If a Bike Can Power a Toaster, Why Can't a Wii Fit Control a Linux Box?

by Kristin Shoemaker - May. 26, 2009Comments (1)

What, We AREN'T Going Out for Milkshakes After This?

One of the best things about technology and its innate hackability (intentional or otherwise) is the endless variety of seemingly mismatched hardware and software that end up working (logically, even) once a hack is finished. The combinations are limitless -- using a stationary bike to power your NetBSD toaster, installing Linux on an XBox 360 -- and range from useful, to potentially useful, to "just because I can."

There have been some hacks done to the Nintendo Wii, enabling people to create and test homebrew applications and travel the globe, virtually, via balance board and Google Earth. The Wiimote has been configured to control a few open source applications, such as MythTV. Now, as CNet's Eric Franklin reports, Google software engineer Matt Cutts has gotten his Wii Fit balance board to communicate with his Linux box (he's using Ubuntu) via Bluetooth and roughly 200 lines of Python code.

What Cutts is presenting, right now, seems basic. It is, and it isn't, of course. He's gotten the weight and directional sensors on the balance board to respond quickly and accurately with his Linux desktop -- currently, it's acting as a mouse that's controlled by shifting weight. The ability is there, as well, to calculate, store, and track input from the balance board over time. The example application Cutts demonstrates, ScalesGUI, looks eerily reminiscent of the early configuration tools for graphics tablets -- but instead of just getting the hardware working, it's meant to show the potential of the working hardware.

At this point, getting a Wii Fit balance board working with your Linux desktop is largely a "because I can" endeavor. Of course, it wouldn't be the first time that doing something "just because" resulted in an application with much more weight later on.


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1 Comments
 

Hahaha - that is amazing! Do good with Dance-Dance! Can you imagine how many small villages in Africa could have been powered by 'Buns Of Steel', and lookin' good would feel oh so good too!


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