Interesting Site

Check out this link. There are some great looking resources for those wanting to help their students to get comfortable using the wiimote whiteboard system.

Fun and games

One fun way to help your students learn how to use an interactive board is to encourage them to play games. There are literally hundreds of possible examples, but one that is always popular is "Fridge Magnets". Essentially it is the same as putting a whole lot of different magnetic letters on your whiteboard then getting your students to move them around to make words. It's a great programme to have up on the board as students come into a classroom at the start of the day and we're sure that they will enjoy creating words and phrases.

http://www.sandfields.co.uk/games/fridge/fridge.html

Whiteboard placement

One position for the whiteboard that does not work well with the wiimote system is where there is a window either above or alongside. Unless you can block the sunlight, the wiimote will probably pick up too much stray infrared light. Of course, if you use SmoothBoard, you can easily check if there is stray infrared by using the calibration assistant.

An interesting site

Check out this site which is put together by the Georgia Department of Education. It is full of interesting and useful links in several different curriculum areas. Definately worth a look!

Permanent power insert

We note that a couple of other sellers are now offering mains power options for the wiimote. This is good as the only way to usefully set your wiimote up permanently is to mains power it.

However, it is worth noting that the 3pi insert is the only purpose designed and built option available. Using a rebranded rechargeable battery insert for this purpose is looking for trouble in the long term - they are simply not designed to be permanetly plugged in and the low quality batteries in them are a hazard.

SmoothBoard 1.6 is Awesome!

We are continually impressed with the work of Boon Jin and his latest version of the SmoothBoard software is no exception! SmoothBoard 1.6 comes with an outstanding feature that he has called 'SmoothConnect'. Once installed, all the user has to do is click on the desktop icon, put the wiimote in discoverable mode, and the software does all the rest. This feature moves the whole wiimote interactive whiteboard system onto an equal footing with other commercial products.

The only catch is that SmoothConnect is configured to work with standard Microsoft Bluetooth. Boon Jin has done this because of the very wide range of Bluetooth software in the market which all have their own particular requirements. The easiest way to ensure your computer is using the Microsoft version, if you're a 'non-techy' user, is to simply plug in a small Bluetooth dongle (pictured above) and let Windows find and install it (sorry Mac users, SmoothBoard and SmoothConnect are written for Windows based computers). 3pi can supply you with a dongle that will work or you can source your own. We are so impressed with this new development that we are now going to add a dongle to our kits so that customers can have the simplest software solution possible. (Our kits include a licensed copy of SmoothBoard with SmoothConnect.)

Cursor jumping around?

If you have this problem, or during calibration the four calibration marks seem to click themselves, it highly likely that there is too much infrared light in the room. When using SmoothBoard, you can easily check this with their calibration assistant. At the bottom of the image to the left, it says, "IR dots". There should not be any number by this until you use your pen. Try clicking on your projected image (with the software running), and look at the "IR dot" count. It should show "1" when you click and nothing when the pen is off. You will also see a little dot on the white tracked area. This dot matches where your pen is clicking on the screen - very handy thanks Boon Jin and SmoothBoard! If there are dots floating about when you haven't clicked, you either need to lower/remove the source of the stray IR light or use the software control panel to turn down the sensitivity of the wiimote's camera. To do this you click on "Show settings", then "Wiimote" after which you can experiment with levels. Earlier posts that we have made on this subject are - Fluorescent lights, Crazy mouse.