Tag: Control

This may just look like a cheap watch from China, but it’s actually a fully-functional infrared universal remote control with a touchscreen interface. This remote control wristwatch can operate most popular brands of televisions and DVD players using a tiny touchscreen interface.

A while back, I showed you a 3rd-party Wii Light Gun controller add-on. Now Nintendo has revealed their own controller accessory, called the Wii Zapper. The new controller has an interesting design the provides a cradle for both the Wii-mote and the Nunchuk controller.

Just in time for those Summer swimming pool excursions comes this great way to add a little life to your aquatic activities. The water cannon floats around your swimming pool, and can remotely fire 20-foot blasts of water at unsuspecting victims from up to 40-feet away.

I came across this cool video on YouTube that shows off some pretty cool interaction with Nintendo’s Wii-mote controller. The video shows off a nifty typographic animation designed by Erik Loyer which lets the user move the Wii-mote to influence the rendering of the text.

Without a doubt, the theramin is one of the oddest musical instruments ever invented. Usually heard cranking out spaceship sounds in 1950’s B-movies, it’s otherworldy sounds are unmistakeable and truly quirky. So it is with much glee that I bring you the Wii-mote powered theramin, playing the inimitable Theme from Star Trek.

An enterprising hacker over in Japan has put together this mashup between the old school Nintendo Power Glove and a modern day Wii-mote controller. While the on-screen motion sensing is pretty much standard functionality, the modder did add some finger activated switches to replace the A and B buttons.

One of my favorite importers of cool gadgets from the Far East, Brando, has started to sell this attachment for the Nintendo Wii controller which makes it work kind of like a light gun. Perfect for games that involve shooting, the $19 Wii Light Gun attachment cradles your Wii controller to improve your targeting.

Here’s the ultimate modern stone age gadget. It’s a remote controlled winged lizard that actually gets airborne by flapping its wings. Instead of using some sort of propeller or engine, this guy just uses good old fashioned wing power.

This kit from natrium42 lets you build a custom robotic device that’s controlled by the Nintendo DS portable gaming system. The $119 RoboDS is an open robotics platform for the Nintendo DS, designed to let you remotely control your robot through the DS’ brains and on-board Wi-Fi connection.

Japanese game accessory maker Hori has revealed their upcoming racing controller for the PlayStation 3. The Zero Tech 3 controller features a trigger-grip design with a sideways mounted analog steering control. The unique design allows players to use their left hand to control the accelerator and brake triggers, while the right hand controls steering.

This new toy from TakaraTomy Japan features a little humanoid who can fly. The little guy wears a backpack with a helicopter-like set of rotors to propel him into the skies. Special balancing rods keep the whole contraption from flipping over wildly through the air (although that sounds kinda cool.)

Everyone’s favorite little plumber, Mario has arrived in the real world with a brand new gadget. This time he’s on wheels, and ready to roll. The $50 Giant R/C Mario Kart Racer is a 12″ long radio-controlled vehicle inspired by the Nintendo game of the same name.

If you’re looking for the ultimate gag gift for the home theater buff in your life, you’ve gotta check this remote control out. This new universal remote control is guaranteed to make ’em cringe. The $15 remote control features the likeness of Sesame Street’s most annoying character of all time, Elmo.

With all of the universal remote controls out there, it’s getting pretty tough for remote makers to differentiate themselves. This new remote from Sunwave does a good job standing out from the crowd by offering multi-color LED backlighting for its touchscreen interface.

With all of the cool control possibilities that the Nintendo Wii has opened us up to, it’s no wonder that someone has started to explore the possibilities with Nintendo’s other darling, the DS portable gaming system.

Wii hacker, LiquidIce has set up an integration between his Wii console and his home automation systems. The system lets him control his lights, thermostat, security and home entertainment systems, all from his Nintendo Wii. The system is actually a web-based interface written in PHP and Flash running on a MySQL database.