JavaZone 2009 - Java™ and JavaFX™ Technology and the Nintendo Wiimote: Just How Much Fun Can You Have?
The Nintendo Wii has changed the way many people perceive computer games, shifting from the traditional console to a more natural, physically interactive experience. To achieve this, the Wii includes an innovative remote control (or Wiimote). To provide control of an on-screen cursor, the Wiimote has a special camera that can track up to four points of infrared light and report their positions in real time.
This session explores how the Wiimote can be used in ways not originally intended by the Wii designers. Example applications keep the Wiimote stationary and use it to track moving infrared LEDs, which can be mounted on a pen, a screen, or even an umbrella. Data about the position of the infrared lights can be used to control the position of images so they are always projected on a screen or to provide a virtual whiteboard environment.
The demonstrations use JSR 82 (Java™ APIs for Bluetooth), the WiiremoteJ open-source API, a Java platform library, and JavaFX™ code to drive the user interface. The session shows how JavaFX technology really is, "for all the screens of your life", including ones you've never thought of.
Simon Ritter
Simon Ritter is a Technology Evangelist at Sun Microsystems. Simon
has been in the IT business since 1984 and holds a Bachelor of Science
degree in Physics from Brunel University in the U.K. Originally working
in the area of UNIX development for AT&T UNIX System Labs and then Novell,
Simon moved to Sun in 1996. At this time he started working with Java
technology and has spent time working both in Java technology development
and consultancy. He now specialises in looking at emerging technologies
including cloud computing, wireless sensor networks and gestural
interfaces.