Wiimotes and Plasma Screens
August 10, 2009 by Richard van Dijk
Filed under Featured, Hardware, Recent News, School
It may not be pretty but this is the modified TEK irpen that we have used for making a plasma screen interactive. The reasoning behind this came from having to put a wiimote in a year one classroom and the projector giving an image that kids would be too short for. So with a slight modification of the pen (we found that the glass on the plasma screen was too reflective in this case for an accurate reading) we were away. As you can see from the photo below the boys found it easy to use and were happily using the big computer monitor to write on ( they are playing echalk).
I guess I will have to add an update to this after a few field trials but we like the idea and with the price of Plasma screen so low at the moment it is a real option for class and hey there are no shadows. Just the thing to complement those Dell Latitude 2100 netbooks $1,046 NZD for a touch screen. Or $1500 for a Samsung 42 inch plus $400 for a wiimote kit hmmm I guess it’s lucky I already have a laptop.
now we’re talking!! Just got a screen for each pair of rooms at school (42″LG mounted on a good stable trolly for $1600) and this would be fun to have a play with. We have gone for bluetooth mouse and keyboard (both Apple ones so small etc) and they work really well.
This gives us much of the same functionality as an IWB for well under $2k. Much of what is really cool about IWB’s is the software … but with what is essentially a 42″touchscreen at this price the arguement changes a bit.
How have you sussed the wiimote for this? Keen to follow up with you at ULearn if not before
cheers
Greg
Hi Greg The wiimote works fine we just had to make the IRLED point directly back at it which was not to much of a modification. Yes the apple bluetooth keyboards and mice are great in the classroom and give a fair bit of the functionality.