The Wiimote with multiple sensor bars: creating an affordable, virtual reality controller

Authors:

Torben Sko

Henry Gardner

Summary:

Goal: Using Wiimote, nunchuk and sensor bars for interaction in multiple screen environment.

The IR camera in Wii mote can detect upto 4 IR LED source. So it can detect 2 sensor bars at a time. A software which process the data does some intelligent prediction on which bars are being detected. The dynamic model is built from the IR data received from the Wiimote. The static model is read from a configuration file and describes the mapping of IR sources to pixel positions on the displays behind them. configuration needs to comply with the following conditions: at least two IR sources should visible at most times (justifying why each sensor bar has two IR sources), two sensor bars are visible when moving from one bar to another, and no more than 4 IR sources are visible at any one time. A sensor bar / environment switching algorithm has been defined by the author in the paper.

First user testing : 12 participants , 1 female , 8 with prior experience in using Wiimote - “Involvement/Control” and “Interface Quality” were rated at 5.7 & 5.3. Physical presence sensor bars were noted as distracting.

Second user testing: 8 participants, 1 female, 6 with prior experience in using Wii mote and everyone had gaming experience. The users had to play half life 2 (FPS). Everybody stated that they enjoyed the interface. Most of them expressed frustration with the control system. Some participants reported physical discomfort due rate of rotation in the screen.

Third user testing: 4 users from second test. refined was done in seating position, slower movement rate, vertical shooting and reset rate. Positive feedbacks on the usability of the system

Discussion:

One of the few research papers where follow up studies have been conducted. The authors have conducted a good user study. I would like to know the orientation of the sensor bars that helped them restricting the number of sensors on the screen to 4 always. The dynamic modelling system would also be interesting to know.