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More Wii-mote Info
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."
...it's not rechargable?
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.
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...
I read this the other day. Most of it was known before. That said, the IGN writer needs a clue.
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!
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.
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.
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.
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?
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
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:
.. 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.
.. you should average it out over some small delta, maybe .2 seconds.
.. 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?!
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
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
But the 'maybe it can be used a camera' part is just like
"Old man yells at systemd"
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.
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.
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."
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!
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....
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.
Once upon a time, wireless controllers were a cheap gimmick until Nintendo made a first-party one.
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.