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More Wii-mote Info 191

Posted by Zonk from the blue-games dept.
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."
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More Wii-mote Info More

More Wii-mote Info

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  • So... (Score:3, Insightful)

    by InstinctVsLogic ( 920001 ) <harmonyofchaos@nospam.gmail.com> on Saturday July 15, 2006 @11:30PM (#15726692) Homepage
    ...it's not rechargable?

    • Re:So... (Score:3, Insightful)

      by MorderVonAllem ( 931645 )
      so...use rechargable batteries
    • Ugh. That's a damn shame. It should at least use swappable battery cartriges. I hate prying a couple of batteries out of a device whenever they need to be messed with.

      • Re:So... (Score:3, Insightful)

        by Kredal ( 566494 )
        I have no doubt that on release day, Pelican or some other like-minded company will have battery packs that replace the back cover as well as the batteries, and come with a charging cable as well.
      • 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.
      • I suspect that this situation will last as long as it takes until Nintendo realises it can make more money selling AC power packs or docking chargers.

      • Re:So... (Score:2, Interesting)

        by ben there... ( 946946 )
        I agree with you, although it doesn't seem very popular on /. For example:

        1. How often do you need to replace a proprietary battery in a device that just charges in a docking station?

        2. How often do you need to replace the standard batteries by pulling them out (one by one) and popping them into your charger (one by one)?

        I get the feeling that you have to do 2 much, much, more frequently than 1. (a few orders of magnitude more often)

        I'd rather pay for the convenience of never touching those damn batteries.
    • At least it doesn't use AAA batteries. I can never find AAA batteries when I need them.

  • Distances (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Data Link Layer ( 743774 ) on Saturday July 15, 2006 @11:35PM (#15726706)
    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.
    • Using the accelerometers, it would make no difference. The sensor bar seems to detect where the controller is in space or where it's pointing at or something (they still havn't outright said its purpose). Done right, with that and the accelerometers combined it should work fairly well at any distance. At least, you'd think. Might not turn out that way in practice, but at least the controller has a local reference point in addition to the bar.
      • Errrr, actually, it looks like it may be a passive reference point for the controller's eye. The "sensors" in it may be infrared LEDs or something. I don't know what the hell is going on now.

      • Re:Distances (Score:3, Informative)

        by BasilBrush ( 643681 )
        The sensor bar's purpose is to allow the system to know where you are pointing at on the screen. Given two fixed points a known distance apart it's possible interpolate the position in a plane that the device is pointed at. The sensor bar presumably has an IR LED at either end. In other words it isn't really a sensor at all.

  • Weird information (Score:3, Funny)

    by technoextreme ( 885694 ) on Saturday July 15, 2006 @11:36PM (#15726710)
    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. This is, of course, purely speculative on our part, but stranger things have certainly happened - like, for instance, an internal speaker.

    I just can't visualize or imagine what puprose this will have. Anyone have any ideas?
    • IANAND, But if it also doubles as a camera, there could be functionality akin to the PS2 EyeToy games. Consider it yet another Wii innovation (at least, on a grander scale than EyeToy could ever manage)

    • Re:Weird information (Score:3, Interesting)

      by MBCook ( 132727 )

      I don't believe it at all. You can see my other comment in this topic to see why.

      That said, I can give you some ideas. One that has been floated around is that you would be able to have a little avatar of yourself that you could put into various games. This rumor seems to have come from the customized characters in the Wii Sports demo. You could use the camera to put your face on the model.

      It could also be used more... creatively. Through image analysis you could turn any rough surface (even carpet) along

    • ...measuring coordinates between 0-1023 on the X axis and 0-767 on the Y axis...


      I believe this an awkward way of describing the resolution of the position tracking system, i.e., how many discrete 'tics' can be measured (along each axis) as you move from the lower-left corner of the measurement area to the upper right.

      I doubt that there is any sort of camera (in the "take a picture of your face for use in Wii Sports" sense) involved.

    • Re:Weird information (Score:5, Informative)

      by SirSlud ( 67381 ) on Sunday July 16, 2006 @01:07AM (#15726940) Homepage
      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:

      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 .. 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.

