Make a mouse for your computer that uses only an Arduino, an accelerometer, and your head movement to move and click.

Project Steps

The first step is to fabricate the hardware.

First, sew the 1.5-inch elastic band to the inside of the headband as in the first picture. The elastic band should be perpendicular to the headband.

Now, put the band on your head with the elastic strip over the top. It is imperative that you note where the elastic band intercepts the headband in the back.

If there is more elastic band than necessary in the back, cut the extra off. Then sew two 1.5-inch “loop” velcro strips on to the end of the elastic band.

Finally, sew three 2-inch “hook” velcro pieces onto the headband where the elastic band intersects with it (as in the third picture).

Make sure the finished headband looks like the first picture when it is fastened in the back. Then start the board assembly.

First, use gorilla tape to secure the breadboard and the Arduino to the cardboard rectangle (they should fit perfectly side by side).

Wire +5v to the first column on the breadboard (the + column) and the GND pin to the second column (- column).

Wire the two sets of +/- columns together (as in the second picture; the long blue and orange wires at the top).

Place the accelerometer across the gap in the breadboard as in the third picture. You will notice that there is a little arrow on the accelerometer. Place the accelerometer such that this arrow is pointed away from the long black and orange wires in the Fritzing image.

To finish the wiring, start with the right side of the accelerometer, the rectangle side (per the diagram).

Wire the top pin to +5v, the middle pin to Arduino pin 2, and the bottom pin to GND.

On the left side (the circle side), ignore the top pin, wire the middle pin to Arduino pin 3, and the bottom pin to GND.

Now it is time to put the two parts together.

Tape the cardboard square with the wiring on it to the elastic strip about 1 inch away from the headband, as the second picture shows.

The front is the part that is sewn, and the back is the part that is attached by velcro.

Note: the headband used in this tutorial is not a sweatband, it is part of a hat (hence the velcro part that adjusts its size).

The last step is to import the code into the Arduino, and run the program.

The code can be found here.

Please note the first comment in the comments section of the page; it has valuable information.

Upload this code to your Arduino with the Arduino IDE (download link) using the Micro USB cable.

Keeping the cable connected to your computer, put the band on your head and velcro the elastic band in place.

Yay. You are all done. Congratz!