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This program allows you to use the Wii Remote (Wiimote) to turn any surface into a Low-Cost Interactive Whiteboard. It is based on Johnny Lee’s original WiimoteWhiteboard program that is written in C# and available for Windows only. My program uses Java to allow for (some) platform-independence. I also provide a Mac-only version since I’m a Mac user and this is, up to my knowledge, currently the only such program for the Mac. For Windows only, Boon Jin has enhanced Johnny’s software and created the shareware program Smoothboard. There is also a SourceForge project that provides other implementations, but it is not getting much attention.
Check out the video and the other cool projects at Johnny Lee’s page if you have no idea what I’m talking about 
.
Features in a nutshell
- Open source
- Runs on Mac OS X, Windows, and Linux
- Simple User Interface available in English, Estonian, French, German, Indonesian, Italian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Slovene, and Spanish
- Camera Monitor and Calibration Details for better Wiimote placement
- Auto-connects up to 2 Wiimotes
- Right-click support, double-click assistance
- Mouse cursor smoothing
- Screen selection
- Touchpad Mode
- Update notification
- TUIO/OSC support for multitouch applications
More details in the Wiki.
Download (1.0.3)
Some example videos
Documentation & Support
You can post your comments, bug reports, feature requests, etc. at the bottom of this page. The latest documentation is available in the Wiki. You can also find out how you can help.
The wiimoteproject.com forums are a great resource for everything Wiimote. You may use this subforum to discuss everything related to my software. The Smoothboard Wiki also contains useful information for setting up your interactive whiteboard.
Infrared pens
You need a source of infrared (IR) light to use the software. Many people build their own IR pens for that purpose, usually by retrofitting some sort of marker. You’ll find all you need to know here. I started with a simple IR pen made from a battery clip.
There are also IR pens for sale if you don’t want to build one yourself. Several vendors sell different models, the IR Pen marketplace is a good place to get an overview.
You can use the coupon code uwe if you buy from IRPensOnline.com. This will give you a discount of $2 and I’ll get $1.
Compatibility
I only heard of few problems on Mac OS X, using the built-in stack. I also got reports from users who got the program running on Windows using either the Widcomm or BlueSoleil stack. It seems like Widcomm works better, see this post about BlueSoleil. You need to use the BlueZ stack on Linux, see the Wiki or this post for further instructions.
Issue on PowerPC Macs (excerpt from the WiiRemoteJ-README):
Note for Mac OS X PowerPC (PPC) users: you will have to delete the Wii Remote from your previous devices list in System Preferences->Bluetooth->Devices after each connection (every time you connect a given Wii Remote). Even then, the outgoing connection will still fail every other time. There is some sort of bug relating to HCI devices and Apple’s library. Luckily, it was fixed for the Intel Macs.
Further details can be found in the Wiki or the help files bundled with the application.
Yeah, your Application rocks! It works fine, real plug-and-play ^^ The only problem on my macbook with osx 10.4 is, that the distance in which it works is very short. I user a standard Remote LED, but thought it was to weak, so I tried also a brighter IR-LED but without better results
It also works only, if I point the LED directly to the Wiimote, but not indirectly while pointing the LED on a beamer-projectet Screen.
But thank you annyway for this great port to the mac. thx!
LEDs are usually the brightest straight ahead. But for IR pens you’re often interested in brightness on the sides of the LED.
To improve this I sandpapered the tip and around the LED to make the light stay in the LED so it appears more like a bright dot instead of like a torch. I can recommend it.
Hi,
really like your application, I`ve tried (sir) Johnny`s and another version gtkwhiteboard in windows, and your`s has the best response by far, nice and smooth yet its doing what you ask! tricky getting the bluetooth going, as the stack that makes glovepie work for other wiimote features, your app doesn`t like, and the stack your app likes, glovepie doesn`t! i`ll figure it out…. anyway
I am trying out the other apps to see the differences and the windows version gtkwhiteboard has a `touchpad` feature that i think is most the most usable i`ve seen so far for left clicks/dragging, and I`d love it integrated into your version.
I`ll describe it as best i can:
1 short click (i.e short flash) = left click at position (good for buttons and links etc.)
click and hold (sustained light) = move cursor only – same as mouse mode.
short-click quickly followed by click-and-hold = left click drag (left click mode)
on release it resets.
in practice this is very intuitive and would be sooo good in your version as the tracking is so much smoother! This is my feature request, I am no programmer but shouldn`t be too tricky i would hope?
the author also added options for zones and stuff to do different things but i`ve not tried those.
