Technabob » sensor bar http://technabob.com/blog Cool Gadgets, Gizmos, Games and Weird Science Mon, 13 Feb 2012 20:42:20 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 The Wii Sensor Bar Goes Wireless http://technabob.com/blog/2006/12/12/the-wii-sensor-bar-goes-wireless/ http://technabob.com/blog/2006/12/12/the-wii-sensor-bar-goes-wireless/#comments Tue, 12 Dec 2006 21:01:21 +0000 Technabob http://technabob.com/blog/2006/12/12/the-wii-sensor-bar-goes-wireless/ Now that we know that the Nintendo Wii “sensor bar” doesn’t actually sense anything, rather just provides an infrared point of reference for the Wii-mote, it seems like it would only be a matter of time before we’d see a cordless variant.

wii wireless sensor bar

For those of you who don’t want to run a cable from your sensor bar to your Wii, or want to place your Wii at some distance from your TV, the $25 Wireless Sensor Bar provides a battery-operated alternative to the version that ships with Nintendo’s console. The replacement sensor bar runs for about 48 hours on a single Alkaline 9V battery. An LED indicator lets you know when the bar is turned on. The manufacturer claims a 3 to 8 foot range, which is in keeping with Nintendo’s spec (although my own tests have shown that the stock Wii-mote /sensor bar combo works pretty well from greater distances, especially in a dark room.)

[via Digg]

]]> http://technabob.com/blog/2006/12/12/the-wii-sensor-bar-goes-wireless/feed/ 3 Wii Sensor Bar Isn’t a Sensor at All http://technabob.com/blog/2006/11/21/wii-sensor-bar-isnt-a-sensor-at-all/ http://technabob.com/blog/2006/11/21/wii-sensor-bar-isnt-a-sensor-at-all/#comments Wed, 22 Nov 2006 04:54:50 +0000 Technabob http://technabob.com/blog/2006/11/21/wii-sensor-bar-isnt-a-sensor-at-all/ wii sensor barSome enterprising dudes out there have figured out that the Nintendo Wii’s “Sensor Bar” doesn’t actually “sense” anything. In fact, the sensor bar appears to simply be a set of IR transmitters that provide the Wii-mote with a sense of direction. They recorded their findings and posted this video showing how it works.

The video seems to prove that all the hard work is done by the Wii-mote itself, and that you can even run the system without the sensor bar in place as long as you have another source of IR for the remote to triangulate off of (in this case a pair of regular old IR remote control.) Be sure to check out the end of the video, where the camcorder actually picked up the IR output from the sensor bar.

[via Joystiq]

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