      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 .. you should average it out over some small delta, maybe .2 seconds.

      But the 'maybe it can be used a camera' part is just like .. 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?!
      • I say this as:

        a) a game developer
        ...
        why am I working 50 hours a week to create something mediocre

        I admire your honesty! But as Jack Bauer would say, "Who do you work for?" Just so I can, y'know, avoid their 'mediocre' games.


      • 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 .. you should average it out over some small delta, maybe .2 seconds.

        Accelerometers are usually very sensative. I'm working with some that are on the order of 2 micro-"g"
      • Hey, if you can use a normal optical mouse as a scanner [engadget.com], there's no reason why it might not be possible to use the CCD in the Wii remote as a camera. It just depends on whether Nintendo have put the facility for transfer of the raw data from the CCD to the Wii via bluetooth. It'll might show some strange images though, depending on what light bandwidths it picks up in addition to IR.

    • It's a "Beacon Bar" not a "Sensor Bar" (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Dr_Barnowl ( 709838 ) on Sunday July 16, 2006 @06:16AM (#15727424)
      I'd guess this is how it actually works ;

      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....

      • A lightgun works by picking up a single pixel of light, and relaying the timing to the base unit. The base unit uses it's knowledge about how far down the TV fram the electron beam is to determine the position of the lightgun.
      • With a lightgun, the positioning relies heavily on scan-timing on a CRT. Given the modern display market, a consistent method of detecting scan-timings varies from difficult (100MHz flicker-free displays) to impossible (LCD displays).
      • With a lightgun, you have to have a "flash" to enable the thing to work ; this is why House of the Dead and the like all flash the screen when you shoot - so the lightgun can pick up it's position regardless of whether it's aimed at a dark pixel or not.

      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.

      • ...The "sensor bar" sounds more like a "beacon bar"... ...you should be able to move the "beacon" bar closer...

        I must be hungry - I can't stop mis-reading that as "bacon bar".

        Mmmmm.... bacon bar. Now there's a way to capture the market. "The Nintendo Wii - featuring revolutionary bacon bar technology!"

        Can I pre-order one yet?
      • You know, the best part about your description here is that the IGN writer speculating about the camera bit might not nearly be as far off his rocker as everybody thinks he is. Oh, sure, I doubt that Nintendo would include such functionality myself, as a one-megapixel monochrome image is awfully underwhelming... but if what you are saying is true, the Wii-mote does have a 1024x768 infrared CCD built into it, rather than measuring position like a mouse or conventional lightgun would.

  • AA Batteries? Are they kidding? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Rachel Lucid ( 964267 ) on Saturday July 15, 2006 @11:36PM (#15726711) Homepage Journal
    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...

    • Re:AA Batteries? Are they kidding? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Osty ( 16825 ) on Saturday July 15, 2006 @11:47PM (#15726733)

      Just because it can use AA batteries doesn't mean it won't have a rechargeable battery pack. Look at the Xbox 360 controller, for example. Out of the box, it comes with two AA batteries that fit into a little box that snaps into the controller. However, you can go out and buy a play and charge kit (battery + USB recharge cable) for ~$20 and use that instead. The battery pack is similar in shape to the AA battery cartridge and fits in the exact same place on the controller. Selling it separately may be seen as a money grab by some, but it does make sense (accessories == big money!) to help offset the console subsidy.

      Then again, Nintendo didn't do that with the old Wavebird. If you wanted rechargeable batteries, you had to go out and buy your own AA-sized rechargeables. I would be very surprised if Nintendo didn't offer some sort of rechargeable battery pack for the WiiMote, though.

      • If the battery life is anything close to the Wavebird, I'm perfectly happy with them using AAs. I've gotten a lot of use out of my Wavebird and I've only ever replaced the batteries in it a couple of times. The rare occasion when it runs out, I just need to run to the pantry to get a few replacements rather than wait for it to recharge. All in all, I'd say the Wavebird is the single best console controller I've ever used. It's wireless, responsive, feels good in your hands, lightweight, and the batteries l

        • The rare occasion when it runs out, I just need to run to the pantry to get a few replacements rather than wait for it to recharge.

