Just a quick update.

I'm waiting for an IR emmitter to turn up. I think that there's so much ambient IR in the room that Front DI isn't working - or the webcam isn't up to the job (though I'm more inclinded to believe the latter).

Hopefully when this thing turns up I'll be able to try out Rear DI and see if I get any better results. If so, I'll look at mounting the LCD matrix on an acrylic sheet properly. I want to try and get the size down so this fisheye lens business may be the way to go as I think I should be able to mount the camera around 10cm or so from the panel - which means the whole "unit" should be fairly small and compact. I'd like to be able to "rotate" the screen, see-saw style around say 15%+- so i've been digging around on the net for something that might fit the bill -so far.... nothing. :(