After getting my Wii remote hooked up with the WiiFlash Server, I knocked up this quick Flash demo which draws the blobs of infrared light the Wii remote detects (it can track up to 4 blobs at once), just like the Wii console's sensitivity setting dialog does. I just gave each blob a different colour and clear the graphics on pressing the 'A' button.
Here's the code to get it working - requires WiiFlash Server:
var myWiimote:Wiimote = new Wiimote();
myWiimote.connect();myWiimote.addEventListener(WiimoteEvent.UPDATE, onUpdated);
myWiimote.addEventListener(ButtonEvent.A_PRESS, onAPressed);
function onUpdated (pEvt:WiimoteEvent):void{ var ir:IR = pEvt.target.ir; var irWidth:Number = 400; var irHeight:Number = 400; var irSize:Number = 4; if(ir.p1) drawCircle(ir.x1*irWidth, ir.y1*irHeight, ir.size1*irSize, 0xff0000); if(ir.p2) drawCircle(ir.x2*irWidth, ir.y2*irHeight, ir.size2*irSize, 0x00ff00); if(ir.p3) drawCircle(ir.x3*irWidth, ir.y3*irHeight, ir.size3*irSize, 0x0000ff); if(ir.p4) drawCircle(ir.x4*irWidth, ir.y4*irHeight, ir.size4*irSize, 0xffff00); }
function onAPressed (pEvt:ButtonEvent):void{
graphics.clear();
pEvt.target.rumbleTimeout = 50; }
function drawCircle (x:Number, y:Number, size:Number, colour:Number=0xffffff):void{
graphics.beginFill(colour, .2);
graphics.drawCircle(x,y,size); }
I started playing around with using the Wii remote as an infrared tracker to work with those cheap keychain lights you get - just like Johnny Lee suggested. I'm looking to start building interactive installations using novel forms of interaction, such as sound, webcam motion and perhaps 3-D techniques I'm thinking up.
Back in 2002 some colleagues and I built one of the web's most popular online multi-user Flash games, Dinky Bomb. It's since been acquired by Atari and I thought no footage of it existed, other than a bit of a TV show in which it was featured. YouTube to the rescue...
Here's a video for those of you looking to start on the ActionScript 3.0 path. Colin Moock will also be doing a free AS3 tour, look out for the dates here.
I found a very interesting old video that was only recently posted to Google Video. It's a 1996 public access cable broadcast, featuring James Collier, an investigative reporter. He and his brother had been following voting fraud in the states since the 1970's (yep, that long). They were both shot just before the controversial 2000 US elections. This video produces enough evidence to suggest that the US just isn't run by the people anymore - scary stuff:
The situation in Burma is deteriorating rapidly, with several protesters already killed by government troops. Governments are reluctant to step in, not least of all because China (whose demand for oil and steel is propping up the US economy right now) rely on gas from Burma and arm the nation in return. Worse still, I bet the American government is watching closely and taking notes on how to crush a civil uprising - just in case people realise how their votes were stolen.
Please go and sign the petition for action in Burma.
It's a shame this aired years ago on British TV, but was pulled from TV in the US. It may have stopped so many people voting for Bush - twice! Or at least made it harder for Diebold to hack the election.