Interactive WhiteBoard

Hello!

My name is Muneer. I was wondering whether this concept of making a smart board would work(shown in attached image). The idea is to use two distance meters to measure distance ‘a’ and distance ‘b’ from the transmitter in the pen to the top corners. Distance c is fixed and known. Using the distances, the x and y distance should be workable from the formulas(shown in image) I guess.

I have a few concerns and require your expert opinion,

a. How can we construct the distance meter (IR? Ultrasonic? Any available schematic...etc)
b. Converting the x and y distances to pixel information
c. Interfacing the board to a computer, possibly giving the input from the smart board directly as a mouse input.

or if you could suggest other practical ways.

Could you please help me with this? Thanks.

The somewhat awful Mimio whiteboard uses ultrasonics to do what you're trying to do.
Interactive whiteboard, virtual whiteboard, whiteboards, mimio
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SAP Design Guild -- Supporting Group Work through Hardware and Software Solutions

saw a Wii set up to do this

there is a Wii guru guy that did an interactive white board using ir leds (Wii game)
do a search
Wii does not use ultrasonics but it uses IR

@blueroomelectronics: Thanks buddy. Will check that out.

@MrDEB: Thanks for the reply. I know the johnny lee project and i have implemented it. I want to do the same project without using the wii mote or a webcam. Basically trying to make some stuff that will serve the functionality in place of the wii mote

Contact this company for help, they may help you for prototyping.
Also they may provide some help for funding and manufacturing as well:

**broken link removed**

Thanks,
Analog2008