          That's the beautiful part about the 360's play and charge cable. It'll recharge and let you play at the same time (it'll recharge much more slowly that way, of course). Of course, then you're tethered to the console again, but it's better than waiting an hour or two for the batteries to charge back up. I guess if being wireless is really that important, you could buy two

          • they now make a separate charger... (Score:5, Interesting)

            by YesIAmAScript ( 886271 ) on Sunday July 16, 2006 @01:07AM (#15726939)
            http://www.xbox.com/en-US/hardware/x/xbox360quickc hargekit/default.htm [xbox.com]

            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.

      • Then again, Nintendo didn't do that with the old Wavebird.

        However, you could buy one through a third party. [amazon.com]

        An official Nintendo-branded model would probably be a more solid option, though. Still, AA rechargeables aren't really a big deal, especially when they last 30-60 hours. Some rechargeables even last longer than traditional batteries, I think, and they're often cheaper than the battery packs.

    • Just buy rechargable AAs. Problem solved

    • Are YOU kidding? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 16, 2006 @01:06AM (#15726937)
      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...

      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?

      • You missed option 4 (or, actually, 1.5 in your list): "Proprietary" lithium-ion batteries that ARE user replaceable. When the battery loses a charge, you replace the battery. Cost to you: $10-50 depending on who's doing the selling/gouging. For the DS and DS Lite (different batteries), Nintendo sells replacement batteries for $15.

        You also skipped over the length of time between replacements. Depending on the battery and your individual tolerance for diminishing battery life, Li-Ion batteries can end
    • Rather than produce an expensive next gen wireless controller, I'm looking at you $50 Wireless 360 controller, Nintendo has opted to keep the cost down to make it a smaller investment for teh average consumer. So instead of having a $50 controller, it might retail for $25-$35 instead. As you said, lithium batteries aren't cheap, but consumers often are.

  • Uh... Need A Clue? (Score:5, Informative)

    by MBCook ( 132727 ) <foobarsoft@foobarsoft.com> on Saturday July 15, 2006 @11:40PM (#15726721) Homepage

    I read this the other day. Most of it was known before. That said, the IGN writer needs a clue.

    The Wii-mote features 6KB of "non-volatile" memory, whose exact purpose remains a mystery. IGN Wii speculates that this throwaway memory could possibly be used in conjunction with the Wii-mote's recently revealed internal speaker.

    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!

    ...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.

    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.

    • Re:Uh... Need A Clue? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by 77Punker ( 673758 ) <(ude.tniophgih) (ta) (40rcneps)> on Saturday July 15, 2006 @11:47PM (#15726732)
      Hey, at least it's not as bad as the IGN article that said the Wii would be less powerful than the X-Box because its CPU runs at a lower frequency. I think it went something like this:

      "X-Box had a 780 MHz Celeron but Wii's processor is only 745 MHz so that means that Wii won't support bump mapping! OMFG!"

      Maybe that quote is paraphrased, but it's pretty damn close to an IGN article I read about a month ago that made it onto Slashdot. IGN should either hire some editors or be destroyed.
      • Thought I'd pipe in again, judging from the amount of memory, it's probably an EEPROM chip rather than flash. This might indicate that they're actually planning on just physcially keeping a list of savegames (along witht their location, but the the files themselves, just an index) on the remote itself, probably along with varios configuration data or whatever..
    • It might be used for custom button mappings. A nice feature of PC games is that you can have customer key mappings. This might allow the controller to provide those features, eliminating the need for each game to do so.

      • Re:Uh... Need A Clue? (Score:5, Insightful)

        by MBCook ( 132727 ) <foobarsoft@foobarsoft.com> on Sunday July 16, 2006 @12:03AM (#15726796) Homepage

        I thought about that for a second but I ruled it out. What is the point of putting that on the controller? Unless your controller becomes your controller that you take to a friends house that keeps a tiny bit of data on you (favorite color, birthday, name) so when you start playing it's already configured for you. I wouldn't think enough games would have similar enough controls for that to work. When they do (such as the trigger in an FPS) then the configuration is obvious (are you going to change the fire button from the trigger to a button at the bottom of the controller you can't reach?)

