Virtual Graffiti with WiiSpray

An experiment in using the Wii to spray on virtual graffiti, hence the WiiSpray. Nice idea and great exploration of the use of this kind of interaction with the projector.

It’s still an experiment, but may provide an alternative to trains, buses and seats hopefully.

And the techie bit: It uses a Wii but the actually graphics are built using Adobe Flash. Seems flash is becoming a great tool for experimenting with ideas and interfaces.

More information can be found at WiiSpray.

Xbox 360 Project Natal – Body sensing controller. Potential Wii beater?

Having worked on the Xbox account for 5-6 years and being part of Microsoft you’d probably expect we knew all about this. Nope! They kept this one under tight wraps and surprised the lot of us today. Of course there have been rumours on the web, but the fact is we did not expect to get an announcement this exciting! Most expected a ‘me too’ Wii catchup controller – but instead we have something truly groundbreaking.

What is it? Best to watch the videos, but in summary the hardware is a new breed of sensor for the Xbox 360 that can recognise a persons body movement accurately within a 3D space, full facial recognition and voice – without a controller. The potential is amazing… just watch. We understand that all the footage shot are real demos. Nothing canned.

The Ad: When Microsoft figures out how to make a decent ad, the competition will be in trouble – it’s the only thing we didn’t like.

Meet Milo – the virtual boy. (below)

Painting Demo

The ‘Sensor’ that lives under your telly:

More juicy videos and gossip from the rather raw Xbox staff blog at www.insiderx.com

Microsofts answer to Nintendos Wii

is project Natal which they announced at their keynote speech at E3 this year.

It is using camera technology developed by 3DV and according to the promo video it will have some nice features, e.g. voice recognition, scanning features and of course full body motion control.

check out the video here:

Unfortunately it doesn’t look like we will be using it this year.

Muscle March – Wii game from another dimension.

Remember those crazy Japanese TV game shows like Endurance? Well this new game on the Wii sets a new benchmark in the “What The…?” category. Whatever you do, don’t blink.

Getting even fitter with the Wii

The WiiFit is great but it has its flaws. one of them is that you can’t really run on it.

That’s what made this guy come up with his DIY WiiFit.

So he created his own WiiFit board using 2 Wiimotes and wrote his own program to run in a forest.

It’s pretty ugly right now but I think it has potential.

Check out the video of him running:

if you want to read more about it, click here.

Theremin Wii remote hack

Found via TED, via Ken Moore’s Design Blog is this neat hack of the Wii remote to create a modern version of the theremin. Please note those with a nervous disposition should view with caution. Scary faces are pulled in the making of this movie.

TrueMotion 3D enables true motion control

A company called Sixense might have leapfrogged the field with a system called TrueMotion 3D. Rather than relying solely on an accelerometer, this controller uses a magnetic field to track both your hands’ positions in 3D space. With a refresh rate of ten milliseconds and accuracy up to a millimeter, and interest from developers including Activision and EA.

check it out – some really cool footage

Nintendo shakes up Youtube

Nintendo and Youtube have pulled off this awesome execution. It’s great to see these kind of deals being done. I don’t know what else to say on this apart from it rocks.

Unboxing the new Google 3D Mouse

Last night we came into possession of what we believe to be a beta-release for a new kind of 3D Mouse from Google. Whilst we can’t disclose exactly who gave this (because they work at Google) it certainly raised a few eyebrows in here when we opened the package. We’ve never seen a mouse like this before and has a couple of really WOW features (check out the last image).

EDIT: Just uploaded a quick video (this was right after we took it out of the box).

So our second unboxing in a month (*)… unfortunately we missed the opening of this box initially because it was totally unmarked so we didn’t know what was inside until we saw the mouse through the plastic …at which point we got the camera out. The mouse was well packed with inflated pouch to avoid any damage. 

Confirmed: It is green and has see through bits showing the Google logo.     

Underside: Marked (A) is likely part of the 3D accelerometer. This lets you lift the mouse up an use it pretty much like like a Wii controller (see shot of screen below).

(B) seems to be part of the Wii-like 3D system for when you’re waving it about – yes you can actually see the yellow sensor inside moving as you move your hand.
 

(C) – Appears to be the Biometric reader (nicely branded) and (D) seems to control all the 3D movements but doubles up as a really comfortable ergonomic gel to prevent RSI.

Above: The mouse in action – after the mouse drivers install you get this pretty neat affect as you lift the mouse up; the cursor lifts up and becomes huge, casting a shadow on the desktop. We haven’t figured out what the use for this might be yet but it was fun.

We were a bit disappointed that the mouse is not wireless, but seeing there was no battery compartment it probably needs to get power from somewhere.

Incidentally it’s Google’s tenth birthday, and we know they love a good old joke down under 😉 …Happy Birthday Google, and thanks for the mouse – already put to good use.

Birthday wishes, @ Amnesia.