His other project, the Wiimote powered interactive whiteboard, is just as impressive and twice as useful. It turns any projector, monitor, or laptop screen into an interactive display.

Here is an eye-popping video by Dr. Lee giving an example of his interactive whiteboard technology:

After you build the infrared LED pen (detailed later in this post), you can use it just like you would your mouse. Move around windows, draw diagrams, and distract annoying kids by opening Microsoft paint and letting them have at it. It is not only a simple software toy, but it can be immensely useful as a presentation tool.

Connecting your Wiimote via Bluetooth

The first step in both of these projects is to connect your Wiimote to your PC via Bluetooth. You have two choices with this, you can connect using a 15 day free trial of a program called BlueSoleil, or you can trust windows to connect to your Wiimote and handle the connection. I have had terrible luck with BlueSoleil so I used the Windows Bluetooth connection suite. If you choose to use BlueSoleil here is a page showing what needs to be done.

I’m not a fan of trial software, so here is how I did it in Windows:

With the Bluetooth dongle of your choice (I chose a Linksys USBBT100) inserted into your computer, the new hardware wizard should detect and automatically install your dongle. When that is done there will be a Bluetooth symbol in the bottom right hand corner of your screen. Double click it and this screen should come up:

Click on Add… and the Add Bluetooth Wizard will come up. Make sure to click on the option showing that your device is ready to be connected.
After that, hold the 1 and 2 buttons on your Wiimote, this puts it in discovery mode. After the Wizard sees and adds your Wiimote, this screen will pop up:

Double click on the Nintendo peripheral:

Make sure you choose ‘Don’t use a passkey’! This is crucial. Hit next:

And you are now connected with your Wiimote. It will show up in your Devices list and all four blue lights on your Wiimote should be blinking. They will stay blinking as long as it is connected to your PC.
With that over with, 90% of the pain and suffering you will most likely have with this project are over. The first time I tried to do these projects it took me over an hour to connect my Wiimote using BlueSoleil. Finally fed up, I worked out the Windows version you see above.

Materials Required for Interactive Whiteboard

• A Windows computer* with Bluetooth and a monitor or projector
• One Wiimote
• One Infrared LED
• One AA or AAA single battery pack
• Around a foot of small gauge wire
• A pushbutton momentary switch
• Body of a pen
• Soldering gun and solder
• Wire cutter/stripper
• Electrical Tape
• Latest Wii Interactive whiteboard software

*There are some hit and miss issues with Vista. When I did this project I used XP machines; your results may vary.

Creating Interactive Whiteboard Hardware

In this section you basically create something from scratch. It’s a very simple circuit involving a power source, a switch, and an infrared LED.

Here is a preassembled pen light. It shows the simple circuit before it is compacted:

A good place to start would be to solder both of the wires onto the switch:

Then threading those wires into the body of the pen:

And then soldering the LED to both of the exposed wires. Take care to either hot glue or tape one of the terminals so that you don’t get a short circuit:

When that is completed tidy up the pen however you like, but you should have a final product:

Connect your Wiimote to your PC and place it at a distance and an angle that allows it to see all of the whiteboard. Launch the whiteboard program and go through the four point calibration. After that you are good to go!

I hope you have enjoyed this tutorial, if you have any issues with setting up either of these projects please visit Dr. Lee’s homepage and forums. There are a lot of resources there that can help with Vista issues and hardware incompatibility.

Here are some links that may prove useful: Johnny Lee’s Wiimote Project,  Interactive Whiteboard FAQ, Head Tracking FAQ.

His research with the programs are focused on Human Computer Interaction (HCI) and repurposing a Wiimote and infrared LED’s (which act similar to the Wii-bar) to perform head tracking and to create interactive whiteboards. Instead of paying hundreds of dollars for the software and hardware inherent in these two systems, you can create either or both of them for around $50 thanks to the efforts of Dr. Lee.

Head Tracking

Head tracking is usually a luxury reserved for virtual reality researchers and high tech virtual meeting setups in corporate offices. It relies on finding the position of a single person relative to the screen and adjusting the screen contents to give the illusion of looking through a window into a 3-D environment. Traditional setups use sophisticated facial and head recognition software in order to locate the user in the room.

Because of the two dimensional nature of 99.999% of displays in the world, the head tracking induced 3-d effect only works for 1 person, the person whose head is being tracked. Everyone else in the room will not get the same effect.

I could go on to explain exactly how this system works, but Dr. Lee has been kind enough to post a video online explaining exactly what you need to know about how his software works, which is inserted at the start of this article.

Materials Required for Head Tracking

I’ll begin showing you how to create these projects by giving the materials list:
• A Windows computer* with Bluetooth and a monitor or projector
• One Wiimote
• One set of LED safety glasses
• Two Infrared LED’s
• Soldering gun and solder
• Necessary screwdrivers and or wire cutters needed for your particular set of safety glasses
• Wii head tracking software

*There are some hit and miss issues with Vista. When I did this project I used XP machines, your results may vary.

There is a chance that you will need to download and install the Microsoft Visual C# Express Edition in order to get the software to work properly. Also, Direct X is needed.

Creating head tracking hardware

Unfortunately the LED glasses I used for this project are discontinued and the link above in the materials section is for a different set. The basic principles are the same however.

Soldering:

For those of you who find soldering a challenge or have never had the chance to get your hands dirty fusing electronics together, here is a great piece by Instructables detailing what you have been missing out on.

You are going to need to open up the LED section of your glasses:

Carefully take note of how everything is wired, connected, and placed. If you need to draw a diagram to help then do so.

Snip off or de-solder the white LED and solder on the Infrared LED:

Then put everything back in its place and you are good to go:

One thing to keep in mind is this: now that you have infrared LED’s, you won’t be able to tell if they are on or not. A handy trick to tell is to use a cell phone camera on video mode and look at the glasses. Most digital cameras can see some of the infrared spectrum and it will be obvious that you have your lights on and are draining battery.

Now that you have the hardware, all you have to do is connect your Wiimote to your PC and run the software. But before you do that you really should read the readme file included in the zip you downloaded. It tells you that you need to edit a file by inputting the measurement of your screen in centimeters and editing a Boolean value to true or false depending on if your Wiimote is above or below your screen.

Hope you enjoyed this tutorial and will join us next week when we’ll show you how to build your own Interactive Whiteboard.

Here are some links that may prove useful: Johnny Lee’s Wiimote Project,  Interactive Whiteboard FAQ, Head Tracking FAQ.