I guess I’ll start by explaining briefly a little about the Wiimote. Basically, for £30 you’re getting a long range (approx 30ft) wireless bluetooth controller with Hardware IR Blob detection for up to 4 points (within 16ft) and three accelerometers that can measure tilting motion reasonably accurately. Also, there’s another add-on coming out soon called WiiMotion (which will also be built into the next version of wiimote), which adds two rotational sensors to the wiimote so that you will soon be able to tell the exact angle of the control at any given time.
What’s really great is that all of this data is available to use with the wiiMote C#/VB.NET Library API , and it’s dead easy to use too! (For other languages like C\C++\Java I think there might also be some other wiimote libraries)
WiiMotion Addon + Wiimote Accelerometers
Attaching the wiimote to create interactive handles/levers/wheels/pull strings etc..
So now that we know the wiiMote has quite a lot of sensors, we can start have fun and experiment with it! For example, today I strapped the wiimote to a piece of steel tubing to give me a handle control, which could easily be built into a multi-touch setup to give it an extra bit of interactivity. By using data from the Y axis accelerometer, I was able to make a simple input device which could be used to rotate or move in game items, which would make the perfect control for things like aiming a crossbow, revving a motorbike, table football or rotating a 3d model. You can also add a long piece of wood on the end to make a lever.
Another thing you could add for example is a spring, which would give you a spring loaded control for things like firing a weapon in game or shooting a pinball, using the accelerometer to work out how fast the ball should travel.
Or you could just tie the wiimote with some string and create a pull cord control (Virtual kite flying?!?).
Anyway.... I guess why I’ve done all this is to demonstrate that the wiimote has some really cool sensors which you can exploit to create any number of innovative input devices for your mt setup.
So get creative, start thinking outside the box and start creating new input devices using levers, spinning wheels, pull cords and anything else you can think of! Oh and lookout for the wiiMotion add-on because being able to tell the exact angle of rotation will make for some really cool input devices :D