Would appreciate any response on this and do hope you can see it as a benefit.
I intend to use this system using clear perspex on a stand as my screen to control music apps/fx/midi in studio and live use – beats having your head buried in a laptop or mixer etc. should give a visual aspect i hope is bit different.
thanks again. do consider the request!
Ben
Hi Ben,
I will consider your request but I’m not promising anything.
Sorry for the late response,
Uwe
Ben,
What’s the point of “move cursor only”.
My wishlist: the pressure pen…
By the way, in TabletDraw (good to draw with WW) the eraser tool don’t work. Suppose its the “pressure pen” problem…
Francisco
One example where move cursor only is important is for mousing over, for example a link or file or icon in the dock without clicking on it. Also, in presentations to draw attention to something on the screen without actually clicking on it. Using the dock with magnification turned on is another example. I’m sure I could think of others as well.
Of course!
And the “short-click quickly followed by click-and-hold” seems to be simple too. Would be nice if this (and other) combinations were in the prefs panel.
Thanks
Wiimote Friends:
Running WIN XP Pro, Widcomm Internal
Johnny Chung Lee’s Application works perfectly!
Using same IR Pen (Vishay TSAL6400) & Wiimote (didn’t move) with your application I connect fine, if I point my pen at the wiimote a IR-Blob is detected and tracked.
However, when I write on the whiteboard it cannot detect IR-Blob.
Simply no problems connecting, but using the pen the same way I do with JCL’s app doesn’t work on yours??
I love your pen smoothing and connectibility functions so I’m really keen to get it working.
Ben
Try restarting Uwe’s version various times.
Do you mean open & close a few time???
Ben
Yes.
Uwe,
Thanks for at least considering the request, I do feel it does make navigating through and around programs more natural, even if its an option that would be great.
the `mouse move only` (to those dubious of it), i found handy to track the mouse pointer visually across the screen to get to smaller buttons etc. ( when moving from one part of screen to next etc) and also if youre using the software as a tablet and not touchscreen. other benefits have been mentioned.
a click to then push any buttons and the `short and long` to left click-drag is what i found particular nice to use.
you could have a try on the gtkwhiteboard version that has this for a few min to see what you think in practice if you like:
http://fuelnatchos.webng.com/gtkwhiteboard/
it`s not as nice when drawing as the smoothing is not on a par with yours but I did like the click model.
I`m not an advocate of that version or anything just thought trying it out is easier than me talking about it! if thats ok.
had my nephew and niece drawing away on my laptop screen over the weekend went down a treat!
cheers
Ben K
I saw Johnny’s Vids about a month ago and was looking for a mac version for so long. Thanks
Uwe & Friends
Opening & closing works but is not a long term solution (takes time and is spiratic at best). I love this app, It is essentially an end user application, rather than Johnny’s which requires more than basic computer skills.
Are there any Windows gurus working on this problem, http://www.wiimoteproject.com has updated Johnny’s code to do the smoothing but it still does not replicate the quality and usability of yours and requires extra apps for right click and is problematic in bluetooth conectivity.
Ben
There is also C# mousepad code published by Etienne Lamy that you could look at. One key benefit of the move only function is that if your pointer is slightly offset because of bad calibration, you can move the pointer exactly over a button. A single click (short single flash) should not move the pointer before clicking, it should just do a button press. This is how the trackpad on my laptop works. I think it would be a very handy mode when you’re using software on the screen, rather than drawing.
Congratulations again on your great work developping the best implementation of this idea.
Oliver
I am having problems with double-clicking. I think this must be a problem inherent with the accuracy of the program and my unsteady hand, but it takes me several tries to double-click anything medium-small (a small dock-icon or file icon in finder). My double-clicks are usually read as 2 single-clicks, because my hand has moved slightly during the brief moment.
What can be done to deal with this?
Good point Descalzo!
is more important than the “Move cursor only”.
In my opinion, this subject (not ‘a problem’ but sometimes exasperating, specialy with stressed hands
“Move cursor only”, and other ways do deal with pointer, are interesting as prefs. This “Double-click” issue is a basic function!
Perhaps would be nice to have the opportunity to check a box saying something like:
“Act as ‘double-click’ with 5 pixels tolerance”…
Hi Ben,
I’m sorry, but Bluetooth (particularly in combination with Java) isn’t that stable and mature. The Wiimote library I use (WiiRemoteJ) also needs to be updated in order to incorporate some of the newer discoveries about Wiimote communication.
