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More Wii-mote Info

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the blue-games dept.

Psykechan writes "IGN has revealed some more info about Nintendo's Wii remote controller. Paraphrasing from the official Developer documentation, the controller will communicate with the console using Bluetooth and will last up to 60 hours on two AA (R6/UM3) batteries using only accelerometer functionality or 30 hours using precision aim functionality via the sensor bar. There's also details on memory, LEDs, possible camera functionality, and environmental distractions." From the article: "Light sources from fluorescent and halogen lamps, plastic, mirrors and more may occasionally interfere with the pointer, based on official documentation. To eliminate this interference, the pointer must identify the sensor bar and mark its two coordinates. When pointing with the Wii-mote, the unit is actually interacting with the sensor bar, which then translates data to the television, in effect simulating a direct aim to the television."

45 of 191 comments (clear)

  1. So... by InstinctVsLogic · · Score: 3, Insightful

    ...it's not rechargable?

    1. Re:So... by MorderVonAllem · · Score: 3, Insightful

      so...use rechargable batteries

    2. Re:So... by Kredal · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I have no doubt that on release day, Pelican or some other like-minded company will have battery packs that replace the back cover as well as the batteries, and come with a charging cable as well.

      --
      Whoever stated that signature sizes should be limited to one hundred and twenty characters can just go ahead and kiss my
    3. Re:So... by AuMatar · · Score: 2, Insightful

      That requires you to own a battery charger, and a second set of batteries for when its charging. Few people own battery chargers.

      --
      I still have more fans than freaks. WTF is wrong with you people?
    4. Re:So... by ben+there... · · Score: 2, Interesting

      I agree with you, although it doesn't seem very popular on /. For example:

      1. How often do you need to replace a proprietary battery in a device that just charges in a docking station?

      2. How often do you need to replace the standard batteries by pulling them out (one by one) and popping them into your charger (one by one)?

      I get the feeling that you have to do 2 much, much, more frequently than 1. (a few orders of magnitude more often)

      I'd rather pay for the convenience of never touching those damn batteries.

    5. Re:So... by Gothic_Walrus · · Score: 2, Informative

      First off, "second set" is pointless to say here. Batteries are typically sold in sets of four, and since the Wii's remote uses two...voila! Problem solved!

      Also, Rob Simpson already made this point in another comment on this level, but he used Canadian prices when they're far from the majority on Slashdot. So, I'll say it again: battery chargers are cheap. $20 for four batteries and the charger? I do believe that most people can afford that if they're paying $200+ for a console.

      --
      Goo goo g'joob.
    6. Re:So... by ZorinLynx · · Score: 2

      >Few people own battery chargers.

      So you go to Best Buy and buy one. What's the big deal? You're talking as if battery chargers are a big ticket item that'll bankrupt Bill Gates.

      Sheesh. :)

      -Z

    7. Re:So... by Oopsz · · Score: 2

      Not true. I have a Clie I bought in 2002 that I can't use anymore because the battery is not user replaceable. Heck, it's not replaceable by anyone-- Sony soldered it to the mainboard.

  2. Distances by Data+Link+Layer · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I wonder how well it will handle distances. Moving the wii-mote from say 15 feet from the TV would be different from moving it 3 feet away.

    1. Re:Distances by BasilBrush · · Score: 2, Informative

      The sensor bar's purpose is to allow the system to know where you are pointing at on the screen. Given two fixed points a known distance apart it's possible interpolate the position in a plane that the device is pointed at. The sensor bar presumably has an IR LED at either end. In other words it isn't really a sensor at all.

  3. Weird information by technoextreme · · Score: 2, Funny
    Interestingly, according to documentation the Wii-mote is able to act as something of an eye, measuring coordinates between 0-1023 on the X axis and 0-767 on the Y axis, which means that it is more or less seeing a megapixel image. Whether or not this data can be interpreted into visual information remains unknown, but we're not ruling out the possibility that the pointer could sub as a camera. This is, of course, purely speculative on our part, but stranger things have certainly happened - like, for instance, an internal speaker.

