Mac-a-Tag
Multipoint Lasertagging with Macintosh
The aim of this project is to implement a lasertagging software on the macintosh platform able to track multiple laser pointers.
Contents |
Evaluation of existing software modules
The following programs seem to be interesting
BBtouch
CCV
eMotion
A highly complicated software aiming at stage performances during music concerts.
laser_marker
reacTVision
The original software beind the Reactable
Touché
TuioMouseDriver
Listens for coordinates and moves your mouse accordingly. This makes possible to control your computer with the laser pointer.
WiimoteWhiteboard
made famous by Johnny Chung Lee
xfiducial
xfloyd
xPrexxo
Evaluation of usable Hardware
Macbook pro
ermm, yes :-)
3CCD DV camera
Instead of a webcam, a real camera has several features: good low light sensitivity, fixed exposition, zoom, focus and high qualtity picture.
1mW, 5mW, 30mW laser pointers
For security reasons it would be preferable to use low power lasers
Wiimote
A very interesting device, for this project I will only use the internal camera.
Connecting and testing
All the software packages are all either in heavy development or abandoned :-)
The underlying principle is to have one program analysing the video signal and creating coordinates. Via the TUIO protocol those values can be sent to another program (via UDP which makes this network aware) handling the display.
First try was WiimoteWhiteboard which is doing the display part. The video analyzing and coordinates is completely done in hardware by the Wiimote. This little beast is a full featured high rez camera with video analysis sending the 4 brightest spots detected via bluetooth. The camera is not only sensitive in the IR range ans many think. Just pop out the IR filter in front of the camera and it sees all colors. For the lasers a green filter can be used. The Wiimote is not sensitive enough for the higher distances required for Lasertagging.
Demonstrations
Only some little trials have been done.
