User

28.12.2007 01:19:55

If I have understood properly using the wiimote with RB means having a fixed IR source and moving the remote. Is it possible to adapt this situation so that the remote is fixed and the IR source moved so as to create a cheap interactive whiteboard of the kind demonstrated by Johnny Chung Lee?

( http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~johnny/projects/wii/ ) 

User

29.12.2007 01:39:07

Thanks for asking.

I've seen the stuff done by Johnny Chung Lee before and was impressed 
with what he's come up. I certainly would possible to adapt Remote 
Buddy to support such experimental setups, but I don't believe there 
are enough users out there that are ready to build such a setup, 
including building their own hardware (strong IR "pen" that can be 
switched on and off, too) and are ready to accept the limitations of 
such a setup (you may not stand in front of your pen and thus had to 
write "from the side") as that I could justify to invest the time in 
the development of such a feature when my development schedule is 
already totally packed (with stuff that almost all Remote Buddy users 
will directly benefit from) for many, many months to come. Sorry.

Best regards, 
Felix 

User

29.12.2007 15:03:32

No problem. I wasn't asking for anything to be done - just wondering if it were possible. I may start playing around sometime in the New Year. I am guessing that it is just a matter of flipping top & bottom and left & right. That way when the 'pen' moves down it is as if the wiimote tilted up. I thought it unlikely that this would be possible as I could not imagine why anyone would normally want to do it! I may just try putting a lens in front of the wiimote to invert everything and see if that works. Cheers. 

User

02.05.2009 18:38:51

Felix,

I understand your hesitation in adding whiteboard-ing features to RB, but I also think you are overlooking a significant potential market. In elementary and secondary education where whiteboards are often used, many schools can not afford the technology but technology savvy teachers would gladly adopt an inexpensive alternative, even with it's shortcomings.

One and a half ago when this question was first posted, it was true that there was a significant amount of "homebrew" needed to get a system up and running. That isn't necessarily the case anymore. IR pens are now available ready made specifically for this project.

http://irpensonline.com 
http://infraredpens.com

The biggest stumbling block for now is the lousy software available on the Mac side. The java based wiimote whiteboard is very flakey and because it requires a bit of a hack to pair the wiimote over BT I can't really recommend it.

It might be time to reconsider your position and then possibly even actively market the solution to the education market...

My $.02

Thanks

Last edited: 02.05.2009 18:39:07

Last edited: 02.05.2009 18:40:59