    I just can't visualize or imagine what puprose this will have. Anyone have any ideas?
    --
    Ooo man the floppy drive is broken. No wait. The computer is just upside down.
    1. Re:Weird information by MBCook · · Score: 2, Interesting

      I don't believe it at all. You can see my other comment in this topic to see why.

      That said, I can give you some ideas. One that has been floated around is that you would be able to have a little avatar of yourself that you could put into various games. This rumor seems to have come from the customized characters in the Wii Sports demo. You could use the camera to put your face on the model.

      It could also be used more... creatively. Through image analysis you could turn any rough surface (even carpet) along with the Wiimote as a pen tablet type setup. I wouldn't think Bluetooth would be fast enough to transfer high enough resolution images, and to do the analysis on the controllers would be expensive to battery life.

      Or you could do something else. Monster Rancher had an interesting idea when they let you put music CDs into your PlayStation to release the monsters in them. There was a little hand-held game back around the time of Nintendo's little Pikachu toy/pedometer (which was kinda fun) that would read barcodes to teach your Digimon type thing (I don't think it was Digimon) new attacks (or something). By using the camera in this way you could put interesting data into the Wii. Release the monsters from your food packages, find the Elfs living in your books with their bar codes. Keep track of your life with Delicious LIbrary for the Wii.

      --
      Comment forecast: Bits of genius surrounded by a sea of mediocrity.
    2. Re:Weird information by SirSlud · · Score: 4, Informative

      Well, as a camera, no purpose, because the folks at IGN are, as usual, being paid to be highly speculative fanboys. I say this as:

      a) a game developer
      b) who has access to the wii-mote and has read the dev documentation
      c) somebody who likes IGN, although my like of them dies by the day

      Trust me, it can never be used as a camera. It translates position into co-ordinates because, holy fuck batman, thats what a pointer does.

      The difference with a joystick or analog stick is that you map the 'force' of the joystick (ie, pointed up down, left right) into some kind of velocity and acceleration and determine where on the screen the pointer should be .. the "co-ordinates" you end up with are a result of your game logic that deals with the input values of the console controllers' analog stick. With the wii-mote, the idea is that it is pointing somewhere, therefore, the hardware can tell you where.

      I read the article a few days ago on IGN, and for the most part, its correct. You have to distinguish between real input, and glare from windows or lights, and another interesting matter is that the controller is so sensitive that in order to deal with the input from the accelerometer you cant take what you get EVERY frame and go from that .. you should average it out over some small delta, maybe .2 seconds.

      But the 'maybe it can be used a camera' part is just like .. man why am I working 50 hours a week to create something mediocre when I could be paid to work 40 hours a week, some of that playing videogames to write wild wet-dream conjecture?!

      --
      "Old man yells at systemd"
    3. Re:Weird information by GalionTheElf · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Reading your link, no one got their knickers in a twist over anything. Rare/Nintendo decided to remove the feature in light of the Columbine shootings.

      --
      I'm going over here and I don't know why!
  4. AA Batteries? Are they kidding? by Rachel+Lucid · · Score: 4, Insightful

    After seeing the piece of work that is the DS lite, I figured Nintendo would have similar recharge functionality for the remotes. I have similar issue with my wireless mice and I find it rediculous... sure, lithium-ion batteries are expensive, but for a $250 machine anyway...

    1. Re:AA Batteries? Are they kidding? by Osty · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Just because it can use AA batteries doesn't mean it won't have a rechargeable battery pack. Look at the Xbox 360 controller, for example. Out of the box, it comes with two AA batteries that fit into a little box that snaps into the controller. However, you can go out and buy a play and charge kit (battery + USB recharge cable) for ~$20 and use that instead. The battery pack is similar in shape to the AA battery cartridge and fits in the exact same place on the controller. Selling it separately may be seen as a money grab by some, but it does make sense (accessories == big money!) to help offset the console subsidy.

