Wiimote used to navigate immersive 3D environments

While the Wiimote is probably exceeding Nintendo's wildest expectations in terms of its popularity among gamers, the little controller that could has also developed quite a following in the modding community -- with the proper scripts, you can control anything from an RC car to a Roomba to a software drum kit. Well now you can add research tool to the Wiimote's list of accomplishments, as scientists at the University of Western Australia have successfully employed it to navigate immersive 3D environments created by a projector and three-meter-diameter dome. By modifying the popular DarwiinRemote OS X app, Paul Bourke and his colleagues at the University of Western Australia found themselves with a cheap tool to fly through space simulations, cruise around a visual representation of supercomputer node activity, and even tour 360 degree VR maps of real world buildings. The team concluded that the Wiimote is a good-but-not-great substitute for the controllers normally used in these simulations, but at a fraction of their cost, it opens up this method of data manipulation to a whole new world of users.

[Via MetaFilter]

[steve @ Apr 5th 2007 10:51AM]

It would be cool it they made it a Wii Channel :)

[Timerider @ Apr 5th 2007 11:36AM]

Looks like he's about to travel through time.

[Timerider @ Apr 5th 2007 11:37AM]

Wii Wormhole!

[Justin Gehring @ Apr 5th 2007 12:25PM]

So with all the many uses of the wiimote..... Will the next system be backwards compatible with the controller instead of just backwards compatible with the games?

Always looking forward am i...

[demaar @ Apr 5th 2007 1:52PM]

THIS ARTICAL CANT NOT BE TRUE AS THE WII IS A GIMMICK!!! *foams at mouth*

Anyways, sounds very interesting. Maybe next gen one of the console makers will push the envelope and we'll get some kind of projector with our console that projects these immersive 3D environments...

What? I can dream, can't I?