This software works with an IR-pen (a pen with an IR-led in the tip) and a webcam. The webcam sees the infrared light and my software emulates the mouse cursor. You can use it as an interactive whiteboard (with beamer) or turn your laptop to a tablet PC. It can also be used with LCD tvs as displays and everything, which surface reflects IR-light. Usualy glass or plexi-glass does it very well.

Such a whiteboard is very cheap, because a webcam is not very expensive. A webcam which costs about 10-20 euro is enough. But you have to modify it a bit. It needs to see just IR-light and nothing else. The best way is to take a filter to block all the visible light. The cheapest filters are the films of your old photos. Just take some of them and place them directly in front of the webcam, so that it can sees anything but IR-light.

Sometimes it is enough to reduce brightness, gamma, automatic exposure and such stuff with AMCAP for example so that you see nothing but a black image. In version 1.1 this runs automatically, you dont need to change any video filters by yourself except the output is not correct.  My webcam was despite this able to see the bright infrared light.


It could be necessary to remove the IR-filter of  the webcam, when it doesnt see any or nearly any IR-light. When you use an IR-led it should be seen very bright and clearly like in the screenshot. There a lot of tutorials and how-tos in the internet and its really not difficult.

I used a Vimicro USB PC Camera from ebay for about 10 euro and a self made IR-pen.

On the left side you can see my webcam with negative photoimages as filter and my IR-pen.

This is a diagram which shows you one possible position-arrangement of the camera and the screen. I used this positions in my videos too. The camera should see the whole screen, but take care that you dont block the view of your camera. For example when you use your right hand, you can place the camera on the left side of you. A very good position is also above you and the screen:


Here is a video showing the features and the usage of this app:

Draw On Screen feature:

Requirements: 

There are some projects using a wiimote instead of a webcam, but if you have no wiimote and you dont want to spend 40 euro for one, just try it with a webcam. The IR-light tracking quality depends on the quality of your webcam and your modifications and so does the whole application. If you find any bugs or if you have some new ideas, please inform me. You can post a comment.

[24.05.09] Currently working on (will be implemented in the next version): 

  • Testing other Java media APIs like JMF (WW and JMF doesnt work on MAC)

UPDATE [13.05.09], v. 1.0: New Version with a lot of new features!

UPDATE [24.05.09], v. 1.1: New Version with automatic video capture adjustment and Draw On Screen feature.