      Then again, Nintendo didn't do that with the old Wavebird. If you wanted rechargeable batteries, you had to go out and buy your own AA-sized rechargeables. I would be very surprised if Nintendo didn't offer some sort of rechargeable battery pack for the WiiMote, though.

    2. Re:AA Batteries? Are they kidding? by RazorRaiser · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Just buy rechargable AAs. Problem solved

    3. Re:AA Batteries? Are they kidding? by Osty · · Score: 2, Interesting

      The rare occasion when it runs out, I just need to run to the pantry to get a few replacements rather than wait for it to recharge.

      That's the beautiful part about the 360's play and charge cable. It'll recharge and let you play at the same time (it'll recharge much more slowly that way, of course). Of course, then you're tethered to the console again, but it's better than waiting an hour or two for the batteries to charge back up. I guess if being wireless is really that important, you could buy two battery packs and a charging station and just swap out batteries as necessary (that'd be major overkill, since the 360 battery pack lasts for a good 2-3 weeks on a single charge, depending on how much you play of course).

    4. Re:AA Batteries? Are they kidding? by Minced · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Rather than produce an expensive next gen wireless controller, I'm looking at you $50 Wireless 360 controller, Nintendo has opted to keep the cost down to make it a smaller investment for teh average consumer. So instead of having a $50 controller, it might retail for $25-$35 instead. As you said, lithium batteries aren't cheap, but consumers often are.

  5. Uh... Need A Clue? by MBCook · · Score: 4, Informative

    I read this the other day. Most of it was known before. That said, the IGN writer needs a clue.

    The Wii-mote features 6KB of "non-volatile" memory, whose exact purpose remains a mystery. IGN Wii speculates that this throwaway memory could possibly be used in conjunction with the Wii-mote's recently revealed internal speaker.

    I wonder what the memory will be for. I can't think of any uses, unless it is used for calibration in which case it doesn't matter that much. That said, using non-volatile memory (which did not need to be in quotes, and is probably flash) to store sound clips seems rather pointless and a waste of limited write cycles.

    But wait, there's more!

    ...which means that it is more or less seeing a megapixel image. Whether or not this data can be interpreted into visual information remains unknown, but we're not ruling out the possibility that the pointer could sub as a camera.

    I'M ruling it out. That's like saying a mouse with a ball and a 200 PPI resolution could be used as a scanner. To put a live mega-pixel video sensor on the front of the Wiimote just to analyze every image to figure out which way the thing was pointing would be one of the most expensive, slow, battery draining, and stupid ways to accomplish that goal imaginable.

    We'll find out more during Tokyo Game Show on Sept 22nd. In the mean time, if you are going to speculate in an article about something, get some kind of engineer to take a glance at your article first so you don't look too wrong.

    --
    Comment forecast: Bits of genius surrounded by a sea of mediocrity.
    1. Re:Uh... Need A Clue? by 77Punker · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Hey, at least it's not as bad as the IGN article that said the Wii would be less powerful than the X-Box because its CPU runs at a lower frequency. I think it went something like this:

      "X-Box had a 780 MHz Celeron but Wii's processor is only 745 MHz so that means that Wii won't support bump mapping! OMFG!"

      Maybe that quote is paraphrased, but it's pretty damn close to an IGN article I read about a month ago that made it onto Slashdot. IGN should either hire some editors or be destroyed.

    2. Re:Uh... Need A Clue? by MBCook · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I thought about that for a second but I ruled it out. What is the point of putting that on the controller? Unless your controller becomes your controller that you take to a friends house that keeps a tiny bit of data on you (favorite color, birthday, name) so when you start playing it's already configured for you. I wouldn't think enough games would have similar enough controls for that to work. When they do (such as the trigger in an FPS) then the configuration is obvious (are you going to change the fire button from the trigger to a button at the bottom of the controller you can't reach?)

