Jeffrey Brabant Advisors : Steve Harrison, Deborah Tatar,
and Laurian Vega
ABSTRACT
We are developing and evalua7ng interac7ve teaching tools
HOW IT WORKS 5 These are the IR LEDS that the WiiMote tracks.
using the Wii hand controller. The controllers for the Wii gaming
1 2
We use two standard IR LEDs which can be
tracked by the WiiMote from over thrity feet
away.
console are ubiquitous not only as a gaming device, but as a The WiiMote has a lot of sophis7cated hardware
for it’s rela7vely cheap price. For our purposes
“hackable” interface for physical interac7on. We have iden7fied we have mainly been focusing on it’s infrared
a variety of uses for them in classrooms as “clickers” or as a camera. The camera senses IR light and uses
hardware to track up to four points of IR light.
remote pointer to draw on a virtual screen from 50 feet or as It’s interface provides the x,y center point The WiiMote can be paired with a computer
means of detec7ng whether people are paying aHen7on. This coordinates for the IR sources on it’s camera over Bluetooth. This is how a computer
project developed a prototype mul7‐Wii pointer and is conduct screen and also the radius of the light source.
3 program can retrieve data from the WiiMote
basic usability evalua7ons on them in a classroom seKng. The and figure out where it’s poin7ng.
By placing IR LEDs below a screen we can tell
evalua7on looks at small groups (less than 8 students) tasked where a WiiMote is poin7ng by looking at the
loca7ons of the IR LEDs on the WiiMote’s
with agreeing on routes on a map. The project is in partnership camera.
with the Innova7on Space (formerly known as the New Media
Center) that has offered us development space and a classroom A computer runs the soWware which takes the
to 7nker with if we need it data from the WiiMote ,interprets it, and
4 4 decides what to do. Our programs all
communicate with a projector which allows
users to visually interact with a screen.
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Thanks to my Advisors ue
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The computer connects to the projector so that
Steve Harrison, Laurian Vega, Deborah Tatar, and Bill 5 output from a computer program can be
displayed. This is how we envision the WiiMote
being used in a classroom seKng.
Plymale from the Innova7on Space.
1
WHEN ZOMBIES ATTACK
Prior WiiMote Projects Remote Annota7on
This project allows a user to draw on a computer screen or projected
Last semester we developed several applica7ons for computer screen using a wiimote. The user can point their wiimote at
the computer screen and a cursor will show up where the user is
the WiiMote to determine possibili7es for it’s use in poin7ng. The user can press a buHon and start drawing lines. Up to 8
the classroom. We also wanted to test it’s limita7ons. users can currently draw at one 7me, but this limit can be increased.
This project is ideal for in class slide shows. Students can use their
wiimotes to draw on a slide show which would help them more easily ask
ques7ons. Students could also answer ques7ons posed by a professor.
In the event of a discussion students could indicate parts of the slide
show they want to address while talking.
Poor Man’s White Board
This project consists of a apparatus that maintains a wiimote’s exact posi7on facing a piece of paper. The posi7on of
the wiimote has been calibrated with the soWware so that the movements of an IR light pen on the piece of paper will
be recorded by the soWware. The apparatus serves to keep the wiimote in the same posi7on rela7ve to the piece of
Affinity Diagram Interac7on
paper so that there is no soWware calibra7on necessary. This project allows mul7ple users to move around colored blocks on the
screen. The blocks are supposed to represent ideas or objects, they are
The point of this project was to demonstrate that students could use a wiimote to create real handwri7ng input. The different colors and different sizes. You can create new blocks but the
hope was that a professor could have a presenta7on going and ask students a complicated ques7on that could not be point of the program is to demonstrate that mul7ple users could all work
easily answered by verbal communica7on. The students would be able to get out the apparatus described above and together to group the blocks.
could write with fine detail the answer to the ques7on. In fact the apparatus is just as easy to use as a pen and paper
We are currently conduc7ng a study to collect data from the use of WiiMotes in a class room seKng. We and records wriHen input in very good detail. This project could be used with one student or mul7ple students. For One applica7on for this program would be an affinity diagram where
hope to determine if our system is easy to use and also look at how students collaborate in a classroom instance if the teacher wanted students to collaborate on a difficult problem the students would be able to pick an area mul7ple users group all the notes they have taken into conceptual groups.
when given WiiMotes. on the projector’s screen using a wiimote where they wanted their input to display. They would then aHach the This program demonstrates the collabora7on capabili7es of the wiimotes.
wiimote to their apparatus and use their IR pen to draw the input they want to show up on the professor’s screen. It allows many people to collaborate together to accomplish a task.
For the study there will be a group of eight students broken up into four teams of two. The scenario is Mul7ple students could do this at the same 7me and they could collaborate to solve the problem. It would be easy to Grouping objects together with a group of people would be much easier
that students are at the duck pond when all of a sudden Zombies aHack. Students will be asked to explain see what everyone else was thinking and drawing. using the wiimote.
and indicate with annota7ons what they would do and where they would go from the duck pond. AWer
each group explains the ac7ons they would take to avoid Zombies, they will be asked to explain and
cri7que the ac7ons of the other groups. A map of the Virginia Tech Campus will be displayed on a
projec7on screen. The students will be able to use WiiMotes to draw on the map and point at it to explain
their ac7ons.