Staying Connected

Meg McGinity Shannon

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Innovative interfaces will give wireless the golden touch.

LISA HANE Y

Iadmit it. I really wanted one. So much so that I was one o f those half-crazy people trolling for treasures before dawn the day after Thanksgiving last year. “You don’t have any left, do you?” I asked meekly, convinced my request would be met with uproarious laughter and public ridicule. “Actually, two,” mumbled the sleep-deprived store worker. “But that man is buying one right now.” Arms outstretched, I quickly slid toward the lone, sleek white box with ethereal gray lettering and grabbed hold. I got it. I got it! When the gift wrap was torn apart in chaos weeks later, the eager hands held that white box just as tightly as I had. “Wii!,” three children and one husband exclaimed gleefully. It’s been in near constant use ever since. Not just by immediate family, but grandparents, toddlers, teenagers. Anyone who gets their hands on it wants to keep playing. (I admit to having a sore shoulder after

taking a game of tennis a tad too competitively.)

A big part of the attraction of Nintendo’s crazily popular video

game, introduced a year and a half ago, is the system’s motion-sensitive controllers. Rather than the thumb aerobics required of competing game systems, the Wii demands a more physical interaction. To play a game on the Wii the player has to move the console in such a way as to mimic real-life movements. For

instance, in bowling, the remote is held, raised up, swung backward and finally swung upward, much like a bowler would move an actual bowling ball. And just like if your wrist tends to twist slightly at the release at the actual lanes, your ball is going to curve toward the gutter in Wii world, too. If you swing the remote a millisecond too late when playing baseball, you’re going to get a strike, and if you’re too strong with your golf swing, your golfball will land in a sand trap. Unlike the spectacular graphics of its peers, Wii’s art and movements are simple and universal.

The Wii uses a wireless, Blue-tooth-enabled battery-operated remote control unit that has motion-sensing ability. Meanwhile, the sensor bar that sits atop the television has 10 infrared LEDs spaced along the bar. Using accelerometer and optical sensor technology inside the remote, and tapping into Bluetooth, the motion is detected. The remote