Article #2 - Wii Remote

Description
It is is the cleverly designed wireless controller for the new Wii next generation console from nintendo. It has quite a few aspects to it that are clearly the result of good user-oriented design.
Past game controllers have been simple button pushing affairs, but the Wii remote has six degrees of movement detecting sensors.
It can detect translation and rotation on all three axes. This means that instead of just pressing buttons, the user of the console can just move their hand in order to convey information to the device. This in effect makes it like some kind of 3d super-mouse. The device also has an infrared sensor to be able to pick out detail of what is on the screen. It has an inbuilt speaker, force feedback motor, and an LED indicator from 1-4 dots to indicate which player's controller it is. It comes with a sensor bar, which is essentially an IR light source at a fixed distance used to calibrate the sensing IR remote pointing functionality to any TV.

Usage and add-ons
It can be used in several ways, as a motion
detector with buttons, as a remote like device for pointing, or on its side as a joypad type device. The Wii remote also has an expansion port at the bottom that can allow for adding several enhancements. These include so far, the "nunchuck", addition, which has a few extra buttons and an extra analog thumbstick, a "classical" style game controller, and a "zapper" light gun that the remote can be slotted into. There is also a steering wheel add-on that can be used, although this is just a passive shell housing.

Advantages of design
The Wii remote is symmetrical, allowing for ambidextrous usage.The strength of the Wii controller, comes in it's flexibility, and also it's simplicity at the same time. It can be used in many different ways to translate real world movements and actions into game controlling methods. This means the games can take a very instinctive control method for the particular "activity" that is being simulated in the game. The task oriented control method is something that ends up very usable even for inexperienced users.
The controller provides a direct logical mapping from real world actions in games such as steering, cutting with a blade, aiming, running with a baton and so on to the actions in game. This correlation between the action in the real world and the action in the game makes playing games very intuitive, fast to learn and accessible for people who normally would be put off by not remembering which button does what. It also brings more physical movement into the environment, making the game more participatory for the user and increasing the level of fun consequentially as well as immersing the player more fully in the environment.


Project Relevance
This is particularly relevant to our VR supermarket idea, that has been developing along a "interactive trolley handle controller" path in our brainstorming session. If we could make a device that has enough flexibility to meet the common tasks an elderly person would be whilst retaining simplicity we would have a great solution. If we can capture the direct analogy from a real life action to an on-screen action with out software/interface device combination, then the system could help to reassure users that they are capable of using this solution with the minimum of fuss and inspire confidence and recurring usage.