Staying Connected
Meg McGinity Shannon
This Menu Has Changed
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