The idea is to have a infrared sensor with Bluetooth chip which will be used to send signals to the computer. The infrared sensor will sense when the infrared pen is turned on and will record the coordinate of the point this will then be sent to the computer via Bluetooth where it will be plotted on the application for the user to see. This idea was taken when looking at existing products as this was significantly cheaper then the alternatives and also allowed for a portable system compared to the other researched solutions.
The sensor will know the boundaries on the grid as when the application will be loaded up the use will be asked to put the pointer on all four corners. This will allow the computer to and sensor to create a grid based on the four extremes.
The infrared pen will consist of a battery, push-switch and infrared emitting diode. When the button is press this will complete the circuit turning on the diode and allowing the infrared sensor to track its coordinates.
Overall the connection between the laptop and the sensor will be done using python as this language offers the flexibility due to its prebuilt modules and functionality that allow it to interact with the hardware. Python also has to have a GUI which would have to be developed to allow the user to interact with the program which can be developed with libraries such as Tkinter or PythonQt.
During the development each stage or section will be developed individually of each other in order for the program to be modular interims of features and allows for an interactive development to be used compared to a linear one. From the sensors point of view a wii remote will be used as this equipment is cheap to get hold of and has all of the inbuilt functions and hardware that is required to interface with the computer, such as the IR sensor and the Bluetooth chip that can provide the interfacing as well as the prebuilt circuitry and power distribution. This was taken user consideration during abstraction as this would simplify the development process and there would no need to design this from scratch. The Wii remotes sensor also has the capability of tracking 4 points simultaneously, which should be more then adequate for multiple people to interact with the system at the same time making it ideal for usage in the classroom and can be seen using the data that people like the discussion usage of the whiteboard. The solution chose the cheapest route the most often as reflecting upon the fact that teachers don’t rate this piece of kit as essential for their teaching and this means that a device that costs $3,000 is simply not worth the cost, where the technology from the wii remote and the IR technology may not offer the same amount of precision as other methods but will allow for 80% of the features to be produced with a fraction of the cost, making it more viable for a potential solution for 3rd world country users who can’t afford to pay that steep of a price.