Nintendo Wii Remote Hacks: 3 Really Cool Things You Can Do With Your WiiMote
Image by Rich_Lem via Flickr
The Wii Remote (aka WiiMote) is not only a revolutionary new way to play video games, it also opens up new possibilities outside of video gaming.
One quick example is an the “WiigoBot”; which is a Lego Robot specially designed to hold the WiiMote in the upright position and flick it at the right moment in Wii Bowling. One can thus bowl a perfect game without physically playing! One may wonder why someone would want to do this; perhaps the answer is “just because they can”.
Another, perhaps more practical example, is reconfiguring your WiiMote to work as a computer mouse. There are many tutorial videos online that explain exactly how this is done.
Some of the most ingenious uses of the Wii thus far have been devised by Johnny Lee, formerly of Carnegie Mellon University and now employed by Microsoft. His contributions include an interactive whiteboard and “head-tracking technology”.
The interactive whiteboard requires only a WiiMote, a Bluetooth connection for your computer, and an LED pen. The reason this works is the WiiMote contains a fairly high quality infared camera. The end result is a whiteboard that is truly interactive. One can “draw” on it, or even move or shrink portions of it as in the film Minority Report. Lee makes the required software freely available via his website.
Lee’s head-tracking technology is another example of an outside party finding uses for technology that even the original developers did not foresee. Lee has discovered a method for making a television display interactive with the movement of an individual person. He likens his discovery to the sensation of looking out a window. When one moves to the left or right while peering out of a window, one’s field of vision changes. The closer one gets to the window, the wider scope one sees. Lee’s adaptation of the WiiMote technology provides interesting possibilities for Nintendo Wii game developers and perhaps other applications as well.
The head-tracking technology works for reasons similar to the factors that make the interactive whiteboard possible. Since the WiiMote contains an infared camera, one merely must place the WiiMote in front of the television and pointed toward the room, and the gamer must wear a device that mimics the sensor bar. One method for doing this is retrofitting safety glasses with LED sensors on each site. The result is an interactive experience that takes gaming to a new level.
The WiiMote contains many other possibilities for new applications in business, scientific research, and we should eagerly await what new uses that developers and researchers will invent next. These WiiMote hacks show how relatively inexpensive technology can replace applications costing hundreds or thousands more and do 90% of what the more expensive technology is capable of performing.
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