What does the remote control?

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T

Top Spin

I've seen several Powerpoint presentations where the presenter had a
remote to advance the slides.

What is the remote controlling? What is it talking to?

It must the the laptop, right? Is there special hardware to read the
remote signal and control the Powerpoint show?

My Google searches seemed to indicate that it was just a wireless
mouse. This seems kinda primitive. All I would have is left and right
click. And how would I know where the mouse cursor was pointing?

If I am going to spend the money, I would want a remote that had
forward and back, maybe buttons for the next bullet as well as the
next slide. I'd also want a laser pointer.

Do these types of remotes exist? What do they talk to?

Thanks
 
What is the remote controlling? What is it talking to?

Simplest case, it's talking to a gadget attached to the serial or USB port
that pretends to be a mouse; remote sends radio/IR signals to gadget,
gadget pretends to be a mouse, so you can control whatever you can
ordinarily do with mouse right/left clicks.

If the gadget also includes add-in software for PowerPoint, it might be able
to do a lot more, though.
 
Most remote controllers simply emulate certain keys on the keyboard....e.g.
PageDown for next slide and PageUp for previous slide.

Some are deliberately kept simple (less to go wrong during the
presentation).....
http://www.l3sys.com/keyrf/keyrf.html

Some work over longer distances....some require "line of site".

Some have lots of bells and whistles, like a laser pointer...
http://www.rppresenter.com/

Cheers
TAJ Simmons
microsoft powerpoint mvp

awesome - powerpoint backgrounds,
free sample templates, tutorials, hints and tips etc
http://www.powerpointbackgrounds.com
 
Adam,

It's probably just a bit of MS Photo Editor trickery....You see it all the
time. <g>

TAJ
 
It's probably just a bit of MS Photo Editor trickery....You see it all the
time. <g>
Click to expand...

Ah. So YOU were the little kid in the back of the theatre when Peter Pan
was playing.
The one yelling "Look 'ere! 'E's got wires on 'im!" ;-)
 
I bet you used MS Photo Editor to do that dance routine...complete with
motion capture to get the moves just right.
Click to expand...

Credit where credit's due: JanIl did it.
 
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