WHO NEEDS WIIMOTE CONTROL?!

I DO!

bluetooth is far and away the coolest thing in the world.




Not because of this:


But because of this:



The wiimote, the holiest of holies in terms of FUTURISTIC DEVICES.

Video games are one thing, but today i found out something stunning.

All over the internet, Appleheads are writing open-source programs utilizing the Wiimote acceleration and gyroscope technology to allow the wiimote to communicate via bluetooth with the MacBooks.

At first, i could move my cursor around the screen with the wiimote, and it was clunky and horrible



But now, due to some awesome dudes over at the Wii to Midi Project we can take the Wiimote, download their awesome open source software, and JAM OUT in any MIDI friendly program from Garageband to Ableton Live and Propellorhead Reason. The software is still in the early stages of development, and right now you can only get notes C, D, F, A out of it, but the EXCITING part is being able to wave the Wiimote around and map the motions to oscillators, peaks, levels, &c. (In Ableton, ANYTHING YOU WANT!!!) and be able to pitch shift or modulate with the wave of your hand!

Some dude also came up with a sort of scratchy program called the Wii Loop Machine which includes some samples and a drumming program:





I haven't gotten this thing to work that well quite yet, but regardless it's QUITE EXCITING that cats out there are really pushing the technology to a new level. It seems that most of the issues with the control are primitive smoothing code in the source code, so if any of you out there has any coding experience or knows anything about gyroscopic bluetooth smoothing, comment!

The point is, no longer are devices being used strictly for what they were intended at manufacture. In this opensource world, we can lifehack our way into new instruments, technologies, and collaboration tools to broaden the musical landscape even more and hopefully eventually have live cross continental Wiimote collaborative concerts!!!!