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March 24, 2007
Peter Birdsall, Taking the Wii beyond
"Taking the Wii beyond anything Nintendo may have intended" by Peter Birsdall The Wii is the fifth home video game console released by Nintendo, who states that it targets a broader demographic than that of its competitors, Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Sony's PlayStation 3. The console is distinguished by a revolutionary wireless controller, the Wii Remote, which can be used as a handheld pointing device and can detect motion and rotation in three dimensions. The device's uniqueness has prompted a widespread effort to repurpose this console hardware, accessories and software; coordinated through the Internet, this grassroots effort seeks to provide open source tools to expand or alter the capabilities provided "out of the box". From utilizing the paradigm-altering Wiimote as a controller in other operating systems, to introducing homebrew applications via the console's Flash support, to porting alternate environments such as Linux to the device, efforts are underway by an enthusiastic community to take the Wii beyond anything its creator may have intended.
CURRENT STATE OF AFFAIRS
-community focusing on four or five parallel pursuits. On the "Wii side":
-exploring expanded usage and homemade replacement of the Wii hardware
-unlocking the ability to execute arbitrary code on the Wii ("homebrew") and developing such code
-developing web-based applications tailored to the Wii. In particular, Flash-based applications which utilize the full range of the device's unique abilities
-growing and finding application for the Wii's online community
-on the PC side:
-repurposing the Wii input devices for PC input and
-corresponding development of diverse/pioneering applications
State of Wii software hacking:
-Homebrew possible in GameCube mode only, via modchip or Action Replay
-Wiimote functionality accessible via community-developed flash APIs
WII HARDWARE HACKING:
STOREBOUGHT HARDWARE MODS:
Action Replay - currently THE most essential hardware mod, allows code execution (in Gamecube mode)
Region-Free Play Enabler - another common 3rd party tool
Forthcoming Dedicated Homebrew Launcher
COMMUNITY MODS:
Wii Hacking 101
Central site with how-to videos
show: -just intro of ep.1
-use-as-mouse part of ep.3
PDF instructions for building a sensor bar
Instructions for wireless retro controllers
PDF
Hardware Hackers Building HDMI Wii Connector Cables
-New this week: hackers have determined how to flash the Wii's firmware from a DVD-R.... opens the possibility of homebrew once the BIOS is decrypted
"Open Source" Wii Homebrew Modchip
ROM streamed from PC to Wii via custom server software
WII HOMEBREW SOFTWARE
WII-NATIVE HOMEBREW
-Gamecube mode only at this point, therefore still largely theoretical
Wii Homebrew Wiki
WII HOMEBREW VIA FLASH:
Flash games 1
Flash games 2 + API
-Flash API allowing full exploitation of the Wiimote
-Demo games
-many believe this is the real key to homebrew on the Wii, and that actual unsigned code execution is no longer a necessary pursuit
Homestar Runner Games Wii versions
Flash-based PC Mii Editor
Mii Repositories
(repository for Miis created via PC editors)
MiiPlaza
MiiMall
Java-based online NES Emulator /w/ 650 games, Wii-enabled
Individual Flash-ports of NES games, optimized for Wii
Flash-based browser enhancement: tabbed browsing, etc.
Streaming Radio Parsed for Wii Opera
Home Control through Wii/PC-based server/Flash interface
PC Support Software
-WiiCR: a media player solution that acts as a streaming media server and is capable of transcoding nearly any video or audio file into an embedded flash file viewable in the Wii's Opera browser. It allows browsing of the remote filesystem to view: videos (avi/xvid/divx/mpeg/wmv/etc), text files, jpg's and play mp3s
REPURPOSING WII HARDWARE FOR THE PC:
-Wiimote "discovery mode" has been found, allowing connection via any standard bluetooth stack
-Applications such as glovePIE mediate between Wiimote and PC, allowing it to be used as a mouse or game controller
Wiimote>>PC Projects underway:
-Mouse emulation daemon.
-generic joystick.
-Gesture recognition, in similarity to mouse gestures and what Nintendo is using. Many games use such "gestures" for control. A classifier can be trained to recognize such gestures (based on raw acceleration data). A classifier can be based on hidden Markov models. Alternatively, a clustering technique based on wavelet transforms could also render suitable. Implementing the math is fairly straightforward. There's many examples in academic literature (search for accelerometer, gesture, recognition, classifier, ...).
-This goes beyond simple accelerometer parsing and vastly enhances the utility of the device
-Sufficient demand that a commercial motion recognizer for PC/wiimote is in development:
AiLive White Paper
-Game engine mod. Say, hack Quake 3 (which is GPL) to use the Wiimote natively.
-Virtual keyboard tailored to the Wiimote. Experiment developing faster typing schemes for the wiimote.
-beryl / compiz interface
-Media player control
-Audio player for the Wiimote speaker (low quality, but potentially useful for effects)
-Calibration application
-Mii creator with support for saving to the Wiimote to transfer back to the Wii :)
Good Wiimote/Windows installation walkthru
Devil Sticks Simulation
-shows full mastery of the controller functions
Half Life 2 Wii mod
-convenient, zero-fuss - wii drivers are integrated into the modded game
House of the Dead 3 + wiimote via GlovePIE script
-demonstrates more sophisticated movement analysis scripting that is beginning to be done in community
Wiitar
-non-gaming application
VIRTools
-this one is near and dear to Jean-Marc's heart...
Wiisaber (Mac)
"this was inevitable"
EXOTICA:
WiiJaying - DJing with Wiimotes:
WiiRoomba
-Wii Beowulf cluster - usually inevitably follows the securing of a networked console's ability to run unsigned code and the porting of Linux
-Wiimote is actually an IR camera - could a cluster of Wiimotes function as ultra-cheap substitute mocap cameras?
-scaled-up sensor bars with clusters of LEDs replacing each single LED effectively extend the range of the Wiimote. The Vicon camera IR lamps emit 128x the intensity of a standard LED with a diameter at approximately the same scaling. Four of them could be used to create a bar whereby a wiimote could drive a display from 2500-4000 feet away with an optimal diagonal-measure screen-size of between 250 and 500 feet - IMAX wii anyone?
-Jeff Hahn is utilizing the Wiimote in conjunction with his MultiTouch environment to facilitate big-screen touch interaction for participants not physically near to the board.
-Jeff is also researching the feasibilty of a hemisphere of multiplexed strobing sensor bars to extend the wiimote's field of action omnidirectionally
More at http://homepages.nyu.edu/~pfb206/wii/wii_links.html
Bio: Peter Birdsall is an accomplished animator, software developer and researcher. He is affiliated with NYU's Media Research Lab, where he provides expertise related to graphics, motion capture and analysis. He has produced animation work for Mabou Mines, David Parsons and Ben Munisteri Dance, and has worked for New York media firms Curious Pictures (as an animator on "The Barbie Diaries" motion picture) and Razorfish (as a technologist developing multimedia projects for broadband and mobile).
Posted by jean-marc at March 24, 2007 08:41 AM