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DarwiinRemote - A Wiimote Frontend for OSX

Posted by Zonk on Thu Dec 07, 2006 02:23 PM
from the two-great-tastes dept.
jeckil writes "DarwiinRemote is a tiny piece of software which reads data from and sends data to Nintendo Wii Remote. It detects all 3 axis sensors, all buttons (except power). You can modify which controller LED indicator is on, and send force feedback. Right now it only supports a basic front row control scheme but they should be releasing a better version in a few days. All the source code is available and compatible with latest version of xcode. One can only wonder ... If the latest apple rumor turns out to be true, things could get very interesting for apple. Someone has already released a modified version of this app. It seems there have been some problems detecting the remote so an alternate version that uses the Wiimote's sync button has been released."
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  • WiinRemote (Score:3, Informative)

    by Phroggy (441) * <slashdot3@phroggy3.14159.com minus pi> on Thursday December 07 2006, @02:25PM (#17149158) Homepage
    I can't read Japanese, but it looks like WiinRemote [onakasuita.org] is a similar app for Windows; this page is linked from the DarwiinRemote page.
  • Well (Score:2, Insightful)

    We all knew Mac users were wankers; and here they are admitting they play with their Wiis while using their Macs! ;-)

    Seriously, though - this is cool. I'd love to see a program to control iTunes with gestures.
    • Wow, what a bunch of humorless assholes. I was *kidding* FFS!

      I've used Apples since the II+, I own a MacBook Pro, and I love OS X.

      Jeez, some poeple around here are desperately in need of a blowjob!
  • by lpangelrob (714473) on Thursday December 07 2006, @02:47PM (#17149544)

    Typical slideshow presenters: $56.00 [directron.com].

    Wii Remote: $29.95

    All that you're missing is a laser pointer, and the requisite freaking sharks.

  • Pointer feature? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by MindStalker (22827) <jlarsen@@@fsu...edu> on Thursday December 07 2006, @02:56PM (#17149712) Journal
    What would be really great is the ability to use calibrate and use the pointing feature.
    Sure you'll need an IR source, but the ability to say, put an IR source on the floor and use a projection screen with a true pointer would be very very cool.
    • The "modified version" has that. No calibration needed even.
    • You don't need a "sensor bar" or calibration. PCs and Macs have a thing called a cursor. You can move the remote to move the mouse. It doesn't allow you to aim where you want the cursor to appear, but that would be totally impractical anyway.
        • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

          No, it can send button presses and motion information, but not absolute position as determined by the IR camera. You can swing the remote to swing your sword in Zelda no matter where it's pointed, but you have to point it near the sensor bar to move the on-screen cursor.
  • by inio (26835) on Thursday December 07 2006, @02:58PM (#17149766) Homepage
    Unfortunately the article doesn't say it, but the big deal about the "modified version" is support for sensor bar based mouse movement.
  • Notice that you don't point where you want to aim. You point the wii remote up and your aiming reticle starts going up. When to go back to level position the aiming reticle stops instead of returning to level point like the aiming portions of zelda. It seems to only use the tilt function without the triangulation to know what part of the screen you are pointing at for aiming which is useless to me because that is what makes the wii so easy to use. Point at the section of screen you want to aim at instea
  • by TheSHAD0W (258774) on Thursday December 07 2006, @03:10PM (#17149974) Homepage
    ...but can someone post some details on how to physically read the Wiimote from a PC or Mac? Is the controller connected via USB? (I don't own a Wii so I've no idea how things plug together.)
    • The Wii Remote is just a Bluetooth HID device.
    • by Phisbut (761268) on Thursday December 07 2006, @03:15PM (#17150054)
      ...but can someone post some details on how to physically read the Wiimote from a PC or Mac? Is the controller connected via USB? (I don't own a Wii so I've no idea how things plug together.)

      I might be wrong, but I do believe the Wiimote communicates with Bluetooth, so it's basically just a bluetooth device that your Mac or PC deals with, like a mouse or any other device.

      Ya gotta love standard interfaces when stuff like that happens :-)

  • Funny thing I noticed is that the Wii remote doesn't detect all types of movement, for instance if i place it on a table and rotate it clockwise or counterclockwise no movement is detected except for some vibration. It only seems to detect rotation in relation to gravity, like tilting onto it's side or tilting back or forward. That sensor bar should help a lot but even then I guess it would only help while the remote is pointing towards the sensor bar.
      • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

        uh, huh? Since when to accelerometers only detect movement relative to gravity? Here, all along i've been thinking they sense... oh, I don't know... ACCELERATION?

        The real reason it doesn't detect anything when rotated is because the you're spinning about the axis of the sensor. If you rotate it instead about one end of the wiimote, it will detect the motion. Gravity has nothing to do with it.
  • by noretsa (995866) on Thursday December 07 2006, @03:38PM (#17150492)
    This hack is kinda limited in functionality since it uses only the tilt data for input as opposed to the pointer functionality. Although the site is hammered, someone has already supported this functionality in Linux as shown in this amazing demonstration [youtube.com]. The functionality in that video is so good I can easily see people buying a wiimote without having the wii (although they would have to create their own LED bar).