How could it be otherwise, Juan González Gómez, doctor in Robotics at the Autonomous University of Madrid, is passionate aboutrobots. In fact, he has designedCube Revolutions, a modular machine that, although it lacks wheels or legs, can move through undulations of its body. However, what is launching this researcher to fame is a discreet video – yes, seen by tens of thousands of Internet users and posted on countless blogs – in which he controls a small robot with theBalance Board, a cyber exercise table designed for thenintendo wii consolethat detects body movements. In the images you can see how González gets on it and, almost by magic, the device, which is connected to a computer that in turn receives the signal from the table, moves in the same direction in which it moves this engineer.
The effect is spectacular, but in reality it is only one of the exotic uses that can be given to this console. And it is that the Wii is not only used to play in a different way, but its technology, specifically that of its command, has turned out to be a vein of ideas for many scientists. “The first time I saw the remote I was amazed and the next day I bought one,” confesses González, who works on a personal transportation system similar to the Segway – an electric two-wheeled vehicle – but based on the Balance Board.
González had this idea after seeing on the Internet how Simon Bergweiler and Matthieu Deru, two students from the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence, used this same peripheral tofly over Google Earth maps. The same technique can be used in Google Maps, so thanks to the table it is possible to navigate through any street in the world as if you were physically on it. “That is the advantage of the internet. Now technology is available to everyone, which encourages creativity,” says González. In fact, thanks to the Wii remote and simple infrared sensors, anyone can record their movements on a computer, something previously only available to special effects companies.
The key to much of it all is found in the guts of the Wii main controller, theWiimote, a technological bomb that barely costs forty euros and is being used by many geeks to develop their own creations. Probably the one who has gained the most notoriety is Johnny Chung Lee, a researcher fromThe Human-Computer Interaction Institutefrom Carnegie Mellon University in the USA, which has developed several pioneering technologies using the Wiimote. It is the case of the systemWii Head Tracking, which detects the movement of the user’s head, allowing you to easily create three-dimensional environments. In addition, Chung has devised folding screen technology that is even more impressive in its simplicity. It involves attaching a projector to a Wiimote and placing small infrared receivers on the screens. In this way, the projector can be adapted to the surface on which the images are displayed. The result is that these are able to fit, for example, into the shape of a fan while it is being opened. Chung also mentions that it is possible to use the Wiimote as a universal pointer, that is, to use it in a network environment with multiple computers and multiple displays to copy and move files from one screen to another with a simple point and move. In another example, he mentions that certain gestures of the Wiimote could be associated with certain artifacts, such as turning the Wiimote while pointing at a lamp to turn it on, a technique that Juan González has successfully developed. Lee’s achievements have been replicated, and they have reached the University of Cambridge (Great Britain), where Simon Hay and Robert Harle, from the Digital Technology group at the University’s Computer Laboratory have used two Wiimotes to locate and follow the exactly a moving point in 3D.
The Wiimote is so intuitive that it could even have military applications. It would not be the first time that the US military has pointed in this direction. In fact, it already uses a version of the Xbox 360 console controller to control some movements of the Crusher, a seven-ton robot. Now, it is speculated with the possibility of adapting the one of the Wii to defuse bombs, although its precision is doubted. The fact is that, in addition to the controller, the console is playing an important role in different fields. One of them is playful: in Japan, Nintendo has inaugurated a channel called Digicam Print through which, thanks to an agreement with Fujifilm, the user can print photos from the console. An American hacker has already published a code by which he can turn the Wii into a DVD player to watch movies.
Officially, Nintendo does not collaborate with those who try to apply its technology in other fields, something that in Juan González’s opinion should change. Marcelino Cabrera, from the GEDES Research Group of the University of Granada agrees with this assessment. “We lack the support of the firm; we only do home developments at a non-commercial level,” he laments. Unofficially, Nintendo Spain has tried to help them, “but the company’s international policy is different and does not make developments like Microsoft, which does allow the use of its remote,” says Cabrera, who is treating autistic people. “We are developing a new communication system. There are children who cannot speak, but can pose a whole language through pictograms, drawings and graphics,” reveals Cabrera. In this way, the programs devised by GEDES allow the use of the Wii remote in three-dimensional environments where they are taught social strategies and trained to adapt to new environments.
The game console has been shown to have important alternative uses related to medicine, such as the rehabilitation of those affected by stroke. In the US, some hospitals also use these devices to speed up the recovery process for people who have suffered bone fractures and to train future surgeons. In fact, Nintendo has for sale a game called Trauma center, in which the player has to perform complicated simulated operations in the operating room to save the lives of their patients. Kanav Kahol of the Ira A. Fulton School of Engineering at Arizona State University conducted an experiment in which he asked a group of trainees to try Marble Mania, a game in which careful movements must be performed with the Wiimote. After that, the future surgeons performed a series of surgical exercises. The proficiency of those who had practiced with the Wii improved by 48%.
In another study, a team of researchers from the Medical College of Georgia, in the United States, used the game console to treat thirty Parkinson’s patients. Based on sports games, such as those included in Wii Sports, including tennis, golf or baseball, a therapy was devised that helps patients maintain or even acquire some skills that give them a certain personal independence. “The Wii is interactive and you have to do functional movements, like getting dressed, rolling in bed or underlining words, to be successful. It is an effective modality for working with Parkinson’s patients,” says Ben Herz, one of the study’s authors Professor at the School of Allied Health Sciences (USA). In their experiment, the doctors set a series of goals, from cooking or bathing to playing sports. According to the study, 98% of the objectives were achieved. The neurologist John Morgan, who also participated in the study, states that “our therapy helps to maintain or even to acquire certain activities in patients that give them independence.” And he adds: “We hope that this technique reduces the speed of the disease as well as the necessary medication in patients. If we can teach patients to exercise and perform functional activities they may need less medication.”
Still, one of the most surprising uses for the Wii is trying to understand the relationship between mental and physical activities. In an article recently published in the journal PLoS ONE, several members of the Department of Psychology at the University of Memphis indicate how, using the multifunctionality of the console, they connected the Wii to a computer in which they processed the movements made by a series of people. The aim was to study how the mobility of the arm varied as the participants knew better the task they had to perform. After analyzing the results, the researchers concluded that the body and the brain are part of a single system. Not surprisingly, one of the reasons the Wii is being so successful is that it naturally integrates our movements with the way the brain processes video games.
Juan Manuel Daganzo
