Wii fun

So far this has made for a great learning experience.

After some research on the subject of using the Nintendo wii remote for other than playing with the console. I managed to do a bit with the Wiimote and very basic sketches in Processing. Having my machine and the wiimote communicate was easier than I thought it would be.

I managed to do it with DarwiinOSC (this is a variant of Darwiin) which uses the machine’s bluetooth and outputs the remote’s data in OSC protocol. The protocol is vastly used in interactive projects and can be read in Processing with the oscP5 library.

A few hours work that were more about finding the right tools rather than putting them to use. As this was pretty straightforward and took less time than what I was expecting. It gives me more headspace to think about and code (the most important) how the remote’s data will be interpreted.

In a very global view of things I would like the interpretation of the wiimote to respond to its physical movements in the way a pencil on paper responds to your hand. That is, if the remote is lightly moved, draw some small light coloured dots. As opposed to, if shaken ferociously draw red or dark obtuse figures.

By having this type of interpretation to the remote’s movements I believe there is that direct correlation with hand and “mark making”. This enables a certain visual subjectivity to flourish which is important and desired in the final drawings of this project. What’s more, one of the ideas driving this project is to produce tools that I would keep on using in my practice. For this to happen this correlation needs to be present.

Another tool that I’ve found in my research is the ezGestures library. It allows Processing to interpret mouse and wiimote movements by means of a gesture map. Even though I still cannot program it so it can read my wiimote it seems like a great tool. It interprets the movements in a basic yet open for complexity manner. The program reads LEFT, RIGHT, UP, DOWN. For instance for the program to interpret a square one could write the following command RLDRU.

If I do work out how to use this library with the wiimote, I think it would create the need for an interpretative abc of sorts. That is that the program would have to have a vast capability to interpret varied movements and respond to them visually. In order to have a fluid correlation with the wiimote and what is drawn.

The DarwiinOSC interface with wiimote and nunchuk reading.

DarwiinOSC

And basic sketch with Processing the quads are being controlled by the wiimote’s movements in terms of size and colour.