I’ve recently discovered a really cool, free program for giving presentations. It’s called the WiiMote Whiteboard, and it can be found here.
Here’s the basic premise. The WiiMote is an infrared camera that can detect up to four IR sources at once. In addition, it communicates with the Wii (or any other device) through Bluetooth. It probably should have surprised me that someone would have figured out how to make it work with a PC and an infrared light.
The thing that I love about this device is that it gives legitimate competition to the Smart Board. In time, we’re probably going to find the cost of the smart board (and other devices like it) coming down more and more until they are within a reasonable price range. For $40-$60, you can get a large degree of interactivity.
The image above shows the WiiMote, a basic microphone stand, and two IR pens. The pen on the right is the ghetto-rig that I created for about $5 using an IR LED, a momentary switch, a battery case, and LOTS of electrical tape. The pen on the right is the professional pen that I purchased for about $30.
If you want to see more about it, check out this video. Also, by all means, make your own setup and post a video about it.