Wiimote fun
Some while ago, I was considering to buy a gyroscopic mouse from Gyration for my future Media Center, but I’m becoming more and more convinced I should simply buy a Wiimote instead 
There are lots more possibilities while still fulfilling the original needs. The Wiimote IS a gyroscopic mouse but adds the following advantages:
- IR blaster / receiver (1024×768 resolution!!) 4 point tracking @ 100Hz
- relatively cheap! (40 EUR)
- speaker
- joystick and more buttons than standard mouse
- on-board storage
- programmer / hacker friendly
- go play multiplayer on a friends console
After looking at all the neat programs Johnny Lee put together, I guess you understand I can’t wait to try this out myself 
Also, be sure to check out his blog and numerous videos floating around the web.
First time I heard of the cool wiimote possibilities was when reading a post of Xfennec, in which he made a simple showcase of the possibilities with libwiimote using his favorite 3D engine Raydium. Be sure to check out the vid. I was really impressed back then, but of course Johnny did a lot more impressive stuff, the guy is a legend by now. Johnny does not use the libwiimote lib, but rather the dotnet WiimoteLib (I mention this ref especially for andrasj )
I have to admit that at first glance the .net lib seems more attractive due to its event based mechanism (internally, it does an async read on a stream in a loop though). The C lib looks a bit more basic but very easy to get started.
February 1st, 2008 at 19:48
mmm… Since you pointed me to linuxMCE, I also wanted a gyroscopic mouse… and now you’re telling this… only 40 EUR?
(I should hire as personal researcher :-))
btw, what do you want first I rewrote my mailtool in C++/QT instead of .Net and now you’re pussing me towards dotnet… (I still need to think about the researching-stuff ;-))
February 1st, 2008 at 20:11
sorry to bother again, but after watching the johnny’s headtracking movie… I thought about something why not doing the same with webcam, and tracking gestures with the bright light of your cellphone, flashlight, key-hole finderlight, cigarette lighter, whatever is the closest… You’ll never lose your remote any more…. (damn yet another project…)
February 2nd, 2008 at 11:18
lol
At work, I tried out the latest Logitech and Creative webcams, and although they claim 2 MP CCD’s, it’s useless because of low framerate.
@1: okay, so just stay in C++/Qt mode and extend libwiimote with an event mechanism (i.e. signal / slot)
@2: webcams do not have such high refresh rates at such resolution (1024×768). read again: 100Hz!! no webcam can beat that
February 15th, 2008 at 12:42
btw, seems i forgot to mention the really nice WiiLi (
) project with its interesting wiimote driver section.
February 15th, 2008 at 12:49
some wiimote / pc interaction (early stage)
http://www.hackaday.com/2006/12/01/hacking-wiimote-bluetooth/