Darwiinremote software#

Darwiinremote software#

Being a Mac user, DarwiinRemote is the only software I have any first-hand experience with for the Wiimote.

If you have a Wiimote handy, or can extract one briefly from a nearby teenager’s hands, take a look at DarwiinRemote (on Macs) or WiinRemote (on PCs) to get an idea of how the Wiimote might be useful for teaching physics. Wiimote tracking acceleration (green spikes) of a cart on an air-trackĪs the cart rebounds off a stretched rubber band. As far as classrooms are concerned, I think the smart board application is going to have the most impact: it’s easy to use and, to be terribly mundane, the price is definitely right. To get an idea of what kinds of things, take a look at Johnny Chung Lee’s videos: tablet computer / smart board, virtual reality, finger tracking. What this means is that the Wiimote can be used for a lot more than playing video games. Better still, it communicates with the world using the Bluetooth protocol which most recent computers also use. The Wiimote measures acceleration and position in three dimensions. The gadget I’m referring to is the remote for the Wii gaming platform, sometimes called the Wiimote. Why do I think this is going to be so important? It’s cool, it’s powerful and flexible, it’s cheap, and a fair number of our students already have or want one. In late October or early November of last year, eons in academic life, one of our graduate students introduced me to something that I think is going to have a dramatic impact on teaching physics and on how we interact with computers, especially in the classroom. Lenore Horner of SIUE (a physics professor who works down the hall from me and who has the best toys in the department.)

The following is a guest blog post written by Dr.