[Wii] Remote to use Bluetooth for connectivity

July 17th, 2006, 18:49 Posted By: wraggster

More details of Nintendo's revolutionary Wii controller have come to light after developer notes were leaked recently. Nintendo has always been secretive about the technology behind the Wii remote and has promised more revelations before the console's autumn release, but this latest info has made the picture a little clear.

The remote will be powered by two AA batteries which will allow for 60 hours of game time if only the motion-sensing accelerometer function is used. If the precision aim functionality is used at the same time, however, the game time will be halved to 30 hours.

Bluetooth technology is used by the remote to communicate with the console via a 2.4GHz band, and the sensor bar that picks up the remote's movement is 20cm in length, has a sensor at each end and must be placed above or below the TV. The remote must mark these two sensors as coordinates in order to prevent interference from light sources and mirrors.

With 6KB of non-volatile memory available in the Wii-mote, it seems that gamers could well be able to store gamer-specific button configuration - other possible uses aren't known at the moment.

The remote and the console must synchronise using the 'synchro' buttons found on each device. This assigns an ID number to each controller - a process that can be done by holding down the 1 and 2 buttons together. All buttons on the controller are digital.

The four lights at the base of the remote will have two functions, firstly to indicate which player number the remote is - player one, two, three or four - and secondly to illustrate how much battery life the controller has when the console is being booted up.

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