        On a PC you have a TON of keys to bind. On the Wiimote, you have 9 (if you include the four D-pad directions).

        I don't see the point of storing that on the controller. After all, the system is supposed to have built in flash storage of some size (I don't remember) and you could store that data there. That would make more sense than storing it on the controller.

        And on the storing sounds font, just how much of a sound could you possibly fit in 6kb anyway? Standard WAVs are 10MB per minute. If you make that mono, it's 5MB a minute. Cut the sample rate in 4 (to 11khz) and that would give you 1.25MB a minute. Go to 8 bit instead of 16 and things are sounding terrible, but you're at ~600kb per minute. So you could fit 1/100th of a minute of audio in that space. Even if you compress it 5:1 you only get 3 seconds.

        And if you are going to use that memory for sounds in-game, why does it need to be non-volatile anyway? Would it really be that hard to download the sound to the controller again the next time they turn on the game?

        • Re:Uh... Need A Clue? (Score:3, Informative)

          by PeelBoy ( 34769 )
          I don't know about the rest of this but I do remember the Nintendo guys saying that people would want their controller to be THEIR controller so this might be exactly what that memory is used for. A profile of some sorts.

          This *is* something Nintendo is shooting for (the personalized controllers)
          • That sounds cool to me; the controller sounds as though it should be reasonably inexpensive, given that Nintendo are keeping the costs down in general. That being the case, it might not be too impractical for a couple of people sharing a console to go down and get themselves a controller each so they can just pick up n' play.

            Also, given online capabilities, it should be possible for the console to store a person's profile online in an xb.live style, and have the wiimote act as the personal key to that ac
        • I don't think it's about configuring the buttons. I think it's about configuring how to interpret the movements. Most people don't bother adjusting the speed the mouse moves but a lot of people may adjust how sensitive their wii controller is. Maybe even have different settings per game type. Playing tennis? You want to do a full-fledged swing. Playing some fps? You may want very slight movements make a big difference in game. So maybe just two settings of responsiveness depending on whether you want to swi
        • Probably not for key mappings. Remember that the console will have WAY more flash memory to store those kinds of things. 6KB is a tiny tiny tiny amount, so I doubt its really all that significant with respect to the featureset of the controller.
        • Number one, in many console games you don't get much freedom to change the mapping of button->action.

          With the wii, you're probably going to need someway of calibrating the remote to a persons style. Do they make large movements or small precise ones? What's their resting height, etc.?

          Also, with the Wii Sports demonstration it looks like players might have the option of creating a custom avatar for their in game persona. This could be stored on the remote, instead of a memory card (especially if it's a
        • Unless your controller becomes your controller that you take to a friends house that keeps a tiny bit of data on you

          That is exactly what Nintendo has announced, and it's exactly what it is for.

          They expect every user to have his own controller, with some personal data stored on it.

          • 6KB is definitvly to little to store any real game data (keymappings or such) or personal data (say a picture of you), however 6kb should be enough to store your user-id and your password/key for the online account. So if they are actually going to use a 'personal' controller, they have to do it over the online service and just use the controller as a login tool.
            • I know Nintendo is going for online functionality this time around, but they shouldn't be REQUIRING it. How many people have WiFi setup in their house? I know I do, but none of my friends do, quite a few of them don't even have internet. Remember, there are many people who buy consoles because they don't have computers. It's a good move for Nintendo to get into online play, but from every indication I've seen, they neither have the push or the technology to require it. They haven't bothed making it easy, an
              • Do you even know what you're talking about? Are you thinking at all while typing that weird diatribe?

                IF user online info was stored on the controller (which, of course, is speculation at this point), that wouldn't make online a "requirement" at all. That's like saying that because I could store my Xbox Live account info on my Xbox hard drive, Xbox Live becomes some sort of requirement (or the same for a PS2 or Dreamcast memory card).

