Well, the Wiimote seems to be the ultimate IR camera with blob detection… at least at some point where we figure out how to capture the data, deal with the battery… ect..

So, for now… I have a SPC900 and have been pretty unhappy with the lense I bought (10 bucks, I didn’t expect much).  I get a LOT of background light.  But I don’t want a multi-touch system that only works at night… and my wife doesn’t like carboard on all the windows (who knew?)

So how about taking the IR cover off the wiimote and using that instead?

Or how about just using reflective tape on your fingers?

Well what kind of visible light filter are you using? That sounds like the problem, not the lens itself. I’m not so sure the wiimote is any better than what we’re already using, that’s yet to be determined I believe. And who knows how the wiimote works with IR in settings with lots of IR around.

Sounds an alright idea. You have a Wii yourself already? If so I would try and dismantle one of the controllers you already have rather than risking wasting money. I have a wii so I might try it myself.

yeah, I have a wiimote I can use.  (and yes, I meant filter, not lense )

Trouble is, leaving for a week for the holidays, and cant test it till I get back.  I was just wondering if anyone tried it.

btw, when you look at the testing screen on the wii, it does an amazing job of getting rid of all ambient light… but that might be great filters in the hardware/software… I’m hoping because it only lets in light at the 880nm wave length…

hopefully, if it doesn’t work, I can put it back together

I just dismantled my wiimote, which was quite difficult as it required a funny shaped screwdriver (which I didn’t have) and after that the damn thing seemed like it was stuck at the front and I felt like I was going to break it. In the end just a bit more force was needed (quite alot actually), which resulted in buttons flying everywhere lol, so if anyone else wants to try this be careful!

In terms of the filter, I’m not sure what type it is, bandpass, high pass, low pass etc. but it did do a good job at replacing the negatives i was using before. I am however still disappointed that it didn’t filter out that much more of the ambient light in my room than the negatives. I think the reason the Wii does such a good job is because instead of “seeing” reflected light off fingers for instance it sees the IR LED’s in the sensor bars themselves.

If I were you I would test the filter yourself and compare it to what you are currently using, but it isn’t as ideal as I had hoped.

Oh well, I guess the search for an ideal filter goes on for me as well. If you do find a filter that does the job would you contact me? Thanks

Well the ideal filter is most always going to be a bandpass filter in the range of your IR LEDs. The reason that wii works the way it does is probably because the IR emitter and receiver are tuned to each other and therefore ambient light doesn’t play a role. The IR filter doesn’t really play a role in this part. It’s basically the same thing as the TV remote; you don’t see ambient light playing a role in how your TV remote operates.

manitislate - 21 November 2007 07:14 AM

Or how about just using reflective tape on your fingers?

Not sure if this has been posted else where, but this person is using a Wii to track fingers

http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~johnny/projects/wii/

indeed, with bluetooth, you could just use the wiimote itself