      On a PC you have a TON of keys to bind. On the Wiimote, you have 9 (if you include the four D-pad directions).

      I don't see the point of storing that on the controller. After all, the system is supposed to have built in flash storage of some size (I don't remember) and you could store that data there. That would make more sense than storing it on the controller.

      And on the storing sounds font, just how much of a sound could you possibly fit in 6kb anyway? Standard WAVs are 10MB per minute. If you make that mono, it's 5MB a minute. Cut the sample rate in 4 (to 11khz) and that would give you 1.25MB a minute. Go to 8 bit instead of 16 and things are sounding terrible, but you're at ~600kb per minute. So you could fit 1/100th of a minute of audio in that space. Even if you compress it 5:1 you only get 3 seconds.

      And if you are going to use that memory for sounds in-game, why does it need to be non-volatile anyway? Would it really be that hard to download the sound to the controller again the next time they turn on the game?

      --
      Comment forecast: Bits of genius surrounded by a sea of mediocrity.
    3. Re:Uh... Need A Clue? by MasJ · · Score: 3, Informative

      Well, ironically the example you gave of the mouse has actually been done. It was on Slashdot a few months ago where this guy rewired his mouse to act as a scanner/digital camera. Pretty cool IMO : ). You could atleast take low-res images. And if it's actually seeing megapixel, that's pretty good.

      This is the slashdot story: Turn an Optical Mouse into a Scanner
    4. Re:Uh... Need A Clue? by PeelBoy · · Score: 3, Informative

      I don't know about the rest of this but I do remember the Nintendo guys saying that people would want their controller to be THEIR controller so this might be exactly what that memory is used for. A profile of some sorts.

      This *is* something Nintendo is shooting for (the personalized controllers)

    5. Re:Uh... Need A Clue? by jensen404 · · Score: 2, Informative

      The Wii-mote has a CMOS sensor behind the IR filter in the front.
      The "sensor bar" has a few IR LEDs on each side that the Wii-mote sensor can see. The Wii-mote is able to read two positions from these LEDs and determine their positions in a 1024x768 area.

      The company that provides the sensor technology also makes sensors for optical mice. Those sensors "analyze every image to figure out which way the thing was pointing". And optical mice can last a lot longer than 60 hours on two AAs while providing their own light source.

    6. Re:Uh... Need A Clue? by shoptroll · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Number one, in many console games you don't get much freedom to change the mapping of button->action.

      With the wii, you're probably going to need someway of calibrating the remote to a persons style. Do they make large movements or small precise ones? What's their resting height, etc.?

      Also, with the Wii Sports demonstration it looks like players might have the option of creating a custom avatar for their in game persona. This could be stored on the remote, instead of a memory card (especially if it's a cross-game feature).

      In terms of sound quality, it's a tiny speaker in a remote, you could put a 320 kbps mp3 in there and it'd sound like crap. Maybe they're using very low bitrate mp3 compression? Or they're streaming it over the bluetooth connection?

      --
      Insert Sig Here
  6. Bounds of the TV by RyanFenton · · Score: 2, Insightful

    That makes me wonder... how will the sensor determine the bounds of the TV that the remote is aiming at? Will it look up somehow to see where light is emiting from the TV somehow? Or will there be general assumptions about the size and aspect ratio of the screen?

    Perhaps there will be a calibration on setting the system up... but they have to expect either the TV or the sensor to be moved occasionally. Any manual calibration can be expected to suffer from accuracy problems, I'd expect - especially if game makers somehow assume a screen aspect ratio when making their games. Games with relativistic controls wouldn't be so bad... but anything with precision involved would start to feel sloppy when anything changed.

    I hope the relationship between screen and controller are more dynamic and automatic than just sensing the remote. Regardless, I imagine I can quickly get used to whatever it is, and the game makers will compensate as needed - I'd just like it to be as close to a precise 3-d mouse as possible without having to wave the controller too out of proportion to the actual screen.

