This post renders the one below out of date, and in effect, a rubbish method to go about turning your projector setup into an interactive whiteboard.

My new setup uses… the Wii remote (which is Wiimote if your not in Europe)! So here’s how it works, the Wii remote is next to my projector, and is connected to a computer via bluetooth (if you want to connect yours, enable bluetooth on your computer, press the red button on the back of the Wii remote, and search for devices on your computer – the Toshiba bluetooth stack seems to work well for me). I then run software called Smoothboard (www.smoothboard.net) that turns the Wii’s IR camera into a HID (human interface device). This then means that I can use my IR pen (from www.irpens.co.uk) to control my computer – and can I just say this creates an AMAZING interactive whiteboard experience. Once it’s all connected, I do a 4 point touch calibration to map the corners of the screen to the IR camera so it can respond correctly to wherever I place my pen. It’s just as good as most commercial ones, and costs a LOT LESS. It’s also surfaceless in the sense that I can take my netbook, projector, and Wii remote anywhere with me and set up an interactive whiteboard – at home now it projects simply onto a wall.

The software Smoothboard is good. So is Johnny Lee’s Wiimote application, the original developer of the Wiimote project. However both of these lack any drawing programs – and Microsoft Paint fails for this type of task. Never the less I did write my own program, which is extremely basic at the moment, so its not worth publicizing, however I might in the future. I called it WiiDrawPC. A program you might like to try is Linktivity Presenter which is also good, as it lets you annotate your screen. Ideally I’d like a free suite of software similar to Promethean’s ActivStudio, which we use on the majority of whiteboards at school, but thats only for their hardware.

Overall I have an extremely functional interactive whiteboard. One small problem; the board is too big for me – I’m about an average height for a 15 year old, but I have to stand on a chair to 1) complete the 4 point touch calibration and 2) interact any higher than half way up the screen, lol.

UPDATE: Here’s the video I said I’d do.

There are loads more on YouTube, including a number of insanely crappy setups whereby they use a monitor instead of a projector, which = fail, however enjoy my real setup!