For people wanting to have an interactive whiteboard but don’t have the money, has found the solution. Using a Wiimote, he can track an infrared lightsource (like an LED) and use that to control the mousecursor. I tried some software on the Mac and the PC, and I actually got both to work without too much trouble. The infra-red pen Please note that you need some kind of Infra-Red emitting device. In my first tests to see if the software works, I used a TV remote. This is a bit clunky, so next on my list is to build a simple infra-red pen this weekend.
I noticed a lot of people building infra-red pens by directly connecting an LED to a battery, which will possibly ruin your LED very quickly because there’s too much current running through it. An LED is a diode, and it needs to be limited in current. The only right way to do it is follow. Whiteboard app on the Mac: I was amazed about how well this worked.
HID Wiimote is a Windows Device Driver for the Nintendo Wii Remote. It enables the Wii Remote to be used as a native Game Controller. Download HID Wiimote 0.3.0.3. Feb 5, 2008 - February 05, 2008. Icon by Francisco Cardoso Lima. This program allows you to use the Wii Remote (Wiimote) to turn any surface into a Low-Cost Interactive Whiteboard. Download (1.0.3). Cross-platform Java version Mac.
I was expecting a lot of experimental stuff, but instead, this is all you have to do: • Download by Uwe Schmidt. • Enable bluetooth on your mac. Teechart 7 serial lookup. • Start the WiimoteWhiteboard.app • On the Wiimote, press buttons 1 and 2 simultaniously to put it in “detectable” mode. If the Wiimote was already on, you may need to press the red button in the battery compartment. • After pairing is complete, press the “calibrate” button and follow the instructions. I did these steps on an intel Mac mini and it worked beautifully.
You can pair up to 2 Wiimotes to increase reliability. Whiteboard app on the PC: This is slightly more work, but does not include steps which are strange to regular Windows users: • Download and install the • Download Boon Jin’s for Windows. • Install the.Net framework, and unpack the smoothboard zipfile in a convenient location. It has no setup.exe (thank god) • In the system tray on your Windows, right-click the bluetooth icon, and choose “Add a Bluetooth Device” • Click the “My device is set up and ready to be connected” checkbox. • Press the red button of the Wiimote (in the battery compartement) to unpair it from anything else and get into “detecable” mode.
• Click the “Next” button in the Wizzard • Select the “Nintendo RVL-CNT-01” device and click “Next” • Select the “Don’t use a passkey” radio button and DON’T press “Next”. • Press the little red button on the Wiimote again, so that all blue lights start flashing, and then press “Next” on the wizard. • In the tray, you should now see popups saying “Found new hardware” and something like “New HID device”.
They will dissapear after a while. If the popups did not show, start the whole process again from step 4. • Press “Finish” in the Wizard, notice that the Wiimote keeps flashing all the lights. • Start Smoothboard. The Wiimote should stop flashing, and you can click on the “Calibrate” button to start the fun. I’ve tested the Windows setup on a Dell 530 laptop with the built-in bluetooth device, and it works fine, although I did have to reboot once because the bluetooth stack got confused and refused to detect my Wiimote. Smoothboard also allows you to pair 2 Wiimotes to improve reliability.
It also has many features which are tailored to controling Powerpoint and other software, but I haven’t tried that yet. I want share with you a very intererestring tool to be used with the wiimote whiteboard Ardesia enables you to make colored free-hand annotations on your computer screen, record it and share on the network.