Wiimote as input device for virtual reality (2)

[English Version]

This post follows a previous one - From virtual reality to real life - about the use of the wiimote as a 3D input device. Here, new applications and publications were provided and designed for C.A.D. modelling and Augmented Reality.

Name/Logo	Description	Comment/ Author
Inio's Wii Remote Projects	Self-calibrating optical object tracking using Wii remotes.Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers, University of California Santa Cruz, U.S.A. From a masters research project, an application were developped for 6DOF Manipulation, including 3 wii remotes (meaning the acquisition system is able to detect movements to left/right/up/down/forward/ backward and rotations roll/yaw/pitch).In addition, a communication driver for MacOS was developped as Open source Software.	Link(Lang. : English) Sources / Binaries /Video O.S. : MacOS Author : Ian Rickard (2008)
BLIZ	Berliner Labor für Interaktives Zeug Germany Here, several projects about augmented reality are exposed : - Automatic Ambient Road Movie Soundtrack (04/13/2008) - Projects "InfoTorch" [A](03/30/2008) [B](03/29/2008)	Link (Lang.: German /English) Authors : Peter Sinclair, Lauritz Lipp, Thomas Goethe, Katleen Piltz
VRhome	VRhome's website is dedicated to Virtual Reality and XNA Game Development. Here, a combination of Led-based device, 2 Wiimote and a stereo monitor brings more accessibility to Virtual Reality. From Hardware to Software configuration, the website provides a good description with a lot of details and explanations. See also the video, below :	Link(Lang.: English) Source/ Binaries OS : Windows Author : Timo Fleisch

[Wiimote Desktop Virtual Reality – YouTube's video from vrwizard - 01/04/2009]

In the same theme, these publications are also available :

Object [Title] Location	Publication, Master Project Report – [Multisensor Data Fusion Applied to Augmented Reality] Delft University of Technology, Netherlands
WWW	Document : PDF
Author (date)	Andres Navarro (August 2008)	Lang. : English
Abstract	The Master Project MKE thesis deals with the combination of data from several sensors in order to improve Augmented Reality. Then the Wii controller is taken in consideration as a device for hand gesture system. Extract from abstract : "In this thesis is covered the design of a multisensor data fusion architecture for providing accurate positioning data and hand gesture interaction to an AR platform , the implementation of the different fusion processes defined in the fusion architecture and the performance of a pilot experiment within the AR platform trying to study the performance of the spatial memory in different conditions. The experiment results showed firstly the correct performance of the AR platform in terms of functionality, usability and presence; and they supported the hypothesis of a better performance of spatial memory when the user is allowed to explore an environment rather than observing it from a static position, although the hypothesis cannot be validated due to the limited number of subjects at the experiment. In addition, several guidelines were given at performing an experiment in an AR environment." *AR : Augmented Reality
Comment	-

Object [Title] Location	Publication, Master Project Report – [Affordable Head Tracking] Department of Computer Science, University of Groningen, Netherlands
WWW	Document : PDF
Author (date)	J.B. SMIT (07/04/2008)	Lang. : English
Abstract	The thesis exposes the state-of-art from head tracking techniques and the dedicated use with a wii remote. Extract from Introduction : "Inspired by the success of Johnny Lee this system was recreated for the project described in this thesis. A goal was to make virtual reality available for the average person. This can be done with a head tracking system. It can turn the monitor of a normal computer into a display with a correct perspective according to the position of the head. A Wii Remote is affordable for everyone, some people even already have one. The original application was not reusable, the code of Lee had interleaved head tracking and rendering code. Developers wanting to use the same concept have to start all over. The software for this project had to be reusable for others who wanted to do a similar project, so the wheel does not have to be reinvented each time. This was another goal of the project. Finally we wanted to proof that the head tracking system works and is capable of creating a desktop virtual reality system."
Comment	I'm still looking for reusable source code. Please post link as comment if available.

Finally, the last project is an application for virtual jogger. With 2 Nintendo peripherals - Wii Remote and Wii-Fit - the computer acquires data from the jogger and updates a "virtual run" in google street view :

Tokyo Jogging is a mashup project using wiimote and google street view

Author : Roy Katsuma (Oct. 2008)

Source Code and Instructions

[Try to run on the google street view like a jogging game of wii fit from katsuma on Vimeo.October 2008)]