    Ryan Fenton

    1. Re:Bounds of the TV by Lectrik · · Score: 4, Interesting
      That makes me wonder... how will the sensor determine the bounds of the TV that the remote is aiming at? Will it look up somehow to see where light is emiting from the TV somehow? Or will there be general assumptions about the size and aspect ratio of the screen?

      Perhaps there will be a calibration on setting the system up... but they have to expect either the TV or the sensor to be moved occasionally. Any manual calibration can be expected to suffer from accuracy problems, I'd expect - especially if game makers somehow assume a screen aspect ratio when making their games. Games with relativistic controls wouldn't be so bad... but anything with precision involved would start to feel sloppy when anything changed.

      I hope the relationship between screen and controller are more dynamic and automatic than just sensing the remote. Regardless, I imagine I can quickly get used to whatever it is, and the game makers will compensate as needed - I'd just like it to be as close to a precise 3-d mouse as possible without having to wave the controller too out of proportion to the actual screen.


      Ha, something I have a little experience with...
      first let's take old NES era light gun games, pull the trigger, the screen flashes white. some of the older arcade shooters use something similar, but can get away with much shorter flashes and the gun interprets that. Now the more modern ones, mostly SEGA ones where I work have a series of IR LEDs located at the edges of the screen (5 top 5 bottom usually) that are strobed in series. I'm pretty sure it measures the intensity of each LED to determine the position of the gun, and covering even one will make it think it's pointing off screen (a common problem in cold weather when people just thrown their coats on top of the game when they play it) I'm assuming the sensor bar they keep talking about will function slightly similarly to the later. You will probably want to calibrate it anytime you drastically change the relative distance from the TV because it starts to make a difference when you double the distance [i.e standing 5 feet away, or sitting 10 away on the couch with your buddies playing Mario Part-wii]
      --
      --- As to make my comment seem, by comparison, more intelegent... doodie doodie doodie poop poop poop!
  7. Re:No rechargable batteries? by rolfwind · · Score: 3, Insightful

    This is a good thing, proprietary rechargeable battery replacements tend to be expensive.

    And you can buy rechargeable AA batteries. I bought 6AA+4AAA+Recharger for 14.99 at Costco and the batteries last a crazy long time. 4-5x longer on one charge than alkaline batteries, by my estimates (Because of this, I only buy rechargeables now, make sure they have a high mAH and are NiMH).

    OTOH, all my Lithion based batteries in my Sony (purchased before they turned into total scum) cameras cost >$60-120 to replace and reliably die after 2-3 years. I don't know how fast NiMH dies (it's life must be at least as long at Li), but at least I can replace them cheap.

  8. Don't believe the camera bit. by EvilFrog · · Score: 4, Interesting

    The bit in the article about the camera is pretty idiotic. IGN is completely misunderstanding the information they've got. It can read relative position on the screen to a resolution that is roughly a megapixel. Somehow they read this as a potential camera. It's not. It's no more a camera than your computer mouse is.

    1. Re:Don't believe the camera bit. by cookieinc · · Score: 2, Interesting

      It's no more a camera than your computer mouse is.
      -
      http://sprite.student.utwente.nl/~jeroen/projects/ mouseeye/

      Ok so it's not a camera, but it's cool anyway.

  9. Are YOU kidding? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful
    After seeing the piece of work that is the DS lite, I figured Nintendo would have similar recharge functionality for the remotes. I have similar issue with my wireless mice and I find it rediculous... sure, lithium-ion batteries are expensive, but for a $250 machine anyway...

    Are you serious?!?!

    Look, here's the options you typically have with batteries in consumer products:
    1. Batteries are not user accessible. When batteries lose their ability to hold a charge, you replace the wiimote. Cost to you: $60
    2. Proprietary rechargables. Really just AAs or AAAs, but inside a special case so that you have to buy them from the manufacturer. Cost to you: $35
    3. User replaceable batteries of a standard size. You buy your own NiMhs. Cost to you: $6.99

    You're COMPLAINING about this?

