Projects

We've asked participants to propose projects for which they've been wanting to hack a wiimote (or extension). We think this sort of self-organization will make the workshop more fun and engaging, not to mention productive for folks involved. (If you haven't submitted a proposal, don't sweat it, just join up with a group that already has a project.) Here are the proposals we've received.

Physics Education
My main purpose for participating in the workshop is to learn. I am working on a project to investigate ways game technology, particularly the wiimote, can be used to assist young students in the learning of physics. Thus I want to get more familiar with modifying the nintendo controller. I want to do basic hacking of the wiimote and use of the available APIs to create basic programs. By the end of the workshop I would love to have a simple prototype of a science activity for young students. I would also like to gather people ideas of wiimote activities that might be useful to students for the learning of physics and science in general.
Ugochi Acholonu

Wiimote IR camera + microcontroller
The WiiMote is an incredible thing. Not only is it a great platform for designing wireless sensor-based projects, it contains several sensors that would otherwise be unaffordable - namely the IR camera. In this workshop we will go through all the steps necessary to integrate the wiimote's IR camera with your microcontroller project - from desoldering to visualizing the sensor data. This approach is independent of microcontroller platform (Atmel, PIC, etc) and only requires a common i2c I/O interface.
Mark Argo and Ann Poochareon

Motes and Chucks
I have a confession to make: I have never played Nintendo. I don't even know if that is how I should make such a confession -- does one play Nintendo?

Given this and my general disinterest in screens, I would like to propose the creation of a world. This world is inhabited by two kinds of organisms, motes and chucks. These organisms are similar in many respects, but different in fundamental ways. Motes can see their world. They explore, learn and understand their habitat principally through sight. Because of this, they privilege their eye, they hold it high, they reach to see further. But they are also aware that their eye is precious. So their engagement with the world is re-mote, they are distant, cautious. Chucks on the other hand lack vision. They understand their world through embodied experience. They scour across surfaces and develop a world view through the experience of tumbling, falling, tipping. They are robust, low and armoured. They are explorers...

In the context of the workshop I would like to explore the feasibility of developing multiples of the two organisms described above. I would like to test the experiential boundaries and potentials that arise when one takes the properties of Wii-motes and Wii-Nunchucks literally. By juxtaposing world views of a predominantly visual culture with a more embodied approach to experience I would like to see what forms of participation emerge. Drawing on artists such as Bill Vorn, Ken Rinaldo and Jessica Field’s “Semiotic Investigation into Cybernetic Behaviour ” I will explore how differing modes of experiencing influence behaviour. By bringing into one space the writing of Braitenburg and Susan Kozel I anticipate the evolution of a novel world that critically engages the ideas of sense, experience and control.
Steve Daniels

Participant observation
I'm interested in doing participant observation of early stage design work, especially as folks gain familiarity with novel materials. My goal is to identify some of the less salient factors that influence the prototyping process. As a hacker, I'm interested in exploring the idea of "puppetry" in narrative media. Can the wiiMote help open up interaction possibilities for controlling embodied characters in online performances?
Steven Dow

Gesture recognition and generally helpful ninja skills
I have two ideas in mind (and can possibly do both).

The first one is to simply run round providing aid of all kinds to other people's projects. I know the wiimote and nunchuck electronics intimately (oops there went another $40), have built it into live music control systems used regularly by performers and helped Masayuyki AKAMATSU expose all the features of the wiimote in his aka.wii object for Max/MSP (and PD). I can show people how to find and use interesting software for getting wiimote data into various programming environments and other forms, e.g. MIDI. I can show people how to hack a nunchuck to connect external sensors (e.g. fabric sensors) and use the wiimote for cheap wireless broadcast of the sensors.

The second project is to finish some useful tools I started for use with the wiimote and related inertial controllers. The tools are part of a bigger programming library we are just finishing up called "o.dot". The concise description of o.dot is that it provides delegation-based object oriented programming to popular languages dynamic languages like PD and Max/MSP. We have a lot of easy -to-use primitives to process and interpret gestures from devices like the wiimote. The particular primitive in the o.dot library I would like to complete analyzes inertial data using robust gesture interpretation algorithms and outputs a stream of labelled gesture events. Examples gestures to be labelled and measured include clockwise rotation (with rate), anticlockwise rotation, zig-zagging, whipping etc. I have been using these tools in my Gametrak work and I want to go back and make them work well on the wiimote.

Actually with all the textile tools in the lab there I might just want to spend the time putting together some different pocket designs to hold the wiimotes(s) on various items of clothing providing for standard e-textile connecting techniques to gather data from sensors scattered throughout the clothing. I may be able to bring enough conductive thread of the right kind to weave sensor arrays to hook up to the wiimote.
Adrian Freed

Gestural programming
My research lab has been working on human-robot interactions for simulated space missions, as well as using interactive robots to teach the basics of programming to young kids. So far we have iRobot Create robots (similar to the Roombas) responding to instructions on visual printed tiles. For even more embodied/physical interactions, I'd like to be able to program them with gestures and sequences of gestures (cross between sign language and semaphores for robot communication). I think wiimotes would work well for capturing these gestures. I'd also like to incorporate a more fluid way of interacting using the wiimote than holding it like a game controller (this idea needs development, but something like a garment or holder to attach it to the body).
Natalie Freed

At arm's length
This project is a prototype for a handheld "at arm's length" gaming platform. A small color LCD with touchscreen input (Color 24bit LCD 4.3" PSP 480x272 from Sparkfun) will be placed in a custom casing (aka a ghetto piece of wood to start) and connected to a computer via USB. A WiiMote will be fixed to the back of the casing, pointing towards the face of the player, who will be wearing a pair of infrared augmented glasses (a la Johnny Lee). The computer will read the WiiMote data to control the camera in a 3D world displayed on the screen.

The player will interact by moving the screen closer or further away from her face and tilting her head to change the camera position in the game, and she will use the (single)touch screen to act in the game. Once the prototype is built, the idea is to create a game that will use the limited physical space between the player and the screen, her arm's length, as an element of gameplay. Because there are only some many hours in a workshop weekend, I would like to have the WiiMote sensing, camera control and display complete and a good idea of a game or games that would work well with this 'controller'.
Bruno Nadeau

Hacking accessibility
I'm a newb when it comes to hacking things but I saw somewhere on the net (a while back) someone hack a wiimote and install/relocate the A and B buttons in two push-buttons outside the wiimote (like wire extensions w buttons on the end). I found some pics but of a different setup from a website 'gimpgear' (gotta love the name:)
Steve Payette