Re:Wii Architecture – A Practical Analysis
by charcircuit on Thursday August 31, 2023 @07:50PM
(#37345035)
I find the inside out 6 dof tracking to also be impressive
Re:Wii Architecture – A Practical Analysis
by guiambros on Thursday August 31, 2023 @08:05PM
(#37345150)
... or the various projects by Johnny Lee [1], using the then new wiimote in completely novel ways [2][3].
15 years later, I'm still surprised these proof-of-concepts didn't evolve into something more commercial.
[1] http://johnnylee.net/projects/wii/
Re:Wii Architecture – A Practical Analysis
by Klonoar on Thursday August 31, 2023 @08:18PM
(#37345245)
Didn't Lee go on to work at Snap on the glasses or something?
Re:Wii Architecture – A Practical Analysis
by guiambros on Thursday August 31, 2023 @08:42PM
(#37345400)
He returned to Microsoft (where he had been a research intern before) to work on a project that eventually became the Kinect for Xbox 360. Right after we joined Google, and currently leads AR Devices & Experiences [1].
Not sure if it's related to Johnny's work at Google, but there's some cool experiences being built on top of AR Core and Geospatial Creator, with stark resemblance to the ideas and visuals of those early wiimote demos [2][3].
(disclaimer: Googler, but on a different team; no relationship to the things mentioned here other than being a fan of Johnny's wiimote hacks :)
[1] https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnnychunglee/
[2] https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/consumer-insights/consumer-t...
[3] https://fsstudio.com/googles-geospatial-creator-is-a-powerfu...
Re:Wii Architecture – A Practical Analysis
by tapoxi on Thursday August 31, 2023 @09:09PM
(#37345570)
The Saturn one is a great read, what a crazy design: https://www.copetti.org/writings/consoles/sega-saturn/
I think it might be worth a paragraph or two about the innovative use of MEMS gyros and accelerometers in the Wiimote, Motion Plus, and Nunchuk. There's a reasonably good writeup about them here: https://arduino-projects4u.com/wii-motion-plus/ .
For a time, these were one of the easiest and most cost effective sources of small IMUs, giving birth to projects like the early drone flight control system MultiWiiCopter.