Using the Wiimote as a Cheap Smart Board

Uber-blogger Will Richards notes that Johnny Chung Lee has devised a nifty hack to take an ordinary Wiimote and turn it into a Smart Board replication device, all for about a hundred bucks.

Although the links to Lee’s pages over at Carnegie Mellon were not working last I looked, the YouTube video where he shows how to do the trick is still up and working on Richards’ site. Some of Richards’ commenters discuss other ways to leverage inexpensive laser technology this way.

In the video, Lee connects the Wiimote to the computer that is being projected, then uses a laser pen to create an instant interactive white board. Besides walls, he demonstrates on a table and a common LCD screen.

Richards attests that educators watching the video get very excited about the possibilities for creating cheap interactive whiteboards on the fly. We’ve seen this appropriation of common videogame hardware for ulterior purposes before, mainly with the military using Xbox controllers to guide robots. These days, gaming hardware is off the shelf compatible with regular computers and software, using standards like USB, and can be repurposed for other things. It will be nice to see more educational uses in the future.

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categories Business Games, Carnegie Mellon, Game Discussion, Game Writing, Making Video Games, Military Games, Serious Games, Simulations, Wii, Xbox | John Rice | datetime December 30, 2007 7:35 am

9 Comments

  • By Deonna W., January 4, 2008 @ 10:50 pm

    You may be interested in the Edusim project as well – http://edusim3d.com — It is an virtual world for the interactive whiteboard – this wii-whiteboard & Edusim would be a fantastic combination for the classroom !

    =====

  • By John Rice, January 5, 2008 @ 12:29 pm

    Deonna, thanks! That sounds very interesting.

    JR

  • By ErymnVirm, October 5, 2009 @ 4:58 pm

    Ok I have never used it and was wondering what everyones thought was on it?
    Do you always get what you pay for?

  • By jacob, December 1, 2009 @ 4:37 pm

    i would just like to have an smartboard.but they are to much money.but i need to teach my kids.what do i need to do?

Other Links to this Post

  1. Mathematics Education Blog » Blog Archive » Using the Wiimote as a Cheap Smart Board — January 5, 2008 @ 8:29 am

  2. Wii-Mote: Interaktive Tafel « Educational Gaming — January 8, 2008 @ 4:39 am

  3. Study: Wiimote Good for Measuring Cognition « Educational Games Research — March 11, 2008 @ 2:27 pm

  4. A Useless Interactive Whiteboard « iThinkEducation.net! — April 3, 2009 @ 2:46 am

  5. Educational Games Research » Projectors with Built-in IWBs — January 19, 2010 @ 5:55 am

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