                You're trying way too hard to take a shot at the Wii.

                • Woh, woh, woh!

                  Taking a shot at the Wii? WTF? I LOVE the Wii! I'm going to be there at 3am on launch day if I have to, to get one. I was not in any way, shape or form, trying to "take a shot at it", so settle down, please. I was speculating on the Wiimote being used to store a user profile, which has NOTHING to do with online use, what-so-ever. I would LOVE to have a user-profile saving ability on my console, in a way that I could save common preferences: default controller settings, sensitivity settings f

            • 6 KB is enough for your name, a very simple picture (maybe similar to the Mario Kart DS emblem), your favourite color and maybe some key preferences. This will most certainly not be connected to the online system. It may be connected to a Wii, and if it is, going to a friend's would be out, but personally I think 6KB is enough to store the most important data.

              • Would you carry your Wiimote around for lausy 6kb of data? I know I wouldn't, you can't really store anything worthwhile, a 64x64 image and the memory is almost full, that just wouldn't make any sense on a console that renders to TV. Favorite color and other stuff could simply be selected inside the game each time, its not really so special that you wanna store it. You also have to take the price into account, flash memory is quite cheap, so if they would want to store a photo and other personal stuff, they

    • Re:Uh... Need A Clue? (Score:3, Informative)

      by MasJ ( 594702 )

      Well, ironically the example you gave of the mouse has actually been done. It was on Slashdot a few months ago where this guy rewired his mouse to act as a scanner/digital camera. Pretty cool IMO : ). You could atleast take low-res images. And if it's actually seeing megapixel, that's pretty good.

      This is the slashdot story: Turn an Optical Mouse into a Scanner [slashdot.org]
    • The Wii-mote has a CMOS sensor behind the IR filter in the front.
      The "sensor bar" has a few IR LEDs on each side that the Wii-mote sensor can see. The Wii-mote is able to read two positions from these LEDs and determine their positions in a 1024x768 area.

      The company that provides the sensor technology also makes sensors for optical mice. Those sensors "analyze every image to figure out which way the thing was pointing". And optical mice can last a lot longer than 60 hours on two AAs while providing their
    • Well, there have been rumors that the remote would store save-games. However, the 6KB makes that seem unlikely, except the reality MIGHT be that remote store some data about its "owner" i.e. You have your own personal remote and it stores data that tells the Wii itself which savegames are yours. The Wii maybe saves some identifying data (name, profile, etc) on the remote, which also goes with savegame files. This sounds at least vaguely plausible to me.

      Also Nintendo has historically not shown up at the

    • 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.
      Yeah, because no one would ever do something like this... [hackaday.com]
    • Maybe the flash is to record the last three days of accelerometer usage, so if you break it the repair guy will know you threw it against the wall in frustration ;)
    • That's like saying a mouse with a ball and a 200 PPI resolution could be used as a scanner.

      well, it can [utwente.nl]

    • 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.

      The internal memory in the remote is likely going to make it YOUR remote. It would store a user name/handle, the orientation you use for first-person games (inverted, etc.), and some other basi

  • Bounds of the TV (Score:3, Insightful)

    by RyanFenton ( 230700 ) on Saturday July 15, 2006 @11:41PM (#15726724)
    That makes me wonder... how will the sensor determine the bounds of the TV that the remote is aiming at? Will it look up somehow to see where light is emiting from the TV somehow? Or will there be general assumptions about the size and aspect ratio of the screen?

    Perhaps there will be a calibration on setting the system up... but they have to expect either the TV or the sensor to be moved occasionally. Any manual calibration can be expected to suffer from accuracy problems, I'd expect - especially if game makers somehow assume a screen aspect ratio when making their games. Games with relativistic controls wouldn't be so bad... but anything with precision involved would start to feel sloppy when anything changed.

    I hope the relationship between screen and controller are more dynamic and automatic than just sensing the remote. Regardless, I imagine I can quickly get used to whatever it is, and the game makers will compensate as needed - I'd just like it to be as close to a precise 3-d mouse as possible without having to wave the controller too out of proportion to the actual screen.

