CNN Money takes apart the Wii-mote and gives us a look at the anatomy of our favorite game controller, and shows us the possibilities of things to come Very interesting info on. I don't think you'll be disappointed
--------------------------------------
"Did you know that the Wii remote has an audio translator that can pick up analog audio signals (such as human speech) and translate it to a data signal that can be transferred to the Wii? What?"

*Very interesting info on. I don't think you'll be disappointed.

check it out here/source

--------------------------------------

The only thing more fun than bowling in your living room with a bunch of friends is having their digital counterparts cheer you on from the alley inside your TV. The experience makes you forget about graphics altogether. You don't mind that your Mii is missing arms and legs.

And of course the Wii has that innovative interface, the Wii Remote. The Wiimote, as it has come to be known, features a speaker, a rumble pack that makes the device shake, and even a mystery feature or two that have yet to be exploited, like a microphone jack. (Wii Karaoke perhaps?)

But the Wiimote's magic really comes down to a $2.50 chip developed by a company in Cambridge, Mass., called Analog Devices Inc., (Charts) or ADI. Known as a three-axis accelerometer (see graphic), the chip precisely measures movement in three dimensions. At four square millimeters, several accelerometers would fit on your thumbnail.

Prying open a Wiimote, ADI applications engineer Harvey Weinberg explains how the innards work. "This is actually a pretty cool piece of engineering," he says. "There's a Bluetooth link in here, a little bitty speaker, and an infrared camera. Of course the most important part is the accelerometer." The camera communicates with the light bar, which sits above or below the TV set. This is important because of a player's tendency to swing the remote wildly while, say, trying to hit a baseball 450 feet. Each time the camera faces the TV, the machine reestablishes a player's whereabouts.

"The Nintendo guys were going to get large errors if they didn't figure out how to get absolute position," Weinberg says. "The camera resets the positional error. But they couldn't have gotten it to work with IR alone because most of the time you're not facing the TV. They couldn't have gotten it to work really good unless it was wireless. And they've aggressively chosen components that don't use a lot of power. The whole thing is synergistic."

Nintendo designed dozens of prototypes before settling on the Wiimote. Miyamoto says early versions looked more like a control pad. Some were whimsical, some complicated. Designers arrived at the current version by coming back to Iwata's decree to battle indifference, not the competition.

Miyamoto realized it wasn't a fear of gadgets that kept the average consumer from playing games. "TV remotes are always sitting out on a coffee table or on the sofa, but videogame controllers - people don't want them lying around," he says. "In that sense we thought we were losing to the TV remote. So we thought, What kind of controller can we create that won't make people afraid to touch it?"

article source

This post was last modified: 06-01-2007 07:55 AM by gft77.

WHAT THE?????????? I wonder did CNN just screw up on this one.......

I never bothered reading this but judging by your reactions this is a little weird

HELL YES ITS WEIRD!

I don't know if it's weird...I think it could be awfully cool when incorporated into future games.

good read, interesting,

'battling indifference not the competition'

what a line...

Yes but maybe CNN screwed up?

Uhh guys..

"Did you know that the Wii remote has an audio translator that can pick up analog audio signals (such as human speech) and translate it to a data signal that can be transferred to the Wii"

It's called a MICROPHONE.

Translating analog signal to digital is a fancy way of saying RECORDING WITH A MICROPHONE.

You can all settle down now.

LOL

Dude, don't you realise why we are getting excited? Nintendo NEVER SAID that there was going to be a microphone in the Wii Remote!

It's cool man..I'm just being a sarcastic a--.

agreed, this will be great for a online RPG. I'll talk to CZMQFRG and tell him to stop killing the woodland creatures

haha thanx for posting this that is awesome news im so glad to hear that nintendo added features that they nvr told us, im just afraid of the addicting qualities the nvr mentioned think about it. tetris for the wii using the wii mote to adjust the tetrii omg i would nvr leave my wii for a minute

They started it


edit - Oh ya, by the way, I just emailed NoA and NoE and asked them if this is true. Don't expect a straight answer...

This post was last modified: 06-01-2007 09:41 AM by TheCosmicFrog.

Just imagine all of us on here sitting around the TVs and playing a massive RPG online and talking back and forth. That would be so awesome, and I think we'll probably see such a game in 2008.

I think it would be horribly uncomfortable talking into thin air in front of you, but I know what you mean. I'd love a headset. I just think you'd look like a fruit playing a game and talking into somewhat nothingness.

You mean like we do everyday, when we're either singing to the radio or Ipod. Or maybe when we're talking to ourselves? I'm sure they'll have some sort of a Mic, or perhaps a wireless Mic that uses bluetooth tech.

Its a nice thought to savour

I remember way back when Nintendo said the Wii-mote wouldn't have a mic, so apparently they meant built in to just use. I don't mind getting an attachment, but I really don't want something that attaches to the bottom of the Wii-mote. I think that will just be cumbersome.

or they lied to trick the other evil companies who are trying to steal nintendo's ideas like the evil candy men trying to take willie wanka's secret recipies