wii

124 Articles

Wiitendo: A Wii In An NES Case

August 11, 2008 by 17 Comments

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jTs8c4r8m94&hl=it&fs=1]
[Matt] has managed to cram a Wii into an old NES. The write up is fairly short, but does mention a few details. He installed some Game Cube controller ports and a Game Cube memory card. He’s added some external LEDs connected to the Wii’s power button. He put a lot of effort into this, as he said almost every area of the internal case needed some serious dremel action to make the Wii fit inside. He’s even promised a more detailed write up, so keep an eye out for that.

You might also remember the Wii Laptop previously on Hackaday.
[via Hack a Wii]

Wiimoteless IR Whiteboard

July 28, 2008 by 9 Comments


[Eduard] sent in his IR webcam whiteboard project. He wanted something like the Wiimote version, but without the expense of a Wiimote. He added some film negative to the camera to reduce the amount of visible light picked up by the CCD. (He notes that you might need to pull the IR filter from your camera to get a decent signal.) The pen is the usual IR LED with a power supply. To do the actual work, he wrote a custom application in Java.

Simple Tracking In 3D Space

July 23, 2008 by 19 Comments

[kylemcdonald] has posted this how to build a simple 3D tracking interface. Using 6 resisters, some wire, aluminum foil, an Arduino, and a cardboard box, he was able to do 3D capacitive sensing. Coupling that with Processing, he was able to overlay an interface using augmented reality. The video above shows a 3D tic tac toe application. While it seems less than perfect, its pretty amazing for how simple it is.

Seen anything similar to this out there? What applications would be fun with this?

Wii Style Controls For The Commodore 64

July 5, 2008 by 2 Comments

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C1WOoPV_7HU&hl=en&fs=1&rel=0&color1=0x3a3a3a&color2=0x999999]
[Jeff] has been playing around with Parallax’s Propeller chip. He’s used it to adapt an NES controller to the to the Commodore 64. In this latest iteration though, he’s added a Memsic 2125 dual axis accelerometer to the end of a whiffle ball bat and used that to provide Wii style controller input. The video above shows his son playing Street Sports Baseball with it.

Top 10 TEDTalks

July 5, 2008 by 4 Comments


The Technology Entertainment Design Conference has been a great source for interesting presentations and in 2006 they started publishing their talks online. This week they published a list of the top 10 most popular talks. There are quite a few tech related ones and we’ve covered some of this work before: [Jeff Han]’s multitouch demos, [Johnny Lee]’s Wiimote hacking, [Blaise Aguera y Arcas] demoing a zoomable interface, and finally for a bit of fun [Arthur Benjamin]’s Mathemagic.

[via Waxy]

Easiest Rock Band To MIDI Setup Yet

July 2, 2008 by 19 Comments

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S6bQaHuFvLw&hl=en&rel=0&color1=0x3a3a3a&color2=0x999999]
We have news for those of you dismissing the new Wii Version of Rock Band. Sure, the lack of DLC is a huge factor, but if you’re looking to use the instruments with MIDI software, [Jordan Balagot] has found what may be the easiest way. Since the Wii instruments are connected via USB, they are easy to connect to a computer. [Balagot] used a program called junXion that is a data routing app for OS X. JunXion can take any USB human interface device and remap the buttons, making it easy to set up the drums as a MIDI input device in an intuitive way. Install junXion, plug in the drums, map the pads, and rock out.

[via Create Digital Music]

More Wiimote Hacking From Johnny Lee

June 23, 2008 by 2 Comments

Our friend [Johnny Lee] has been quite busy traveling and moving to a new city. He hasn’t had time to put together any new videos because of this. He’s been doing more Wiimote research though and has put together an extensive post about what he’s working on and thinking about.

Right before the move, he put together a demo for throwable displays. The square pieces of foamcore have retro-reflective tape added to each of the corners. The Wiimote sees the orientation of the square and adjusts the projected image to fit perfectly; even when you pick it up and throw it. He used it to add a trail to an airhockey puck. Embedded above is an earlier project where he used the Wiimote to track a foldable display and project accordingly.

[Johnny] has also been working on 3D tracking with two or more Wiimotes. Since the Wiimote is camera based, stereo triangulation is simple. Check out the video below from the University of Cambridge that uses two Wiimotes for motion capture.

Have a look at [Johnny Lee]’s full post for even more Wiimote ideas.