I also just do a quick test on Windows XP before I release my software. The entire development is done on a Mac…
Uwe
Hey guys,
for now try setting the Mouse movement threshold in the preferences to a value like 5 or so. It will decrease the mouse accuracy but may help with double-clicking. I’ll think about some better solution for the future.
I currently don’t have a ton of time…
Uwe
Uwe
Respect to you!
I understand you are a Mac programmer so any support for us Windows suckers is greatly appreciated.
Ben
This is the resulst of an incompatible bluetooth device, see this list for further reference!
http://wiibrew.org/index.php?title=List_of_Working_Bluetooth_Devices
However that list is obviously not the one and only, there might be other devices that work or doesn’t, but if you wanna be a 100% sure get one of the devices listed as working, I personally got a Simcom 521 and it works like a charm on Vista with Bluesoleil.
Hope that helps!
Hi Uwe
You are awesome. I spent some quality time reading through this webpage, and I am very impressed with your work, as well as you commitment to principles. And your dedication to your users!
I went down to radioshack, built an IR pen, and tried out your software, which works great. I am a tinkering! It is so fun. Thanks for bringing this joy to my living room.
I, like half of your users, am itching to find a way to give up my mouse entirely. It seems this is a Hard Problem.
A perhaps cumbersome solution (just to prove that it can be done):
- One wiimote directed at the screen
- A second wiimote directed at a pair of offscreen IR LEDs
- A IR pen that has 3 buttons: 1 for a local IR LED, and 1 each for the 2 offscreen LEDS (connected either by wire or by some wireless method)
- The whiteboard software then can obtain information for all the main type of mouse actions: MOVING, RIGHT clicking and LEFT clicking. MOVING works by moving the LED on the pen and tracking (already implemented). RIGHT and LEFT clicking is done by tracking the ON/OFF state of the two offscreen LEDS.
A lower tech version of the above: tape the 2 offscreen LEDS to the bottom of your monitor / whiteboard, below the viewing surface, use one WIIMOTE and sacrifice a little extra resolution.
There of course must be a more elegant version of this, but the sooner the better.
Thanks again Uwe
Daniel
Hey all!
Does the application actually run on Mac with TUIO?
Uwe wrote on 9 March: “I couldn’t get any multitouch Flash apps to work on Mac OS X though.”
I tested it on a G4, but the puzzle only works with one pen.
On my vista pc I have a lot of troubles with the bluetooth connection and I haven’t made the application to run, yet. (with 2 bluetooth dongles and widcomm, bluesoleil drivers testet).
Hi Daniel,
thank you for your kind words
It seems like the current left & right click implementations are not good/fast enough for you to replace the regular mouse. I assume you want two extra buttons on your IR pen for left & right click, and I agree that it would be more convenient.
In my opinion, the basic problem with your idea is that it requires a more complicated setup, raising the (technical) level for the inexperienced user. I assume that even the lack of off-the-shelf IR pens is preventing some people from getting started with the Wiimote Whiteboard. Commercial distribution of IR pens would solve the problem if the community could agree on a reference design.
There has been some discussion about using Pulse-width modulation for detecting right clicks and even pen IDs, also proposed by Johnny Lee. However, I’m not aware of anyone who has done this yet. The problem is also that it requires more complicated IR pens, no way for the average user to build (which leads us back to selling IR pens).
The problem I see with your idea in particular is that it requires extra wires or wireless transmission to the off-screen LEDs. Wires are just not practical, and why not directly transmitting to the computer if already using wireless?
My proposal: Buy a cheap wireless mouse and use it exclusively for clicking. Or dissect the mouse and put the electronics into an IR pen. Add two buttons to your IR pen and use them to trigger the left and right mouse buttons on the mouse’s electronics. This is obviously not trivial to do but has the advantage that it doesn’t require extra software on the computer.
Uwe
Hi mcclane,
I got them working after all, see this previous post for more details. Make sure you add the flash app to the list of trustworthy locations.
I assume the puzzle game just used the regular mouse input. In case TUIO is working, you should see some colored dots in the puzzle game where the IR pen is pointing at.
I’m don’t even think it works on Vista out of the box. If someone knows more about that, please let us know.
Uwe
I got the application to work on Vista running on my Dell XPS 1330.
