Thursday 20 October 2011

Wiimote - Record G Forces Applied to Wiimote


The following ideas are courtesy of Jared Robinson at http://www.thepegeek.com/ and Ben Jones who Jared credits in his video explanation of how to set up the Wiimote and gives some ideas about how to use it.


How to turn your Wiimote into a G Force analyzer. Connect your Wiimote to your computer via Blue Tooth and download some software called g-force analyzer. The software logs the movement of the Wiimote (measured in G forces). It logs rotational and forward back movement. Applications could include:

1. Measure intensity of a student playing a sport. Attach the Wiimote to the student and record and analyse the data. What energy systems were being used and when?  When did the student begin to tire and what does this indicate is happening? How long could high intensity be maintained and why?

2. Teach 'Force Summation' in senior PE. Throw the Wiimote just using wrist and hand, then hand/wrist.lower arm, then hand/wrist/lower arm/upper arm etc..... How is force and momentum increased through the summation of body parts? A great idea from Ben Jones is to put the Wiimote into a foam ball to generate a more realistic feel to the process.

3. Teach students to catch with 'softer' hands. See who can catch the ball with the least response from the Wiimote (closer to a flat line the better).

I am sure there are many more applications particularly in physics and PE. I am looking forward to trying it out with my Year 12 PE class next year as all my classes this year are doing topics which don't require this type of technology.

One last thing, I unfortunately have had issues with the software (g-force analyzer). It connected to the Wiimote initially but then at a later time could not connect with the Wiimote. This resulted in me having to remove it then re-add it each time. This is a pain but only takes about 3 minutes. At some point I hope to figure out what I need to change to fix this.

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