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Post by vinitwins on Nov 21, 2006 9:40:23 GMT 6
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Post by vinitwins on Dec 22, 2006 11:25:42 GMT 6
www.nytimes.com/2006/12/21/technology/21howw.html?_r=2&oref=slogin&pagewanted=printOne controller is shaped like a sleek television remote (sometimes called the Wii-mote); the other plugs into the remote with a short wire, creating a vague resemblance to the two-handled martial-arts weapon it is named for, the nunchuk.
The controllers communicate with the Wii console, a $250 box no larger than a child’s lunchbox, with the wireless technology known as Bluetooth. It is the means commonly used to link cellphones with their wireless headsets. The Wii remote also uses infrared, the same technology that links television sets with their remote controllers, to track where the controller is pointed.
In this case, a sort of crude camera — an image sensor — in the forward tip of the remote (the primary controller) detects tiny light-emitting diodes in a “sensor bar” that must be set on or very near a television plugged into the Wii. This system helps players use the remote to point accurately at specific things on the screen, like the virtual buttons to begin or end a game, or aim a weapon in a game.
Actions like pressing the buttons on screen or firing a weapon are conveyed between Bluetooth chips in the remote and in the console. The remote also contains a rumble pack, a component that vibrates to varying intensities based on information the console draws from the game’s programming and then passes to the controller.
But the controller’s most-talked-about feature is the capacity to track its own relative motion. This enables players to do things like steer a car by twisting the remote in the air or moving a game character by tilting the remote down or up.V
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