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Upoint - the Ultimate PointerPicture using a laser-pointer, but replace the laser-dot with a mouse-cursor. What you get is Upoint: the interactive laser-pointer! Yes, it's revolutionary! Yes, it works! No, the Logitech, Kensington, Microsoft, Targus and Gyration remotes are far less sophisticated! Yes, it's ready for commercialization, and we need help!
Upoint is a revolutionary and unique, wireless Remote Control / Presentation Remote that combines all the interactivity of a normal mouse with all the ease-of-use of a normal laser-pointer. It's perfect for Powerpoint presentations, or other occasions where you want to have interactive control over whatever you're projecting!
Instead of projecting a laser-dot, Upoint positions a cursor at the
point-of-aim of the presenter, thus enabling To accomplish all this, the Upoint remote contains a so-called 3D tracker. This tracker, or orientation sensor, enables the system to calculate in which direction the user is pointing. In order to position a cursor at that spot, one piece of information is still missing, namely the whereabouts of the display. This, however, is easily found either automatically or by having the user execute a simple 2-3 sec setup procedure, in which 2 or 3 corners of the display are highlighted by the laser built into the Upoint remote. For more detailed information: see the Upoint invention. Both a 40 sec demo-movie (3 different resolutions) and a 7 min DVD quality movie (~200 Mb) can be found under Presentations. For earlier versions and prototypes of Upoint, see the History page.
GoalsLaser-like or 'direct-pointing' cursor control from mid-air is the future of pointing instruments for the presentation as well as the gaming market (see Nintendo's press-releases 1 and 2), constituting a substantial improvement of the popular GyroMouse (see also Thomson's corporate press release). Upoint is the only system flexible enough to be used anywhere and with any display type (projection, back-lit, plasma screen, TV screen etc), with minimum system requirements. For this reason, Upoint systems are aimed to replace both GyroMouse-like devices as well as today's presentation devices equipped with standard joystick and trackball hardware.
Current statusA fully functional prototype (nr 4) was built by Sparkfun Electronics, and the performed tests were highly successful. A 7 min DVD quality demo/advertising movie (207 Mb) can be requested from the inventor. A 5th, ergonomic and fully functional prototype was designed by Sparkfun Electronics, and was finished July 2007. Two patent applications were filed on the methods that enable the Upoint invention, with priority dates May 24th 2005 and July 13 2005 (see also the News section). The inventor, Dr. Erik J. Banning, is currently employed as a senior researcher by Shell Oil. Dr. Banning holds a Ph.D. in Theoretical Physics and is the sole owner of the Upoint Intellectual Property.
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