Patent? Well, good as long as its something original. Lasertraq has been doing this for a while. You can use any color, provided your laser pointer is bright enough to be considered brightest pixel on the screen in its wavelength.

http://code.google.com/p/lasertraq/

Posted at 6:44 pm on Sep 22nd, 2008 by dave

I can already see how that first game he is playing will be hacked. cute approach to it though

Posted at 8:16 pm on Sep 22nd, 2008 by Joseph

Sorry, but these are far better documentend, and can be counted as priort art.. he (should) never get the patent..

http://hackaday.com/2007/05/26/interactive-laser-drawing-graffiti/
http://hackaday.com/2008/03/11/laser-writing-via-vnc/

Posted at 12:44 am on Sep 23rd, 2008 by urlax

An infrared laser + on-screen pointer would be even better, though safety should be addressed in any consumer product.

Posted at 1:41 am on Sep 23rd, 2008 by jr

Its good to see people using blob tracking but we’ve seen this laser tracking done before. Seriously if you want to have this sort of interface look no further than the wii remote and if you really want that laser feel get some gaffa and stick one to your wiimote!

Kudos to the laser tag team still the original and best.

Posted at 2:41 am on Sep 23rd, 2008 by Grovenstien

I think this previous H-a-D article is a better documented example of this sort of thing:
http://hackaday.com/2007/11/02/pysight-post-halloween-entertainment/

…complete with python code for all those who want to re-create it.

Posted at 3:35 am on Sep 23rd, 2008 by lwr

good to see you fixed the comment boxes.

And yeah, I thought about that post lwr linked.

Can we say Prior Art? By about a year now? Or more??

Honestly, this post is about as sad as the fact the “peach” bits in my Quaker Oats peaches & cream oatmeal are chunks of apple dyed orange. Oh well, at least they’re actual fruit.

Posted at 4:28 am on Sep 23rd, 2008 by srilyk

heh, it’d be cool to see this as a fps controller, with a small wireless trigger attached to the laser pointer :)

Posted at 5:34 am on Sep 23rd, 2008 by scott

re: #2 by bobbob

while i agree that this is hardly a hack, especially because its not new and no details/code was given…

give credit where credit is due:
a lot of people bitched about hackaday turning into another digg/etc, and though the editors never replied, they definitely have stepped up the quality of the content, and have mostly quit posting stupid “news” stories

so yeah, this is lame… but judging by their recent track record, I’d hardly say hackaday is turning into another engadget

Posted at 11:16 am on Sep 23rd, 2008 by alexfox

I think it’s obvious from the tone of joey’s post that this is nothing new. What makes it hackaday worthy is that alpay kasal is trying to file a patent for something that’s been filtering through the blogosphere for years.

the patent is not for using the laser to control a specific program (in addition to a mouse), but to use a laser to replace the mouse to interface with any program. huzzah!

the fact that this is a rip-off of prior art (but subtly different), is obvious to anyone working in this field of laser/ccd interface may not be enough to prevent this from being patented if some dim wit believes this is a new use of an old process – that is the led/sensor interface of an ordinary optical mouse being applied to greater distances with different equipment (a laser and a dv cam) with potential (though no demonstration) for using different colored lasers simultaneously to control multiple “cursors.”

patent law sucks. or at least this case sucks because it will most likely be used to attempt to hinder further development in the field.

Posted at 1:50 pm on Sep 23rd, 2008 by paul

paul- I agree with your synopsis, but did you check the lasertraq link? Its a bit of a task to get it to compile, but it does the same thing- mouse replacement for any application. Its also got support for different colored lasers to be different pointers. So its exactly the same, only prior art.

Posted at 7:27 pm on Sep 23rd, 2008 by dave

Looks simple since there’s a grid of dots in the background (look at timecode 1:23 in the video).

1. Project a grid of dots for reference grid/computer scan for a frame (1/60).
2. Track a high intensity point from the laser.
3. Have a sensor recorded scene information in between refresh intervals of the projector except when projecting the grid, i.e. track the dot any time < 60Hz.

I’m sure the patent is trivial like what I described. Therefore, I’ll pass. Still doesn’t beat a mouse. Xerox did their research well and spent millions on that.

Posted at 3:23 pm on Sep 24th, 2008 by cwcentral

scott,

I’ve got a fps type game with laser control up at http://insightvr.com

I’ve also got other movies, presentations, source code, and full explanations of how to do both laser tracking and wiiMote head tracking at the same time.

I’m planning on doing multiplayer missile command for Halloween this year and I’ll film it. I need to order more Star Wars blasters to mod.

Posted at 2:42 pm on Sep 25th, 2008 by a random John

you are lame

Posted at 11:55 pm on Oct 23rd, 2008 by kiss off

I didn’t notice the sensors at first :P

Posted at 5:23 am on Oct 26th, 2008 by slain34

1- Projector
2- Webcam
3- Laser Pointer
4- Sit your butt in from of your computer doing programming

Tada!

Posted at 9:23 am on Dec 25th, 2008 by axllaruse