Wiimote makes music pretty
by Candace Savino 
{ Oct 22nd 2007 at 11:44PM }
Using Nintendo products as musical tools has become a recent trend, but we're certainly not complaining. Our only gripe about this new Electroplankton-esque Wiimote application is that we can't download it for ourselves. Of course, the mission statement behind the project known as "wiiwiiwiiwii" isn't "to satisfy those selfish bastards over at Wii Fanboy." Rather, the four fellows who created this program have goals that are slightly more profound, like exploring the relationship between sounds and visuals.
The way in which this application translates Wiimote signals into sounds and images is slightly confusing, but we'll pretend that we know what we're talking about. Essentially, a Mac uses Bluetooth technology to synthesize audio from the Wiimote's signals. The Mac then sends the information to a PC, where a program called "vvvv" makes ambient shapes from the sound patterns (ala Electroplankton). Pretty spiffy, if you ask us.
You can check this website to watch videos of the project in action, but if you just want to know how it works and see the people behind it all, we provided some handy pictures after the jump.
The way in which this application translates Wiimote signals into sounds and images is slightly confusing, but we'll pretend that we know what we're talking about. Essentially, a Mac uses Bluetooth technology to synthesize audio from the Wiimote's signals. The Mac then sends the information to a PC, where a program called "vvvv" makes ambient shapes from the sound patterns (ala Electroplankton). Pretty spiffy, if you ask us.
You can check this website to watch videos of the project in action, but if you just want to know how it works and see the people behind it all, we provided some handy pictures after the jump.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Elric @ Oct 23rd 2007 12:11AM
Sounds impressive, but they know nothing about simple website building? Java is enabled and I have the latest Flash player, but alas I am not allowed to view the site?
Perhaps Genius is an overstatement, more like savants.
vibemaster @ Oct 23rd 2007 12:37AM
this is one of the coolest things i've ever seen.
pyro.danny @ Oct 23rd 2007 12:54AM
I was really hoping I could just download this to my Mac. Man. Depressing.
Abscissa @ Oct 23rd 2007 3:34AM
WTF? Why in the world do they need two PC's to do this? Overkill, a bit?
Abscissa @ Oct 23rd 2007 3:45AM
#@1 Elric:
Umm, I'll grant that they're absolutely horrid web developers (and I question their overall development skills considering that it took them two PCs to pull this off), but if you're trying to insult them, then calling them savants is a rather, well, dumb way to do it. You've just complimented them.
c1906w @ Oct 23rd 2007 5:34AM
reply to Abscissa,
having messed about with some of this stuff myself i would imagine the reason is this, the wiimote bluetooth stuff works much better with mac whilst the software 'vvvv' is pc only. thus they need to machines to get this working properly.
gorecki @ Oct 23rd 2007 8:25AM
I would love to see some thing like this in Wii Music next year. It would turn the wii into a musical instrument... so cool
wiiwiiwiiwii @ Oct 23rd 2007 9:39AM
Hi everybody
thanks for appreciating wiiwiiwiiwii and posting about it, i'd like to elucidate about some question you seem to have
@elric: we already had almost 6.000 visitors on the website, and practically you are the first one who has problem... what a genius! lol just follow the link and download what it's needed, then it should work (which browser are you using?)
@vibemaster: thank you very much dude!
@pyro.danny: sorry about that, hopefully you'll be able to download the first release soon, so stay tuned...
@abscissa: as c1906w said... actually the wiimote max-msp external we used is only for mac, but right now we are tryin another solution, and our main objective is to unify wiiwiiwiiwii under one single computer and OS (windows, since vvvv is windows only)... then we'll release the first downloadable beta.
btw we really like the website, and if you don't, who cares :)
@gorecki: yes we would love to get in touch with nintendo, and make a real wii game out of wiiwiiwiiwii... who knows, we'll see!
peace to everyone
Pedro Mari of 4wii team
Na Fedaykin @ Oct 23rd 2007 9:51AM
Looks very interesting.
Abscissa @ Oct 23rd 2007 3:19PM
@wiiwiiwiiwii:
I was under the impression that it was mostly software your team had developed. If it's all pre-existing stuff, then, yea, I can see the reason for the multiple systems.
As for the website: I don't expect you to care what I think about it :). But as is probably quite evident now, I'm firmly in the "flash site = crap" camp.
wiiwiiwiiwii @ Oct 23rd 2007 8:25PM
it's not really a software, it's more a visual object-based programming language, of course nothing to do with low level languages, but it's not pre-existing stuff
for the website, i meant i'm sorry if you don't like it, but we really like it as it is
peace Abscissa