So do you point at the screen, or the sensor bar? (Wii)

[mac000]

So i just never have found out even though this question is always asked. But for games like Redsteel, zelda, "any game" , do you have to point at the sensor bar or the TV?

that would just be awfully awkward/rediculous to have to point at the sensor bar no? i'm thinking, if you give yourself some space bw the tv/sensor bar and yourself you will be point at the in "theory" or what?

[p0intblank]

I honestly don't know much about the Wii yet, but I believe the Wiimote uses RF to send signals, meaning it doesn't matter where you point it. I could be wrong, though.

[srobert]

Short version: You point at the TV.

Longer version: The sensor bar is only used for games that make use of the "pointing" feature. As far as I know, the Wii remote simply has to have the sensor bar in its field of view. I don't know what the angles are but it should be wide enough. If you aim the Wiimote at the TV, the sensor bar should be in it's field of view. You will be able to accurately aim at points on the screen.

[ChrisBrightwell]

You point at the sensor bar.

HOWEVER -- The sensor bar sits atop your TV (centered, ideally), so you're pointing at one in the same.

[stevehp]

You point at the sensor bar.

HOWEVER -- The sensor bar sits atop your TV (centered, ideally), so you're pointing at one in the same.


What's going on?!?!?! You didn't have to do that for Duck Hunt!!! :)

[afornander]

when you set your wii up, you probly have to diagnose it, like you would a touch screen, by sliding the wiimote across the screen;)

[Malus]

The Wii is magical. Thats how they do it.

[HiRez]

More accurately, you point at neither the tv nor the sensor bar, but at anything you want. It senses direction and tilt no matter how you hold it. Now yes, you do need to generally be in front of the bar/tv, and within a certain range for the signal to be powerful enough, but as far as I know, that's it.

[apfhex]

when you set your wii up, you probly have to diagnose it, like you would a touch screen, by sliding the wiimote across the screen;)
You diagnose a disease. You calibrate a controller. :)

In games that use the function, you point the controller at the screen. The sensor bar should be within visual range (ideally above or below the screen near the center), that's it, it figures the rest out itself. It wouldn't make sense any other way.

[LemonsofDeath]

I believe the sensor bar uses parralax to determine where the controllor is. Similar to how you eyes determine depth perception or your ears determine what direction sound is coming from. So you would have to callibrate it so it knows where the TV is. Its this combined with the motion sensors in thee controllers that make it able to tell.... just about everything you do with the controller.

[plinkoman]

you point at the tv.

the wiimote has several sensors in it (3 I think), as does the sensor bar. this is how it determines excately where the wiimote is pointing in relation to the sensor bar.

then; you calibrate the wiimote; that is, a point on the screen is highlighted, and you are asked to point at it and push a button. now; when your pointing, it's still in relation to the sensor bar, but, the wii knows where that is on screen; thus, you are pointing directly at the screen, and the wii knows exactly where that is on the screen.

the short version: it will work just like a touch screen. you point in several places, it's calibrated, and thats the end of it.

[Moria]

If you want to put it simply you 'point' at the sensor bar, but you don't really 'point' at anything. The sensor bar picks up which direction the Wiimote is facing, the angle its at, the speed its moving at and any movement in it. The TV has absolutely nothing to do with it and whatever size you have it wont effect your game anymore that it would on a normal console.

You don't and can't actually point at anything. In games you're dragging the reticule like you would with a mouse on a PC. Again, like a mouse, they aren't mapped out exactly 1:1, meaning if you move it 1cm upwards you're reticule wont move up 1cm. This is how you can either do small movements in WiiSports or big movements and it gives you the same output on the TV.

[srobert]

The sensor bar is little more than…

http://static.howstuffworks.com/gif/christmas-light-1.gif

…but shining in a different wavelength (infrared instead of visible light).

The Wii remote is like a digital camera with accelerometers and tilt sensors strapped on.

To the Wii remote, the sensor bar looks something like this:

••••________••••

By measuring the position of the "lights" it's able to tell where it points.

Edit: Wikipedia give a good explanation of how it works:

The Wii Remote is able to sense movement and orientation. Sensors in the Wii Remote allow it to sense linear motion along three axes, as well as tilt. The controller features an optical sensor, allowing it to determine where it is pointing. This can cause some detection problems when bright or fluorescent lights are in the area, requiring the controller be calibrated to a sensor bar which uses two sets of LEDs in each end of the bar as reference points for the Wii Remote.

