Ok, so I’ve done some playing around with the Wiimote and my infra-red pens. I added a little code to my mass-spring software so that I had a mouse cursor moving an extra mass around. The idea was that the IR pen could be used to push the mass around so that it bumped into other, sound-producing, masses.
Below is a quick snap of the app – hopefully you can see the mouse cursor which is moving a mass around. As the mass collides with the rest of the physical model it responds in a physical way and produces sounds. I’ll try to post a vid soon.
Modified physical model instrument which allows the mouse (or IR pen coupled with Wiimote) to move a mass around...
The Wiimote aspect works ok – the bluetooth bit seems the most flakey. Once connected and calibrated (using the wiimote whiteboard software) it works quite reliably. One thing I noticed though is that the batteries on my IR pens go flat pretty quick and this means that for the Wiimote to reliably detect the IR light the LEDs need to be pointing backwards – ie. away from the screen. This is fine for my purposes, but all the demos I’ve seen online show the LED pointing at the screen which would seem more intuitive.
For live performance I’d be a bit reluctant to risk relying on this.. With any audience there’s going to be a bunch of bluetooth devices around just waiting to screw up the Wiimote connection. Perhaps a wired webcam could be a better option…
I’m re-starting a new higher-tech blog today. This first entry is going to be about my messing around with the Wii controller and some infra-red LED pens I bought on eBay for about $10. Johnny Chung Lee came up with the idea of using Wii remotes to track infra-red LEDs to make a super cheap electronic whiteboard. My daughter’s school has a bunch of super-expensive electronic whiteboards and I’ve got a couple of ideas:
- Use these pens to interact with the physical models I use to control live audio in performance.
- Create some cool sonic toys for kids to interact with.
Unfortunately the lab machine has been borrowed so I can’t try it with a big screen yet.. Will report back.
