InvenSense talks Wii Motion Plus and more

Joe Virginia from InvenSense, the company behind Nintendo's Wii Motion Plus, recently spoke to IGN about Gyroscopes and Accelerometers. Dont have the foggiest what I'm talking about? Well before reading this article, you can find out all about InvenSense's technology here.

Firstly Virginia was asked what InvenSense did with Wii Motion Plus, she explained how the technology differs to the normal Wii remote as "..rather than just having up/down, left/right, back/forth motion, you now have the ability to do rotational movements within each of those X, Y, and Z axis. So if you imagine you had extended straight out and twisted your hand, now you have the ability to measure rotational force."

So what we want to know is 1:1 possible?"Well it's certainly possible with the technology we're offering them, in combination with other sensors.". Although InvenSense does not produce the other sensors used in the Wii's setup."The combination of everything together will provide true 1:1 gaming. Nintendo is able to offer six degrees of freedom. If you imagine an X, Y, Z frame. Now imagine it's not just up down left right, back forth, but also rotation. That's the maximum amount of motion that can ever be tracked." Virginia was then asked exactly how precise the technology is, "It's incredibly high precision, so that's difficult to say. All I can say is the combination of the sensor bar, the gyroscopes, and the accelerometer it's more than enough for any gaming purposes."

After Red Steel's attempt, I'm starting to look forward to sword fighting on the Wii again with Wii Motion Plus. Virginia explained a little about the sword fighting game in Wii Sports Resort. Basically Wii Motion Plus allows the "opportunity to swing the sword above your head, behind your head, thrust right, thrust forward. All of those types of motions in the past weren't possible, but this is the gyroscope capability, combined with the accelerometer and the sensor bar within the Wii remote system that bring a new level of gameplay." Another gameplay element was Reggie's throttle love, "..in the jet ski application where you had to move left and right and move through the course. The throttling really showed rotational movement that has never been able to be tracked before by the Wii Remote controller." So basically we're able to achieve more then before..


Trying to determine who actually approached who is difficult, as both companies refuse to comment on that question. Regardless Virginia told IGN that the partnership just made sense, as "You've got the motion sensing leader in gaming understanding that a company called InvenSense makes a low cost, high performance gyroscope product with the ability to mass produce." Although the relationship is not an exclusive one. "The IDG 600 is not a custom product, but it is a product that has been designed with Nintendo's specification in mind."

Finally questions were asked about the durability of Wii Motion Plus and its energy consumption. In regards to its durability, the shock resistance was compared to dropping a mobile phone from a metre high onto a concete floor. "That gives you an idea of a 10,000 G shock rating.", which the product is rated. Whether the batteries drain faster? Well.."That's really a system issue and that's something we have no knowledge of from the design perspective. There is some power consumption, sure."

From what we've heard so far from InvenSense and Nintendo, this is finally delivering what we were expecting from the Wii on its release. All we can hope for now is a gradual improvement in games from third party developers as they begin utilising this new technology. Will we see a 1:1 Red Steel 2? Or even better yet, a 1:1 Zelda? The next 6-12 months will see some exciting releases for core gamers. Thats right, I've said it. Now its Nintendo's job to hopefully prove me right.