youtube.com — Yep, we finally figured out how the darn IR camera works. It's just a quick hack, but I've written a program to take the data from the Wiimote, filter it a bit, and emulate a mouse. It's actually quite a decent input device, although I recommend using big icons. I've demonstrated a few simple activities with it. Buttons on the Wiimote map to mouse
Dec 6, 2006 View in Crawl 4
gaijintendoDec 7, 2006
<a class="user" href="http://digg.com/videos_gaming/Using_WiiMote_to_play_Half_Life_2_on_a_computer">http://digg.com/videos_gaming/Using_WiiMote_to_play_Half_Life_2_on_a_computer</a>
geminitojanusDec 7, 2006
yeah yeah yeah, kudos, all nice, where's the code? This amazing development is useless to 98% of us without the code, and this demo still could have been faked (offscreen mouse).Let's see this thing in action.
walkingcrowDec 7, 2006
We did some different tests on video like using Christmas ornaments check them out at our new site <a class="user" href="http://www.wiihacking101.com/">http://www.wiihacking101.com/</a>
donquixote235Dec 7, 2006
I've been using the GlovePIE hack for a couple of days, so I've got a little (VERY little, but at least some) experience using the wiimote on the PC. That said, there are three problems that need to be addressed:1. Battery Life. Since the wiimote doesn't have a charger base, the AA's drain during use. On the Wii this isn't a big problem, because it will go into sleep mode when inactive for a period of time. When hooked up to the wii, there's no sleep mode available (at least yet). My prediction is that within six months we're going to see a rechargable battery pack for the Wiimotes that rests in a base station when at rest, solving the battery issue, but for the meantime you have to be sure to disable the connection to the wiimote from within your bluetooth control panel, or else you'll come back in the morning to a dead wiimote.2. No direct API plug-ins. GlovePIE is an excellent piece of software for what it does... it allows you to map actions on Device A so that it fires another action on Device B, e.g. map the wiimote d-pad to WASD for FPS games. However, since GlovePIE is a stand-alone language all its own, there's no good way (yet) to hook it into a program of your own design, to make for example a wiimote-controlled jai alai game on the PC. Developers have to treat it as a novelty item for controlling existing applications until an enterprising developer introduces an API hook for us to program directly against.3. The sensor bar. I'm aware that people have made homebrew sensor bars out of a handful of LEDs, a length of wire, and 4 AA batteries, but that (A) doesn't help the non-hardware-savvy gamer (like me, I can't solder my way out of a paper bag), and (B) it adds to the battery dilemma introduced in my first point. In order for the pointer capabilities to be used in mainstream applications and games, there either needs to be a mass-produced (or easily kittable) sensor bar available, or a converter that would allow an existing sensor bar to be plugged directly into a USB port.In my opinion these are the three major stumbling blocks that keep wiimote development and use on the PC from getting any kind of mainstream attention.
wisgaryDec 7, 2006
OH. MY.GOD.I AM SO GOING TO STRAP THE WII-MOTE TO MY HEAD.
rockoragerDec 7, 2006
@Bob-It's more like 4 or 5 IR signals on each side...I can only assume for greater precision or possibly just a greater range (think viewing angle range)...or possibly just a greater amount of IR coming from it
delmonteDec 7, 2006
Translation: The sensor bar can be bought on Nintendo's website and only costs 10$I wonder if they'll run out of them sooner than they expected?
marcanDec 7, 2006
All of the interfacing info is in the Wiili wiki ;)<a class="user" href="http://www.wiili.org/Wiimote">http://www.wiili.org/Wiimote</a><a class="user" href="http://www.wiili.org/Wiimote_driver">http://www.wiili.org/Wiimote_driver</a>
fashnekDec 7, 2006
If you guys absolutely need to see some code, the latest version of some working (in progress) Python code can be found here:<a class="user" href="http://wmd.fashnek.com">http://wmd.fashnek.com</a>The instructions are pretty clear. Play around with it if you're still skeptical.
kernelhappyDec 7, 2006
I'm assuming that the submitters comment about using big icons has to do with the accuracy of using it as a mouse. I'm guessing that it would be accurate enough to work well with mouse gestures. Could be great for more interactive type presentations too.