Wiimote Whiteboard

Introduction

As of June 2008, Nintendo has sold nearly 30 million Wii game consoles. This significantly exceeds the number of Tablet PCs in use today according to even the most generous estimates of Tablet PC sales. This makes the Wii Remote one of the most common computer input devices in the world. It also happens to be one of the most sophisticated. It contains a 1024x768 infrared camera with built-in hardware blob tracking of up to 4 points at 100Hz. This significantly out performs any PC "webcam" available today. It also contains a +/-3g 8-bit 3-axis accelerometer also operating at 100Hz and an expandsion port for even more capability. These projects are an effort to explore and demonstrate applications that the millions of Wii Remotes in world readily support.

What is Wiimote Whiteboard? 

It is low cost interactive smartboard. Since the Wiimote can track sources of infrared (IR) light, you can track pens that have an IR led in the tip. By pointing a wiimote at a projection screen or LCD display, you can create very low-cost interactive whiteboards or tablet displays. Since the Wiimote can track upto 4 points, up to 4 pens can be used. It also works great with rear-projected displays.

What will you need? 

1) Software

The calibration and mouse cursor emulation software is available for you to download and try yourself. Note: My mouse emulation code isn't perfect. If any of you are programmers and can get it working with Alias Sketchbook, drop me a line.

1. Connect your wiimote to your PC via Bluetooth. If you don't know how to do this, you can follow this tutorial. 

2. Download the Wiimote Whiteboard sample program. Please read the "READ ME.txt" file first! Make sure your wiimote is connected via bluetooth, and then run the ".exe" in the main folder. NOTE: Good placement of the wiimote is key to good tracking. View the README for more info.

2) Hardware

• A Nintendo Wii controller

 

• Infrared LED

 

• A USB to Bluetooth adapter (if your laptop do not has built-in Bluetooth adapter)

 How to set it up?

The hardest part of this project was actually getting the wiimote to communicate with the PC effectively. First, open an area called "My Bluetooth Places". Make sure your Bluetooth device has been activated.

 

Then click "Add a Bluetooth Device" in the left menu.

At this stage, you need to put your Wii controller in pairing mode so your PC can find it. Do this by holding down the 1 and 2 buttons at the same time. All four LEDs at the bottom of the remote will start to flash. Once the controller is in pairing mode, pressed Next.

 

The PC has detect the Wii controller. Select it from the list of found devices and clicked Next.

Many, if not most, bluetooth devices require a security code to pair. The Wii controller does not, so you just clicked the Skip button to continue.

 

A list of services offered by the newly discovered bluetooth device is listed. The Wii controller is detected as a generic HID device (Human Input Device). Check the box for that service and clicked Finish.

 

Now your Wii controller show up in your list of devices with a double green arrow overlaid to signify that the two are paired.

 

Using a downloaded test program, you could verify that the PC is detecting your Wii controller properly. Select your unit on the left, and then set Mode to "Wii Remote with Motion & IR".

In this shot, hold down the B button (trigger button on the bottom of the Wii controller). It shows your battery status, as well as motion data grabbed from the controller in real time.

Now that there's a solid connection to the Wii controller, it's possible to move on to the Wiimote Whiteboard, also free and downloadable. 

For hardware positioning set-up, put your Wiimote about 45 degree from the screen, then you are pretty much ready for your session.

 

For further understanding, I'm recommending you to watch this video.