Wiimote head tracking desktop VR display
If you thought [Johnny Lee] was done making us all buy Wiimotes, you were wrong. Now he's back showing off a simple, but incredibly effective VR head tracker. He swapped out the LED's on a pair of LED light safety glasses with a set of IR LEDs and used his PC/Wiimote combo to do the work. The demo is just fantastic. As usual, you can download the software from his project page.
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Reader Comments
(Page 1)2. Hey, get this to run a pan, tilt rig and a "cheap" ir camera. With those rc spy car huds, this could be a pretty cool hack.
Posted at 12:23PM on Dec 21st 2007 by barry99705
3. Oh man. As if there wern't enough reasons for me to go out and get a Wii.
(Too bad the main reason for not getting one is still the same: money)
Posted at 12:50PM on Dec 21st 2007 by KayDat
4. You don't need a Wii... just go out and buy a Wii Remote
for $40. All of these cool hacks run on PCs with a Bluetooth adapter... no Wii Console required.
There's a decent sized collection of Wii Remote hacks here: http://forums.nintendo-scene.com/index.php?board=65.0
Posted at 1:23PM on Dec 21st 2007 by twistedsymphony
5. My first thought when I saw this was virtual pole dancer. It's only a matter of time...
Posted at 1:43PM on Dec 21st 2007 by techyguru
6. Has anyone ever played any of the Konami Police 911 games? They track body movement and you have to duck or dodge to avoid bullets. I could just imagine it being truly 3D like this that would be amazing. With some type of smelly head device, (it wouldn't have to be smelly but it would probably get sweaty and smelly from all the nerds using it.) They could even make a home version, just sell the user some glasses, and a wiimote stand and it would be awesome. The home one would probably be less smelly depending on the user.
Posted at 1:47PM on Dec 21st 2007 by Arcade boy
7. Man you are fantastic!!
Tomorrow i'll go out to buy a wii remote...
You give me new inspiration to do some code
Posted at 1:59PM on Dec 21st 2007 by DarkInvader
8. I'm imagining some sort of dodgeball game or maybe a soccer goalie game. Very nice work. Johnny's making Nintendo look bad, but I can't wait for them to steal some of these ideas and put them into some great games.
Posted at 2:09PM on Dec 21st 2007 by Michael R
9. wow... just wow...
this in combination with the Wii Fit balance board would make for some incredible full body games
Posted at 2:16PM on Dec 21st 2007 by Andrew
10. DUDE!!!!!!
Sure, games, ok, but really as a shell enhancement, this would be KILLER!
Think about this...
1.) If the Wii remote will track four ir targets, then assume two are on the users head to control the POV, and the other two as light pens to manipulate objects on the screen.
2.) What is the frame rate of the Wii remote camera?
3.) Assuming the ir targets opperate in a steady state, how can the remote differentiate between targets?
4.) Assume POV target #1 is flashing at 10pps, #2 is flashing at 20pps, and the pens are at 30 and 40 pps. Then you could also have one pen as a "left click" and the other as a "right click".
YMMV.
Posted at 2:48PM on Dec 21st 2007 by The Steven
11. Holy hell. I was incredibly impressed by that. Game developers should take note- Johnny Lee just unlocked a whole lot more potential for the Wii. Also, they should hire him...
Posted at 4:31PM on Dec 21st 2007 by icec
12. This is just beautiful - so simple, so effective, it's the essence of a hack! And he does good video too.
Now to steal a couple of wii remotes from the kids...
Posted at 4:53PM on Dec 21st 2007 by Albannach
13. Noice!
Damn i am thinking of getting a wiimote now! This is some of the most cheapest but awesomest hacks i've seen!
Also, if Nintendo started doing games with these ideas :O omg.
Posted at 4:53PM on Dec 21st 2007 by TXX
14. This is Awesome.
And really, given the capabilities of the wiimote, it could be extended to a two person split screen. A wiimote tracks 4 points. 1 person's head needs 2 LED's that leaves 2 other LED's. So theoretically could have a person split screen.
Also, since a different wiimote would have to be used to capture infrared on the screen, you could have a two person split screen and 4 mouse cursors.
I also think, instead of using the infrared as a touch screen, it should be the mouse cursor. Then combine it with a mouse to get a left and right click. So moving the infrared source moves the cursor but other buttons would actually make it click. Like a remote mouse... a remouse... a wiimouse...
Posted at 7:20PM on Dec 21st 2007 by Sam
15. It appears that Johnny Lee has done it again.
With two targets, one in front of the other, I was able to orbit my point of view around the near target and observe the far target. Remarkable!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c7e6ZsQytks
This leaves me with one question: who will be the first lucky company to snatch this fellow up with a hefty salary, in order to add such an innovative mind to the team?
16. First of all - this is amazing.
Second - does anyone have an alternative to using the Wii's sensor bar? I really want to give this a try but don't want to have to power my Wii up every time.
Posted at 8:12PM on Dec 21st 2007 by Kamma
17. You dont even need anything nintendo related, am IR camera (subst. wiimote) and two IR leds (subst. sensor bar) and your on your way!
Done and DONE!!!
I already tried it =3
Posted at 10:26PM on Dec 21st 2007 by Tyler
18. Is there anything that this guy can't do? Can't he move in next door and invite me over so I can learn the ways of WiiHacking?
Posted at 11:44PM on Dec 21st 2007 by Matthew
19. So where do you get these IR Leds and how do you power them? (Sorry, I'm new to this stuff)
Posted at 11:52PM on Dec 21st 2007 by Kamma
20. You could get this to track two different displays, and make them visible only to the person viewing them by using a 3d glasses like setup.
Example. Player one's targets are all blue, and he has blue tinted goggles. Player Two has Red targets and Red goggles. Because red glass only lets red light through, (If its tinted right) that would make Player 1's blue targets invisible to player 2, and vise-versa. (You would probably need some opacity to the colors to avoid collision.)
Posted at 12:58AM on Dec 22nd 2007 by Rad


1. Way to go Johnny Lee
Http://TheSundayBong.com
Posted at 12:17PM on Dec 21st 2007 by Bryan Ribas