  10. they now make a separate charger... by YesIAmAScript · · Score: 4, Interesting

    http://www.xbox.com/en-US/hardware/x/xbox360quickc hargekit/default.htm

    The play and charge doesn't really excite me. I use it, but when it runs down, I just grab my other controller with 2 AAs in it while the play and charge charges from my iPod USB power supply.

    The play and charge has two major flaws:
    1. If you charge your controller off your 360 while the 360 is "off", the 360 isn't really off, it is taking over 80W of power. It basically just turns off the video out. It gets hot and wastes a lot of power.
    2. If you charge your controller off your 360 while the 360 is on, you must use that controller as player 1. That is, if any controller is attached by the play n charge kit to the 360, it becomes controller 1. If you turn it off (perhaps to make another controller #1), it just turns right back on and becomes #1 again. This sucks. This forces you to use the tethered controller to play, even if you have another that is charged. That is, unless you want to wait until your 360 is "off" to charge, in which case you end up at #1 again.

    That's why I have to plug my controller into my iPod power supply (via the play n charge cable) to charge it. Weak.

    Still, all in all it is a good controller, Sony will have trouble matching it with their PS3 controller.

    --
    http://lkml.org/lkml/2005/8/20/95
  11. Once it's out it's out by mgabrys_sf · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Then we can see if it's good or gimick - a neat controller design or a nintendo power glove.

    Until then, you can go back to bashing the PS3 as usual.

    1. Re:Once it's out it's out by TheZorch · · Score: 2, Insightful

      According to the impressions of E3 attendees who tried out the Wii-Mote it will be much more than just a gimick. It will change the way we play videogames.

      Stop spreading FUD.

      --
      Michael "TheZorch" Haney
      thezorch@gmail.com
      http://thezorch.googlepages.com/home
    2. Re:Once it's out it's out by PixelScuba · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I think the parent makes a valid point, we won't really know anything until we can personally hold the controller in our own hands and try it. All most of us have now is some annecdotal evidence from some people from a gaming show who said it was neat. I'm with the parent, I need to try this thing out for myself to see if I want to be waving a stick around to play games.

    3. Re:Once it's out it's out by DDLKermit007 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I played with it @ E3. It was flipping awesome. The Wii and the DS are the only things keeping me on console gameing at the moment. I have a PC for pretty graphics.

      And btw...you won't be "waveing" the controler around for the most part. Most of the stuff at E3 was very point & click driven. The swining the controler around was mostly done with the party & sports style games. Feels quite natural to me.

    4. Re:Once it's out it's out by Guppy06 · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Once upon a time, wireless controllers were a cheap gimmick until Nintendo made a first-party one.

  12. AA is an OPEN standard! by bussdriver · · Score: 2, Insightful

    /. complaints on NOT having expensive proprietary batteries?

    Buy whatever AA you want.
    in 5 years buy some super capacitor AA...(joke)

    --
    Democracy Now! - uncensored, anti-establishment news
  13. Oh, really? by Rob+Simpson · · Score: 3, Informative

    Fewer people own Charging kits for proprietary battery packs (XBox 360). Personally, I have 2 chargers and a bunch of NIMH AA's, since I have a digital camera (Canon A620) and a couple other devices which use them. And it's $5 cheaper to buy a NIMH charger with two sets of batteries.

  14. Just say no to battery packs. by Kadin2048 · · Score: 3, Informative

    I really hate having a proprietary battery cartridge when a few generic rechargeable AAs could have done the job just as well, and let me not pay the hefty premium for the few cents of cheap plastic that they used to bundle them together with. Plus, with standard-size batteries, you have the option of using regular alkalines in a pinch if you really want to -- if you use a proprietary pack and it runs out, you're SOL until it recharges.

    The only excuses for using proprietary batteries at all are if the form factor is such that a standard-shaped (AA/LR6 NiMH) won't fit, or the increased energy density of a Li-ion is required.

