Wii Sticks Physics Simulation

On the WiiLi Forums, walaber , has posted about his Wii Sticks Demo Application. He writes:

I have been playing around with the Wii remote lately, and this is my first prototype combining Wii remote input + physics! It's a virtual version of a toy, where you flick a stick back and forth between other sticks.



created with the Ogre 3D rendering engine, and Newton Game Dynamics physics engine... Wii remote input via cWiiMote library.

Check out the video below:

Download the demo app from here

Wii Remote C++ Communication API for Windows

Wiim ("whim" or "wheem", if you prefer) is a simple set of C++ classes that allow you to connect to your Wii remote through Windows' HID interface to send and receive commands. Right now you can receive button presses and motion data as well as set rumble and LED status. There's no support for IR or any extension devices yet. Miis are another possibility, but they're already well supported elsewhere.

Check it out at:
http://digitalretrograde.com/projects/wiim/

UPDATE: Windows Wii-Mote Scripting

vkapadia has posed several scripts for GlovePIE, a Windows program which lets you use the Wii-Mote as your mouse, or to control games on your PC. You will need to successfully connect the WiiMote to your PC using a compatible bluetooth adapter first. There are detailed instructions posted here. Once you have GlovePIE and the wii-mote successfully connected, download one of the following scripts (right click and save-as) and then load it into GlovePIE.

Scripts for using the Wiimote in Windows with GlovePIE:

WiiMouse IR
Point with your Wiimote and click! REQUIRES SENSOR BAR
Chances are, this is the one you want.

WiiMouse Accel
Tilt and rotate the Wiimote to control the mouse.

WiiMouse IR Relative
Moves the mouse based on the Wiimote's position relative to the center of the screen.

Two WiiMice
Connect two Wiimotes to control two mice. REQUIRES SENSOR BAR

WiiMouse IR Odd Bar
Before version .24, some sensor bars were not functioning properly. REQUIRES SENSOR BAR

Generic Joystick Driver
This uses the tilt/rotate as two axes, and all 11 buttons to emulate a joystick. REQUIRES PPJOY

Nintendo 64 Emulator - Ocarina of Time
A little awkward, but not too bad.

Nintendo 64 Emulator - Goldeneye (basic)
All buttons are digital in this script.

Nintendo 64 Emulator - Goldeneye (advanced)
In this, there is analog control support.

Nintendo Entertainment System Emulator
Basic controls for an NES emulator. Turn the Wiimote sideways for this one.

Control TV with Wiimote

This was a special promo item given out to Nintendo Club Members in Japan. It does not have the hardware of a retail wiimote, it is simply a wii-mote shell with hardware inside to emit infared signals. Does anyone know how this is programmed? Is it a learning remote, or does it have preset codes for each brand of TV like a radioshack universal remote?




With bluetooth drivers for the Wii Remote on the way, it's only a matter of time before people (like me) are actually doing things like this with the real wii-motes. This is just a big tease as to what's to come in the next few months. Stay tuned for more info! Fun stuff is in development...

More Wii-Mote Hacking

I figured out a little trick with the wii-mote last night. The wii-mote is paired with the Wii, so you usually will not see it when you do a bluetooth 'discover all devices' on the PC.

But, If you press buttons 1 and 2 at the same time on the bottom of the wiimote it puts it into a discovery mode where the lights on the bottom are blinking. Now if you try to discover nearby devices on your pc you should see the wii-mote and can attempt to pair it.

UPDATE 11/26/06 5PM:
You can also put it into discovery mode by pressing the sync button under the battery cover. The remote doesn't actually have a passkey, however once it is connected, the 3 services it advertises are non standard bluetooth services. Until someone writes a wii-mote driver we can't do much with this hardware.

For specifics on the Wii's Bluetooth check out
WiiLii Wii Bluetooth Wiki Entry
and
WiiLi Wimote Driver Wiki

UPDATE 11/26/06 3AM:

Progress has been made! some developers have made the initial connection to the bluetooth remote and can now control the LEDS and force feedback.

The developer has posted a patch for getting bluetooth communication working and even posted a little script that makes the lights on the remote dance.

If you want to help you can join in on the conversation here on the Wiili forum.

UPDATE 11/26/06 11AM

Looks like it's time to break out the Math books, Andy on the Wiili forums has figured out how to log linear force data.

They have begun to write the algorithms which will be used to detect movement, speed and rotation of the wii-mote when it is connected to a pc or mac.

* Linear force data can be logged using a SET_REPORT HID request on Output channel 12. The first parameter is a force feedback parameter while the second must be 31. Some other 3X numbers work for the 2nd parameter and do different things, but I'm not sure what exactly. Logging can be turned back off using 30. (example to turn logging on: 52 12 02 31) When logging data data with 31 the last 3 bytes of data represent the forces with ~80 being 0 force. The 1st bit represents the side to side force, the 2nd is the lengthwise force and the 3rd is the up-down force.

Wii Mote Drivers for Linux

http://article.gmane.org/gmane.linux.bluez.devel/9659

From: Andy Spencer
Subject: WiiMote driver
Newsgroups: gmane.linux.bluez.devel
Date: 2006-11-16 07:39:00 GMT

I've been thinking about purchasing a WiiMote when they become
available in order to start working on a linux mouse driver for it.
Since it communicates using bluetooth this seems to be the most
appropriate place to do development. Anyway, I've never done much with
bluetooth or drivers before so I'm going at this as a bit of a
learning project. If anyone else is interested let me know.  I'll be
reading though source code, but if anyone has any suggestions about
where to start or what documentation to check out let me know that as
well.

I would LOVE to see this happen. It is a great remote. It has a nice weight to it, and the buttons are easy to get to. To be able to use it as a pointer in linux would be fantastic!