Anablog

So my buddy Dave Ruigh just came across this cool website about how to hack on your Wii. The site, run by Johnny Chung Lee, is an aggregation of software and hardware hacks you can do on a Wii controller. Johnny writes:

As of September 2007, Nintendo has sold over 13 million Wii game consoles. This significantly exceeds the number of Tablet PCs in use today according to even the most generous estimates of Tablet PC sales. This makes the Wii Remote one of the most common computer input devices in the world. It also happens to be one of the most sophisticated. It contains a 1024x768 infrared camera with built-in hardware blob tracking of up to 4 points at 100Hz. This significantly out performs any PC "webcam" available today. It also contains a +/-3g 8-bit 3-axis accelerometer also operating at 100Hz and an expandsion [sic] port for even more capability.

To this, my buddy Dave, as astonished as I am by this cheap hardware, adds:

1024 X 768, 100hz IR tracking cameras in a 300-dollar game console? This cannot be true, can it? The same thing from an industrial IR camera supplier would be thousands, even with CMOS sensors. Add a tracker and it's double.

Pretty neat stuff. When my old-timer pals go into a “young people today” rant and how there is no more Heathkits, I just show them stuff like this and Make magazine. The kids today are doing just fine, making MP3 players in an Altoids tin as opposed to wrapping a nail with wire like I used to do when I was a kid.

Oh, and check out the name of Johnny Chung Lee’s blog: Procratineering. I want to write up a big article about it, but I will just put that off for later.

And yes, the title slags on the Sony PS3 and Microsoft Xbox 360 to get all you fanboyz in a huff, although I doubt you will ever top the 144 comments on my last blog about game consoles. Keep up the good work.