First working prototype

Today I got a working FTIR prototype, nothing fancy yet, but at least it shows that the technique works. I used the following material for this test:

- Wii sensor bar 
Will do for this test, still waiting on my ir leds order.
- Acrylic 
8mm thick, 41 x 31 cm, to maintain 4:3 ratio.
- Logitech webcam
Adjusted to see IR led.

The Wii sensor bar came with my Nintendo Wii system.
The acrylic I bought from a store close to me for only €19, the edges still had scratches so it needed to be polished. I was to lazy to polish the edges myself and so I found a store who could do it for me:

Scheveningse Glashandel
Heemraadstraat 249 A
2586 SW, The Hague (Netherlands)
(00)(31)703550488

I wish I could tell you which Logitech webcam I used and how expensive it was, but unfortunatly I can't trace it back. I can however tell you that I got it from the following store:

MEG@1
Badhuisstraat 81
2584 HE, The Hague (Netherlands)
(00)(31)703227578

It's a ball-shaped webcam that really looks like the Logitech QuickCam. The camera itself is not enough, I had to convert it to an IR webcam. To do this I needed to remove the IR blocker which is found in every webcam (it filters the IR light to a certain degree). If you open the webcam it's the small red piece of glass between the chip and the lens. In my case I had to break it, because it was glued on. After putting it all together again I got the following results by shining the Wii sensor bar to my hand or a ten euro bill:

Alright so I had the IR webcam working, got the acrylic polished and the IR leds from my wii sensor bar. It was time to test it out! I placed the Wii sensor bar against the edges of the acrylic and did some testing with my fingers touching it. Guess what, it worked.