    Ryan Fenton
    • I'm guessing it will be like the DS. When you first turn it on for the first time (or when ever you choose to) you'd calibrate it (standard shoot the corners). This would then be stored in the Wii and it would pass the calibrated data to the games, they would never get the raw data. The TV's aspect ratio could easily be stored there too.
    • It's in the summary--you calibrate teh Wiimote by pointing it at two seperate locations on the screen (probably top left and bottom right--or top right and bottom left). Also, the summary (I haven't read TFA) made it seem like you may need to calibrate the controller every time a game is loaded to take into account environmental variables (such as a receiver that's been moved, mirrors, plastic, lighting changes, etc.) If you're changing games a lot in a short time frame this could be annoying, but otherwis

    • Re:Bounds of the TV (Score:5, Interesting)

      by Lectrik ( 180902 ) on Sunday July 16, 2006 @03:37AM (#15727186)
      That makes me wonder... how will the sensor determine the bounds of the TV that the remote is aiming at? Will it look up somehow to see where light is emiting from the TV somehow? Or will there be general assumptions about the size and aspect ratio of the screen?

      Perhaps there will be a calibration on setting the system up... but they have to expect either the TV or the sensor to be moved occasionally. Any manual calibration can be expected to suffer from accuracy problems, I'd expect - especially if game makers somehow assume a screen aspect ratio when making their games. Games with relativistic controls wouldn't be so bad... but anything with precision involved would start to feel sloppy when anything changed.

      I hope the relationship between screen and controller are more dynamic and automatic than just sensing the remote. Regardless, I imagine I can quickly get used to whatever it is, and the game makers will compensate as needed - I'd just like it to be as close to a precise 3-d mouse as possible without having to wave the controller too out of proportion to the actual screen.


      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]
    • "That makes me wonder... how will the sensor determine the bounds of the TV that the remote is aiming at? Will it look up somehow to see where light is emiting from the TV somehow? Or will there be general assumptions about the size and aspect ratio of the screen?"

      It has nothing to do with the TV, and everything to do with the sensor bar. When you point at the TV you're actually pointing at the sensor bar and any movement you do is then translated to movement on screen.

      You can think of it just like a mouse

  • Don't believe the camera bit. (Score:5, Interesting)

    by EvilFrog ( 559066 ) on Sunday July 16, 2006 @12:05AM (#15726799)
    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.
  • Then we can see if it's good or gimick - a neat controller design or a nintendo power glove.

    Until then, you can go back to bashing the PS3 as usual.
    • According to the impressions of E3 attendees who tried out the Wii-Mote it will be much more than just a gimick. It will change the way we play videogames.

      Stop spreading FUD.
      • I think the parent makes a valid point, we won't really know anything until we can personally hold the controller in our own hands and try it. All most of us have now is some annecdotal evidence from some people from a gaming show who said it was neat. I'm with the parent, I need to try this thing out for myself to see if I want to be waving a stick around to play games.

        • Re:Once it's out it's out (Score:4, Insightful)

          by DDLKermit007 ( 911046 ) on Sunday July 16, 2006 @03:20AM (#15727157)
          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.

    • Re:Once it's out it's out (Score:4, Insightful)

      by Guppy06 ( 410832 ) on Sunday July 16, 2006 @09:18AM (#15727734)
      Once upon a time, wireless controllers were a cheap gimmick until Nintendo made a first-party one.

  • Not a Camera (Score:4, Informative)

    by vitaflo ( 20507 ) on Sunday July 16, 2006 @11:18AM (#15728060) Homepage
    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.
    • Your post is a good explanation of why the IGN article is stupid, but I feel I have to correct the numbers.

      1024x768 is not a standard "HD" resolution. HD is typically 1920x1080 (e.g. 1080i), which you'll note is a 16x9 widescreen ratio rather than 1024x768's 4x3 standard ratio. The other standard HD resolution, 1280x720 (e.g. 720p), also has more pixels than 1024x768. So, the Wiimote's sensing is not per-pixel accurate in HD... however, the Wii is not outputting an HD signal anyway. I believe the SD signal

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