Short version;
Follow the steps of the ‘UnCrippling Bluetooth in Vist (RTM)’ (at your own risk as usual) and install the Widcomm (now Broadcom) 5.1.0.1100 driver(s).
Longer version;
I intially tried Lee’s version, which failed.
The ‘List of working Bluetooth Devices’, as also referenced here
http://www.uweschmidt.org/comment/253
mentioned the ‘Dell Wireless 355 Module with Bluetooth 2.0 + EDR Technology’ as being supported.
As far as I can tell the 355 Module installed in my Dell 1330 laptop is de DCM_2045 (the 2045 is the frequency in use I guess).
So I d/l-ed the newest drivers from Dell (of july 7 2007; R140135.exe) and installed then.
As long as I removed and re-added the Wiimote everytime I started Lee’s app it seemed to work.
I say seem to work because I hadn’t (and haven’t
finished my IR-LED-Pen yet so I tested it holding the LED connectors to a battery pointing at my laptop screen.
And then I came across Uwe’s version.
Many kudos as this is right up my alley, being a senior Java developer.
So I tried to get it to work…. and failed.
No matter what I tried, be it re-adding the device, using buttons 1&2 or the red one at the back, or even the 6.x and 5.x BlueSoleil drivers, the app would either timeout, or throw a stacktrace telling me it could not connect.
So after some hours restarting, un-re-de-installing, re-syncing and messing up the installed driver suite quite a bit, I came across this message;
http://www.uweschmidt.org/comment/162
and low and behold, after following the steps the application found the Wiimote no problem.
The steps basically mean deinstalling the bluetooth driver(s), making sure they don’t automatically reinstall themselves and then installing the Widcomm 5.1.0.1100 driver/stack.
Unfortunately Lee’s app doesn’t really seem to like the new drivers, but for now I won’t test that any further.
Next step(s);
In the mean time (as sort of a distraction for all the re-de-un-installing) I started working on creating a sleek(er) IR-LED-pen using my IR-LED and battery.
Although I didn’t get in bed till 4:30am, I didn’t get it quite finished, so I wasn’t able to test the pen with the application yet.
Hopefully I will be able to finish it tonight.
Who cares about the Dutch team playing @ Euro 2008, right ?
I’m fairly content with the pen so far and it’s really just the last step that needs to be taken (hooking up the + side of the battery and closing the pen).
I’ve made pictures of every step so far and will put a short manual online once I’m done.
One secret I can already reveal is that I just happened to have a set of
‘Papermate permanent markers’ of the W10 series lying around which I think are perfect;
- The tips allows a 5mm LED to be slipped from the outside-in and has a base on which it then rests.
- The tip is detachable from the holder
- The back end of the tip allows for installing a micro button switch
As said; more later.
For now; thanks again Uwe for keeping me awake most of this weekend
Anne.
Ok, so I did see part of the game
But I also had a (good) idea on how to solve the + battery-terminal-connection-challenge and was able to finish v0.02 of my IR Pen.
Follow the link for an explanation of what I did.
http://www.skipspeedracing.com/misc/irpen/
Constructive comments are appreciated
One minor improvement to go…
Anne.
Hi Uwe,
it’s me again. I still got the problem that the puzzle doesn’t work with two pens
I did the following:
- started the wiimote application
- started flosc (tried the older version from your post and the latest version)
- started the puzzle (tried the .exe and .swf in browser and standalone flash player)
And I added the PuzzleGame.swf to truthworthy locations in flash player settings
What did I do wrong? Could you please describe your procedure you did to get the puzzle work?
By the way, the application now works on vista
Special thanks to Anne.
mcclane
I also have tried it with bluesoleil and get the “wiiRemote failed to connect! Not supported on bluesoeil”. It may be a problem with the code if you did not first have the code refresh sevices and then connect instead of pair.
Just an idea.
yeah, i just got this, and i got the same message about bluesoleil…
what else can i use instead of bluesoleil?
i just got a USB dongle and don’t know much about bluetooth yet….
i can connect wiimotes to it and my cell(not important)
get the message:
“WiiRemote failed to connect!
Not supported on bluesoleil”
in the background it shows:
”
WiiRemoteJ: found Nintendo RVL-CNT-01
WiiRemoteJ:Nintendo RVL-CNT-01 is a WiiRemote.
WiiRemoteJ:….forget here…
WiiRemoteJ:Error getting device
”
I’m running BlueSoleil version 3.2.2.8
and i just downloaded the java wiimote whiteboard software today, whatever version that is….
any help?