    The best combination is to use standard-sized, replaceable cells and then have an external charging port so that the batteries can be charged without removing them from the device. Unfortunately, few manufacturers of consumer products do this because of the safety features you need to put on the charger in order to keep it from trying to charge the alkalines that people will inevitably put in there, even if you warn them not to.

    --
    "Ladies and gentlemen, my killbot features Lotus Notes and a machine gun. It is the finest available."
  15. It's a "Beacon Bar" not a "Sensor Bar" by Dr_Barnowl · · Score: 4, Insightful
    I'd guess this is how it actually works ;

    The "sensor bar" sounds more like a "beacon bar". I'm guessing that it has two flashing infrared LEDs, one at each end (or maybe more, they might be lying). Each LED flashes in a different pattern (or is maybe a cluster of LEDs in a different pattern, a "barcode" maybe).

    The remote has a megapixel monochrome IR CCD in it. This picks up the position of the LEDs in the "sensor bar". After calibration, the position and inclination of the lights in the image can be used to calculate the vector of your aim.

    This is a nice, elegant way of doing it. It's akin to the existing way that TV-aiming devices work (lightguns), except....

    • A lightgun works by picking up a single pixel of light, and relaying the timing to the base unit. The base unit uses it's knowledge about how far down the TV fram the electron beam is to determine the position of the lightgun.
    • With a lightgun, the positioning relies heavily on scan-timing on a CRT. Given the modern display market, a consistent method of detecting scan-timings varies from difficult (100MHz flicker-free displays) to impossible (LCD displays).
    • With a lightgun, you have to have a "flash" to enable the thing to work ; this is why House of the Dead and the like all flash the screen when you shoot - so the lightgun can pick up it's position regardless of whether it's aimed at a dark pixel or not.

    This is a serious improvement on lightgun technologies. You can play Zelda without seeing unrealistic muzzle flash when shooting a bow. It should work with ANY display technology, not just scanning-raster, as long as it doesn't get too large (and even then, you should be able to move the "beacon" bar closer to you to enable larger screens with equal angular accuracy). The horizontal accuracy should be much better. And I'll wager it improves the battery life, because the remote doesn't constantly have to emit radiation at the sensor bar, it just has to capture an image.

    Bah, tried to do an ascii art of how I think it works, but the lamo-filter won't let it past.

    1. Re:It's a "Beacon Bar" not a "Sensor Bar" by TempeTerra · · Score: 3, Funny
      ...The "sensor bar" sounds more like a "beacon bar"... ...you should be able to move the "beacon" bar closer...

      I must be hungry - I can't stop mis-reading that as "bacon bar".

      Mmmmm.... bacon bar. Now there's a way to capture the market. "The Nintendo Wii - featuring revolutionary bacon bar technology!"

      Can I pre-order one yet?
      --
      .evom ton seod gis eht
  16. Not a Camera by vitaflo · · Score: 3, Informative

    From TFA:

    "Interestingly, according to documentation the Wii-mote is able to act as something of an eye, measuring coordinates between 0-1023 on the X axis and 0-767 on the Y axis, which means that it is more or less seeing a megapixel image. Whether or not this data can be interpreted into visual information remains unknown, but we're not ruling out the possibility that the pointer could sub as a camera."

    It's not a cameara. The res of HD is 1024x768, so of course the Wii-mote is going to measure coordinates of the same size. All this is saying is that the Wii-mote has per-pixel accuracy. Saying it may be a camera is one of the biggest stretches I've ever seen.

  17. Re:6kb by GTMoogle · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Well, Wii-connect24 (leave your console on, and net-attached) means it probably knows your Wii's home address, so when you go to a friend's house, you can bring your wiimote and it will automatically download your savegames and settings from your own Wii.

    You could just choose to leave your wii on only if you plan to use this feature too, so no bitching about power usage (the net-connected standby has highly reduced power usage also)