Sensor Bar Location When Really Close to the Screen

[YttriumNitrate]

Hello, my morning and evening commutes are hour long train rides that have been made immensely more enjoyable by playing Wii and Gamecube games during the trips. In the train there's not much space so my controller is generally positioned somewhere over the trackpad on my laptop. For GameCube games, that isn't a problem, but my WiiMote is positioned really close to the sensor bar. Nintendo recommends a separation of about 3 feet, but with sensor bar secured to the top of the laptop screen there might be a foot separation if I'm lucky with 6-9 inches being more likely.

Does anyone have any tips or tricks on how to improve the accuracy and responsiveness of the Wiimote when it is far closer to the sensor than recommended? Ideas I've had include putting sensor bars on both the top and bottom of the screen, and possibly fiddling with the spacing of the lights in the sensor bars, but hopefully someone else has dealt with a similar situation and knows the best solution.

[MayImilae]

So the issue with Wii Remotes at range is that the Wii Remote's IR sensor has a narrow field of view (33 degrees horizontally and 23 degrees vertically) to optimize around TV viewing and its 128x128 pixel sensor. When you get too close it becomes very difficult to get both sides of the sensor bar into view, forcing the player to point very directly to get both in sight, if they can at all.

So the only real solution to this is to mod a sensor bar. There are lots of sensor bars out there with "long range" modes, and all they do is widen the distance between the sensor bar lights to make it easier for the sensor to make out at range. You could do the opposite to help with very close ranges... up to a certain point at least. If you make it too narrow the wii remote might have a hard time resolving the lights.

...though I suppose you could put a fisheye lens onto the front of the Wii Remote to widen its view. I mean, theoretically it should work, and it's pretty easy to get cheap and small fisheye lenses for smartphones... Hmm, just a thought!

[YttriumNitrate]

Thanks for the suggestion regarding the fish eye lens. At under $2 for one, it's definitely worth trying out. I've ordered a set of lens along with another sensor bar to mangle / modify, and hopefully that will help on the controls.

[YttriumNitrate]

So I received in one of those fish eye lenses for a smart phone, and on initial tests of just placing it in front of Wiimote I am not seeing a noticeable difference. I'm going to try removing the large black plastic IR filter to see if placing the lens closer to the sensor will result in any improvement.

For securing the IR sensor to the laptop, I found that gluing the USB sensor's plastic mount at a 90 degree angle to the sensor works quite well  for keeping it on the screen of a Thinkpad laptop.

[BloodyBonzai]

I am in the process of getting my sensor bar working, although I believe that it is broken. Looks like I will have to buy a used one to verify my setup functionality and then return it to buy a new one that will last longer as they are about the same price; gamestop used vs amazon new. I am also dealing with a closeness issue for playing of about 2.5ft, although for testing I am at 3ft. I located this information, perhaps someone can verify if it is feasible: "So I've been trying to get the DolphinBar to work at close range while playing on my PC and I've figured out how. All you have to do is open the Dolphin bar and put electrical tape over five LEDs on one side and then put tape over the three middle LEDs on the other side and center the remaining LEDs under your screen. I'm able to play 2-3 feet from my monitor without issue now."
I assume I will need a camera to view the LEDs to effectively tape them. Also, any recommendations for new wired sensor bars on amazon?

Edit: After looking at DolphinBar sensor bars, I noticed there are photos on amazon that show the "LEDs" which I think are IRs, and there are only three on each side. So I think that quote might be completely bogus.

[YttriumNitrate]

So I tried removing the blackish plastic piece in front of the IR sensor so that the fisheye lens could be closer to the sensor. So far, there has definitely been an improvement when I'm playing 6-9 inches away from the IR sensor. Next on my list of things to try is to play around with the IR bar.