The sensor bar can be placed anywhere near the display screen and parallel to the screen's horizontal edge. It is not necessary to point directly at the sensor bar, but pointing away from the screen itself will disrupt position-sensing ability. The use of the sensor bar allows the Wii Remote to be used as an accurate pointing device up to 5 meters (approx. 15ft) away from the bar. The sensor bar is about 20cm in length and features eight IR LEDs, with four LEDs being arranged at each end of the bar. The Wii Remote contains a one-megapixel image sensor which is used to locate the sensor bar's eight points of light in the Wii Remote's field of view. The known real-world dimensions of the spacing between the LEDs on the bar allows the Wii Remote to calculate its position and orientation in space relative to the bar. This information is in addition to, and supplemented by, the 3-axis acceleration and tilt sensors in the Wii Remote.

When the Wii Remote is pointing away from the sensor bar, the 3-axis acceleration/tilt sensors measure linear acceleration and rates of rotation which provide approximate values (by dead reckoning) of the location and orientation of the Wii Remote, but these values gradually drift out of alignment as long as the image sensor is unable to image the sensor bar. When the Wii Remote is again pointing at the sensor bar, the location and rotation data from the Wii Remote image sensor automatically recalibrate the location and orientation of the Wii Remote.

The position and motion tracking of the Wii Remote allows the player to mimic actual game actions, such as swinging a sword or using a flashlight, instead of simply pushing buttons. An early marketing video showed actors miming actions such as fishing, cooking, drumming, conducting a string quartet, shooting a gun, sword fighting, and performing dental surgery.

Despite the controller's similarity to a light gun, which is only compatible with cathode ray tube televisions, Nintendo has stated that Wii and its controller will be compatible with all televisions including digital projectors.

[SpookTheHamster]

Nobody else had one of these (http://www.nintendoland.com/graphics/console/sscope.GIF) with their SNES? You pointed at the TV then, you still will now!

[Sdashiki]

Nobody else had one of these (http://www.nintendoland.com/graphics/console/sscope.GIF) with their SNES? You pointed at the TV then, you still will now!

a light gun is NOT the Wii-mote.

not even close.

[gloss]

What's going on?!?!?! You didn't have to do that for Duck Hunt!!! :)

Light Guns used for CRT screens don't work with LCDs, plasmas, etc because of the mechanism involved. They had to develop a new system for use with HDTVs.

[2nyRiggz]

I think you will be pointing at the TV. The sensor bar will be to the bottom of your tv or the top. The sensor bar will sense where you point.




Bless

[Sdashiki]

Its very logical how it works:

sensor (is it one or two, as 2 would make more sense) goes on top of TV

When you turn on the Wii, it will ask you to calibrate somehow.

Most likely sitting in your "playing" position, pointing at where you believe the center is (prolly a giant X on screen) and click.

BAM from the sensors it now knows your position in 3D space in relation to the TV set.

Using 2 sensors would be the only way to know distance correctly and accurately, IMO, but Im no engineer.

[srobert]

Using 2 sensors would be the only way to know distance correctly and accurately, IMO, but Im no engineer.

Couldn't the Wiimote sensor measure the apparent distance between 2 of the sensor bars' infrared beacons to extrapolate distance from TV? The 1 megapixel sensor should be precise enough to give a very good estimate as far as gaming is concerned. Just thinking.

[Krevnik]

Couldn't the Wiimote sensor measure the apparent distance between 2 of the sensor bars' infrared beacons to extrapolate distance from TV? The 1 megapixel sensor should be precise enough to give a very good estimate as far as gaming is concerned. Just thinking.

Your quote and explination earlier accounts for that. It isn't that you need two sensors, but rather, two /good/ points of reference. The one bar provides that. By having the two sets of LEDs spaced apart a known distance, you get what you need.

This is actually based partially on quite a few techniques, it appears, from trilateration, triangulation, possibly parallax, and so on.

Orientation of an object in 3D space is easy, a first-year college student could whip up a device like the remote to do that. Position? Now that is hard, and we tried tackling that problem in our senior project. I must say, for Nintendo's purposes, they came up with a pretty decent solution for the price.

[jdechko]

Your quote and explination earlier accounts for that. It isn't that you need two sensors, but rather, two /good/ points of reference. The one bar provides that. By having the two sets of LEDs spaced apart a known distance, you get what you need.

Yeah, it probably needs at least 2 of the 6-8 (not sure how many) IR LED's in its field of view to accurately gauge where it is being pointed. The Wii will be able to calculate from those 2 points angle, and distance. It knows that the sensor bar's LED's are a fixed distance from each other. By measuring the distance in the image captured by the Wiimote's sensor it can determine the distance to the Wiimote. The Wiimote will also capture the orientation of the LED's. If the LED's are lined up along the X-Axis, it will confirm with the accelerometers/gyro that the Wii-mote is horizontal, Y-Axis alignment of the LED's being vertical orientation, and any degree of tilt in between.

In any case, the TV and the Sensor will most likely be juxtaposed with one another in a "close-enough" location that you'll just point the controller in the general direction of them both.