Work your Wiimote with your fingertips

An ingenious little hack enables anyone with a Wii, a powerful infrared emitter, and some reflective tape to control their Wii with their fingertips, as demonstrated in the creator's YouTube video. The "hack" involves sticking the reflective pads on your fingertips, and placing a Wiimote close to an infrared emitter, with the result being that the Wiimote thinks it's moving when in fact your fingers are. The hack won't work very well with your Wii -- can't press dem buttons! -- so it's limited to gimmicky Minority Report-style demos on your PC. Besides, isn't the whole point of couch potato gaming that you don't have to lift a finger?

[Via Hackaday]

[dxprog @ Nov 11th 2007 12:59AM]

Yay! A sensor bar "hack" that's as useless as mine!

Seriously, though. Pretty sweet, dude.

[AlexP @ Nov 11th 2007 5:12PM]

Oh, you meant MINUS 3:09.

[Common Core 2 Duo!! @ Nov 11th 2007 1:07AM]

Have a look at his other videos...he's a genius

[Will @ Nov 11th 2007 1:22AM]

at 3:09 he says "doo doo" :)

[AlexP @ Nov 11th 2007 1:53AM]

No, he doesn't.

But this is rather clever. :D

[Fank @ Nov 11th 2007 6:04AM]

He does say "doo doo". Either at 3:09 or 0:58.

[AlexP @ Nov 11th 2007 5:10PM]

I can hear it at :58, but not at 3:09. :S

[AlexP @ Nov 11th 2007 5:12PM]

Oh, you meant MINUS 3:09

[Will @ Nov 11th 2007 5:36PM]

AlexP, it was just a stupid, admittedly childish, and unfunny remark that I made. Please let it die.

[ChrisG @ Nov 11th 2007 1:56AM]

even seeing that doesn't make me want a wii. Fanboys don't kill me lmao. Honestly the only reasons you have for liking the wii are Zelda, Mario, and a useless finger hack.

[Goatee Man @ Nov 11th 2007 12:07PM]

You forgot about Metroid Prime Corruption, Smash Brothers Brawl, Wii Fitness, Bomberman Land, Animal Crossing, Super Monkey Ball, and Zack and Wiki.

[ChrisG @ Nov 11th 2007 3:38PM]

Sorry but I'm a hardcore gamer, not a 9 year old.

[ethana2 @ Nov 11th 2007 4:02PM]

As if the only reason to get a wiimote was to use it with the Wii.

That's a mouse, baby. A sweet, 3d, wireless mouse. Can you say 'blender'?

[ChrisB @ Nov 11th 2007 6:15PM]

"Sorry but I'm a hardcore gamer, not a 9 year old."

If you really were a hardcore gamer wouldn't you be interested in playing ALL video games, not just the ones people told you were "hardcore"? Somehow I don't think your self-proclaimed title carries much weight when you don't consider an entire portion of the video-game market interesting simply because you're worried what people will think of your maturity if you played it. Pretty funny.

[thethirdmoose @ Nov 11th 2007 9:31PM]

"Sorry but I'm a hardcore gamer, not a 9 year old."

So when was your 10th birthday?

[John @ Nov 11th 2007 1:59AM]

I think that would be pretty badass if you were playing a game that didn't require the attackment - you could work the buttons with one hand, and use your index finger on the other hand. For RE4, screw a gun attachment, you just make a "hand-gun"

[kitt2112 @ Nov 11th 2007 2:29AM]

He is right about one thing waving your hands around does get kind of tiring, pretty much like playing the wii, lol thats why ill stick to my other game consoles. can anyone say GIMICK,

P.S. the ps2 had the eye toy way back that did the same thing without reflective tape tided to your fingers.

[finnith @ Nov 11th 2007 4:22PM]

It actually requires minimum effort if do it correctly. From my experience with Wii Sports quick motions were better than smashing the skull of the person next to you.

[Chris Taylor @ Nov 11th 2007 3:34AM]

What I want to see is a nice Image editing program using this on the PC. I am thinking a clear glass top and you put on a set of "gloves" with reflectors on the two index fingers. Under the glass top is your IR array and Wii Remote (if I understand this correctly you do NOT need a WII just a wii remote ??)

This would make a sweet photoshop plug in or something like that.

[ethana2 @ Nov 11th 2007 4:04PM]

You'll see this with the GIMP long before you see it with photoshop. I prefer the GIMP anyway, but I'm kind of a Free purist. Beauty is, you have the code, so even if no one else likes the idea, no one can stop you from adding it yourself.

[euclid @ Nov 11th 2007 3:42AM]

I'll tape it to my wee-wee and make wii act all weeierd.

[ChrisG @ Nov 11th 2007 4:09AM]

and how old are u..... Remember 5 year olds should be on gadget forums. just jokin.

[ChrisG @ Nov 11th 2007 4:10AM]

correction shouldn't

[Matt @ Nov 11th 2007 8:33AM]

How on earth is that highly ranked???

[mushrooshi @ Nov 11th 2007 3:53AM]

STARCRAFT!

[ares04 @ Nov 11th 2007 5:02AM]

pretty useless, but still cool

www.ares04.com

[Ihar `Philips` Filipau @ Nov 11th 2007 5:12AM]

Holy cow. That's multi-touch for all of us!!!

[ts @ Nov 11th 2007 9:29AM]

So it's a "powerful" light source pointing directly at your eyes, but the iris can't close to protect the eye because the light is invisible. Is it safe?

[wunch @ Nov 11th 2007 10:17AM]

Even though the intensity has increased, infrared light is lower energy (longer wavelength) than visible light.

[Neebs @ Nov 11th 2007 10:34AM]

But will it play...well..no.

[veritas3000 @ Nov 12th 2007 11:03AM]

I use 3M High Intensity Reflective Tape which my company buys from www.ReflectivelyYours.com

[ugg.tryptophan @ Nov 11th 2007 4:14PM]

this means anyone can control my wii with their fingers

[Doink @ Nov 11th 2007 6:05PM]

haha, thats a pretty sick hack. not gunna lie.

[Antron @ Nov 11th 2007 7:27PM]

It looks entirely useless. Especially because the cursor moves in the opposite direction to your finger.

[Gemini82 @ Nov 11th 2007 8:17PM]

"The hack won't work very well with your Wii -- can't press dem buttons! -- so it's limited to gimmicky Minority Report -style demos on your PC." Well pressing the buttons could work. I've seen several mods for wireless controllers. This is just supposition but if you could find a way to modify the wireless controller and incorporate the materials into lest say a glove, then maybe you've got something.
-------------------
Man i'm having a geek moment. The technology actually exist that something similar to minority report screen can be created, with consumer products mind you.

I've wanting to build a unit for a while, but lack of funds prevented me from doing so.

Man if some where to build a free space unit http://www.eyeliner3d.com/aboutus.html (they just provide the reflective sheet,for the effect you can just buy the glass from local retailer)

develop the software for PC or Mac
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jaYmXLIPVSc&eurl=http://wiiflash.bytearray.org/?p=53
(Read their documentation and develop your own)


and
Modify the principles of the finger tracking into
a decent glove.

Then You've got a really decent System on your hands
(Imagine the possibilities for 3d modelers)

[brittman914 @ Nov 12th 2007 8:59AM]

but will it blend?

[DJDoc @ Nov 15th 2007 3:33PM]

Easy to press buttons... just assign a finger to a button... flex the finger momentarily to make the dot "blink"... add that to control scheme.