When we earthbound humans finally discovered the secret of flight, it was because we gave up trying to be birds and used our own, albeit a little boring, fixed-wing approach. It’s worth noting, however, that we can still make giant metal boats fly. That’s not enough for Dutch mechanical engineer Jarnos Smeets, as evidence by his Human Birdwings project. As part of his plan to spit in the face of evolution, he’s mechanically engineered himself a set of wings that will flap along with his arms by cramming together parts of a Wiimote, an HTC Wildfire S, and he’s holding them together with a heaping serving of software and a couple of servos.

Trinity College student Keyosaurus (which is his YouTube moniker) mashed up Kinect body controls, a Wiimote and a bit of head tracking to control an augmented reality version of portal-less puzzling classic Tetris. The Kinect motions control most of the game, from zooming the camera to moving the tetraminoes, while the Wiimote rotates the pieces. For some reason, the video showing the hack in action doesn’t play any of the instantly-recognizable Tetris themes, but blasts our ears with elevator music instead.

(PC World via Engadget)

The general consensus from gaming media after the release of the Wii MotionPlus accessory has been favorable. The only problem, most would agree, is that the little addon’s superior motion tracking abilities weren’t packaged with the standard Wiimote from launch. Why put out a control system based on motion tracking when the motion tracking isn’t really good enough to chart one-to-one movements?

Well, there’s good news and bad news. The good news is, Nintendo is making a Wii Remote Plus, a wiimote (seriously, why is this word not the official jargon yet?) with the MotionPlus capabilities built in.

The bad news is that you’re going to have to buy it all over again.

As Iron Man 2 blazed onto movie screens a few weeks ago, one of the foremost thoughts in audience member’s heads was probably “Man, I wish I could fly like Iron Man!” (the other biggest thoughts were “Man, this movie needs less subplots!” and “Man, Scarlett Johansson should never wear anything that isn’t a leather catsuit!”) Well, the team at Feng-GUI has answered our prayers and found a safe way to turn a regular guy into Iron Man. You don’t even need to stick a dangerous ARC-Reactor in your chest cavity to do it!

Ok. I’ve never owned a racing game, never spent much time playing Mario Kart, and am simply not a car person in general.

But this inflatable peripheral for your Wiimote is totally awesome. It takes the idea behind a car bed to a completely new level.

Read on...

This week, after months of anticipation, Sony revealed its new motion sensitive controller, the Move, at the Game Developer’s Conference. the Move walks a path already trodden by Nintendo‘s Wiimote, the primary controller for the Wii, and so, one might ask, how does Nintendo feel about this long awaited foray into their territory?

Predictably, they’re pretty calm about it. Motion sensitivity has been the Wii’s claim to fame, while other consoles have focused on HD graphics and processing power, but now Sony is rolling out the Move, and Microsoft is hard at work on its own motion sensing Project Natal. Kotaku asked Reggie Fils-Aime, president of Nintendo of America, if this might mean that Nintendo should be looking to move into HD.

“For us high definition by itself is not the next frontier,” Reggie Fils-Aime… told Kotaku. “For us we need to provide a whole new compelling experience in our next generation.”

Read on...

Sony has finally revealed the name and form of its new motion controller for the PlayStation, the PlayStation Move.  Like Nintendo‘s Wiimote and Nun-chuck, it also has an off-hand peripheral with a joystick.  Unlike the Nun-chuck, there is no cord, and, unlike the Wiimote, the Move has…

Please pay attention, Nintendo.

Rechargeable batteries.