WiiMotion
Early last year I took some time to dig into the Wii and figure out what makes it tick. I wanted to see if I could prototype my own gestural interfaces. Turns out it's not too difficult. Lots of other people have done the heavy lifting to create bluetooth interfaces between the Wii and all manner of devices—including a Macintosh computer. I found a few different solutions that met my needs and cobbled them together into a system that lets me control iTunes with a Wii controller.It requires some familiarity with the Terminal to get things up and running, so this isn't for the faint of heart. The A button plays/pauses. Hold down the B button while rocking the controller left or right to select the previous/next song. Swing it left or right to select the previous/next playlist. Tilt it up or down to increase or decrease the volume.
Here's the beta WiiMotion Program (Mac only).
Controlling iTunes is only one example. I wrote the script in such a way that pretty much any Mac application can be controlled with the same basic Roll/Pitch/Yaw gestures. It's possible to recognize much more complex motions too; roll, pitch and yaw are just the easiest to parse.
Posted March 4, 2008
CMU Grad Studio