The Popular Science crew have ripped apart a Wiimote, all in the name of, you guessed it, science. What they found is some amaxing technology, as they report the Wiimote is capable of registering movement as small as five nanometers, or 1/40 the width of a human hair. This is impressive, but could such sensitivity be a bad thing? With the Wiimote registering movement that small, could it mean that small movements by the player, not meant to be translated into the game, are being translated into the game? Maybe this is the root of those "messy" controls that EA dude was talking about? Or are developers smart enough to not include the maximum sensitivity of the Wiimote when constructing their games?
For those of you who enjoy the more technological side of things, the piece is definitely a worthwhile read.
[via Joystiq]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
3-16-2007 @ 1:15PM
Dougal said...
As the comments in Joystiq point out - the five nanometres is how far the component in the sensor moves when it detects acceleration. The accelerometers can't even measure absolute movement - only accelerations (the clue is in the name).
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3-16-2007 @ 1:28PM
Loban said...
Extremely fine resolution is ALWAYS a good thing. It can easily be toned down using software filtering. You should never limit the capabilities of your device, let the developers handle that if they wish.
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3-16-2007 @ 1:28PM
hvnlysoldr said...
Yes it is quite AMAZING. Wasn't this already reported though?
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3-16-2007 @ 2:29PM
Abscissa said...
It's easy to filter out extra detail you don't need. The "messy" controls issue is more a matter of human movements themselves being imprecise and inconsistent.
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3-16-2007 @ 2:29PM
Abscissa said...
It's easy to filter out extra detail you don't need. The "messy" controls issue is more a matter of human movements themselves being imprecise and inconsistent.
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3-16-2007 @ 3:16PM
Dan Brusich said...
The sensitivity is great! Actually, if you are pointing the hand at the menu screen you can see it move very slightly because of your body's natural shake. I think that is fantastic!
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3-18-2007 @ 12:42AM
Tim said...
When I read the title, I thought it would be an in-depth dissection of my favourite input device, but instead it's just a simple flash thing.
What happened to all the pictures of the innards as they dug into it?
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3-22-2007 @ 11:27AM
Meico Tenkawa said...
Hrm, Sparkfun covered this way back on Dec 19. And they actually did a good job covering the techinical elemements of the wiimote. http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/present.php?p=Wii-Internals
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