Friday, December 21, 2007

Wiimote Finger Tracking -FAQ and Adv Discussion

A lot of very smart people have written in questions and suggestions and I think a lot of them are very clever and worth sharing... and I'd like to add some of my own expansions on what I showed in the video. Like they say, 2 brains are better than 1.... it turns out several thousand brains are even better. This post will be REGULARLY EDITTED to add new ideas as they come in. I know it breaks the RSS model, but I don't want to make a new post for every new idea. Sorry.
------------------------
LED arrays from security cameras - online stores sell IR LED arrays for night vision security cameras. These should work perfectly for the wiimote.

Gloves
- gloves exactly like minority report are definitely do-able and probably a good idea for repeated use.

LEDs on fingers - instead of tape you can use LED lights and do this without the LED array. But, you effectively create IR pens similar to the WiimoteWhiteboard demo which means batteries on the glove too.

Pinching with thumb and forefinger - the wiimote does upto 4 points. So both left and right thumb and finger could be tagged with reflective tape or LEDs. The software needs to be smart about maintaining the correct association and recognizing pinches, but very do-able.

Tagging a wiimote and knunchuck - getting the spatial location of another wiimote and knunchuck using a wiimote and reflective tape is an idea VERY much worth exploring. Now you get bi-manual (two handed) positional input in addition to all the accelerometer data and buttons.

Tracking fingers on surfaces (instead of the air) - unless it's a rear projection surface, the tape will be facing the wrong way... though you might be able to put the tape on the back of the fingers and figure out some method of triggering input. That said, it'll probably work well on a rear projection surface. You may need to offset the view angle of the wiimote so the support glass/acrylic won't retroreflect the light back to the wiimote. Alternatively, use active LED points.

Tagging objects on tables and projection- combining this method of tracking with projection is VERY powerful. This is essentially a field of research called Augmented Reality and will likely the be subject of a future video.

106 comments: