Use of a laserpointer as control device
Note: This experiment is now obsolete. See Gesture based control using a Laser pointer and Image Recognition.I wanted to be able to control the videoplayback of the mediacenter (hooked to my tube projector) without any extra remote control. The remote control of the tube projector has a built-in laser pointer. I used a ultra-cheap 4 euro CMOS-camera and some self-programmed quick'n'dirty image recognition for the task.
The target with play/pause, file select, next, prev:
The target with the laserdot inside the previous box:
What the software sees thru the eyes of the crappy cmos-cam, notice the very bright spot from the laser pointer (pictures cropped + strange jpeg artifacts):
Selecting buttons (no visual feedback to free some cpu cycles for media playback):
You don't have to aim before you "click". Just turn on the pointer pointing somewhere random, and guide it to the box you want to select. Boom.