Research help for interactive Flash application

Hi, I’m building an interactive flash application that will be used on a projector and projected onto a floor. The flash application will be showing a pool of water that when the cursor moves it will disturb the water, this much I have working fine so far.

What I want to do however is add two things:

  1. Display messages within the pool either by using a text file as a flat-file database or by typing them into a web page form and then submitting them in real-time to the flash app. Looking for ways of doing both (examples would be awesome)

  2. Instead of using the cursor I’m looking to track a persons movements using a camera, is there any good software/plugins I could use to help with this?

The filter I’m using by the way is: http://www.flash-filter.net/rain-drop-water-effect.phtml

Thanks for your help