Low-Cost Multi-touch Whiteboard using the Wiimote (2007) [video] | Hacker News Reader

Low-Cost Multi-touch Whiteboard using the Wiimote (2007) [video]

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49 pointsjstrieb11 comments

I love this project. In high school I started a group in my school district to collect or buy the remotes and install these in teacher's classrooms. We installed over 200 of them! Back then there was a healthy community online of people porting the software and building and selling the infrared pens. I learned to solder for the first time turning dollar store plastic pointers into infrared pens. The best setup was to use a 3D printed clip to mount the remote to the drop ceilings in the classrooms- this made it more difficult for a student or teacher to obstruct the camera while using the board and made it harder for someone to accidentally knock the remote which would then require the teacher to recalibrate (a process involving tapping targets at the boundaries of the projected screen).

heh -- I did the same thing. I also got an old projector from a teacher and would run a whiteboard wall in my bedroom and do wall-sized photoshop. That was fun. Thanks for the memory :D

I used to think that remote whiteboards (e.g. Google Jamboard) were a no-brainer investment for distributed development teams. Especially in the early stages of software design, where (traditionally) crowding around a real-world whiteboard has proven very productive.

Now I'm not so sure. It seems like some ad hoc communication can be switched to a scheduled-presentation format, which allows the presenter to create online slides / diagrams. Pro: the presenter may think through his/her ideas more before soliciting feedback. Con: less spontaneous discussion, and harder for others to present alternative ideas.

Anyone have thoughts on this?

I've been working remotely for 4 years, and there is still a need for whiteboarding, but most of us end up having a whiteboard in each office, and either point our cameras at it, or take a picture. It's way less collaborative, but most of the time it works fine.

Our team had the same issues and we decided to build this app as, at least, a partial solution: ShareTheBoard.com

It works particularly well if you're already accustomed to using real whiteboards (and it sounds like you are). Would love some feedback, if you get a chance to try it.

"Interactive whiteboard" / "smart board" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interactive_whiteboard

Wii Remote > Features > Sensing: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wii_Remote#Sensing

.. > Third-Party Development describes a number of applications for IR/optical tracking with an array of nonstationary emitters: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wii_Remote#Third-party_develop...

Augmented Reality (AR) > Technology > Tracking: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Augmented_reality#Tracking

... links to "VR positional tracking" which does have headings for "Optical" and "Sensor fusion": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VR_positional_tracking

Discussed at the time:

Low-Cost Multi-touch Whiteboard using the Wii Remote - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=89048 - Dec 2007 (18 comments)

Here is his TED talk, too: https://www.ted.com/talks/johnny_lee_free_or_cheap_wii_remot...

He (Johnny Lee) also worked on the Kinect.

If anyone has seen the “Pictionary Air” game advertised and sold, this is how it works but using your phone camera instead.

When I originally saw that game I wondered how they could build it so cheap until I realised it was just an LED on a plastic pen.

This is how I would have liked the Leap Motion thingie to work.

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