.

- Also, if zoomed in, annotation input isn't scaling, so if you try to annotate while zoomed in the input point is offset from the cursor.

- We mostly use all-in-ones (or laptops) with built-in cameras. If I add a second camera and try your app I sometimes seem to get a permissions error message, possibly the app is not able to see the second camera? Sorry, I haven't tested that issue very well, I'll try and have a go with a few different cameras.

[mswhite29INL]

ok thanks I will try and sort these niggles. I've not tested as much as I need too and feed back is always better from other people. This was just a fun project/thing I was trying to code with the help of AI. The permission thing should be sorted now.... hopefully.

[chris_uk]

On 27/04/2025 at 15:19, timbo343 said:

We use Yawcam but the picture is grainy. Then my tech found this - https://us.ipevo.com/pages/visualizer - which is free however we've had to reghack it a bit to get it working smoothly.

 

What reghack did you make?

[dhicks]

14 hours ago, mswhite29INL said:

The permission thing should be sorted now.... hopefully.

 

Ah! Great, thankyou. I was doing some testing yesterday and it turned out we had a duff USB camera / visuliser, which was causing some confusion. Replaced with a working one, I'll try and get some feedback from the maths department who will be using them.

 

14 hours ago, mswhite29INL said:

This was just a fun project/thing I was trying to code with the help of AI.

 

It seems to have worked well! What AI system / tool did you use?

[mswhite29INL]

Hi it's a mix really... ChatGPT, Grok, and a little bit of Claude. They're all good for certain things...  I find these days ChatGPT goes a bit wonky and tends to break things once you scale up. Grok seems the most reliable and Claude I have only just started to use.

[timbo343]

On 30/04/2025 at 07:34, chris_uk said:

 

What reghack did you make?

 

Found HKCU\Software\IPEVO\Visualizer and there were 3 REGSZ entries in there.

 

I have created a new GPO for this software and told it to create a registry entry for the location and add a REGSZ entry for

 

- eula_accept_version with a value of 3.6.6.0
>> this stops the terms showing.

 

- lastTimeCheckUpdate with a value of 638766189116918606
>> this stops the would you like to check for updates.

 

- SnapCaptureOCR_Promo_FirstLaunch with a value of False
>> this stops the message about upgrading to pro.

[dmj]

58 minutes ago, timbo343 said:

 

Found HKCU\Software\IPEVO\Visualizer and there were 3 REGSZ entries in there.

 

I have created a new GPO for this software and told it to create a registry entry for the location and add a REGSZ entry for

 

- eula_accept_version with a value of 3.6.6.0
>> this stops the terms showing.

 

- lastTimeCheckUpdate with a value of 638766189116918606
>> this stops the would you like to check for updates.

 

- SnapCaptureOCR_Promo_FirstLaunch with a value of False
>> this stops the message about upgrading to pro.

Nice. Break the EULA and then hide it so nobody notices you broke the EULA.

[Gonk]

That's a really nice piece of work, I'm unashamedly going to be recommending it for use!

 

 

[mswhite29INL]

Hi all,
I've made some more updates and tried to improve reliability. If you give it a try, I'd really appreciate any feedback! here is the site: https://visualizerapp.com/

P.S.  This is a different thing but might be useful, If you're using touchscreens and need to test for rogue inputs, I have created a tool for that (https://mousetester.uk/rogueInput.html). We had a large interactive screen at work that kept causing issues, this tool can help identify which part of the screen is triggering the input/false touches.  

 

Mat

[dhicks]

On 18/08/2025 at 21:43, mswhite29INL said:

I've made some more updates and tried to improve reliability.

 

I had a quick try just now on my work machine, but couldn't get it to pick up the integrated camera. It did pick up my HDMI/USB adaptor, though. I'm on an older Mac running ChromeOS, so probably something of an edge-case for compatability, although I did try on my own web page and it picked up both cameras okay.

[mswhite29INL]

Hi.... If anyone reads this, I’m planning to put together a better version of this visualizer app, focusing on camera detection, camera issues. Someone also asked for improved iPad support, so I’ll work on that too. If you have any other suggestions, I’m more than happy to shape and add features to the app as needed to help people.

P.S. I’ve also made another little tool mainly for this page: https://avtester.com/speaker-test.html  It lets you test speakers remotely (for our school hall) away from the laptop. It was a fun side project, but it might be useful to someone else too. again made with the support of AI.

[mswhite29INL]

OK, there’s now a V2 of the app.... still very much in beta thing, but it may be useful in some situations. This version lets you use a wireless remote camera (like a mobile phone/iPad) with your laptop.
Under the Hardware dropdown, choose Camera → Connect Phone (Wireless).
I may add a low-bandwidth mode if people find the video freezes. Also the switch Camera mode  (button) now works.... with the iPad back camera!

 

https://visualizerapp.com/

[timbo343]

Question, does your app also read the AverMedia cameras because we had to install the crappy AverMedia software for a member of staff. It would have been great to use the same platform / app even if we only had to install the drivers for the AverMedia camera.

[Primus]

13 hours ago, timbo343 said:

Question, does your app also read the AverMedia cameras because we had to install the crappy AverMedia software for a member of staff. It would have been great to use the same platform / app even if we only had to install the drivers for the AverMedia camera.

We've been using Camera Studio (we're mainly ChromeOS) with Aver cameras, it looks like it works on Windows too - https://camerastudio.app/

[timbo343]

1 minute ago, Primus said:

We've been using Google's Camera Studio (we're mainly ChromeOS) with Aver cameras, it looks like it works on Windows too - https://camerastudio.app/

Perfect thank you.

[dhicks]

13 hours ago, mswhite29INL said:

OK, there’s now a V2 of the app....

 

Perfect timing - a bunch of our teachers have just bought USB document cameras, I'll point them at this.

[mswhite29INL]

Hello to anyone interested.... I just wanted to say that I’ve now spent a substantial amount of time working on Version 2 of https://visualizerapp.com/. It might be bad but I like geeking out on this type of thing, AI is amazing now!

 

I’ve added some interesting features, although some people may see a few of them as a bit gimmicky... depending on how they look at them. It now includes a Resources tab with quick access to Open Library, so you can pull in publicly available books. There is also a looped recording mode for creating a short 20-second demo that can be left repeating in full screen.

Most of my testing has been done on my MacBook in Chrome, and it seems to work well there, and also 1 windows laptop and 1 Chromebook. However, if anyone finds issues on other device types/browsers and would like to use the software, please do let me know. Many thanks for reading!