Two universities adopt Wii Fit to monitor football concussions

As it turns out, there are quite a few uses for a $100 off-the-shelf computerized scale, above and beyond getting fit — Nintendo’s Wii Balance Board is now providing a mechanism by which college football teams at Ohio State University and the University of Maryland can cheaply determine whether players are suffering from concussions. Taking the place of force plate machines that can cost tens of thousands of dollars, the white plastic boards measure students’ balance (using yoga poses) and coordination (in Table Tilt) before a game, to provide a frame of reference against which trainers can measure whether athletes are fit to keep playing. Though some scholars found Wii Fit didn’t stack up favorably against the expensive force plates, the universities trialing the system called it “pretty decent,” so the question is whether Nintendo’s peripheral offers a reasonable enough benchmark for the price. We suppose the American Heart Association liked it well enough.

Two universities adopt Wii Fit to monitor football concussions originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 23 Aug 2010 03:39:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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David Kassan uses THQ’s uDraw to express his Wii ennui (video)

David Kassan uses THQ's uDraw to express his Wii ennui (video)

David Kassan made something of a name for himself as the guy who is really good at fingerpainting with the iPad Brushes app. Now he’s been tapped by THQ to work with something other than his fingers: the uDraw GameTablet for Nintendo’s Wii. Announced earlier this week, the $70 tablet pledges to let anyone with an artistic bent get all creative on the little console that rules them all (at least in terms of sales), but can it actually create meaningful art? See for yourself in the video after the break.

Continue reading David Kassan uses THQ’s uDraw to express his Wii ennui (video)

David Kassan uses THQ’s uDraw to express his Wii ennui (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 20 Aug 2010 08:29:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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THQs uDraw GameTablet for Wii at Nintendo World, NYC: Videos and Photos

uDraw-06.jpg

Could this new peripheral provide the jolt the Wii needs to compete with Microsoft and Sony’s new additions to their gaming platforms? In Nintendo tradition, it’s certainly different and definitely innovative–and it’s far more compelling than I had expected it to be.

Following yesterday’s product announcement of the THQ uDraw GameTablet for Wii ($69.99, out in time for the holidays), the company hosted a press preview at the Nintendo World store in New York City’s Rockefeller Center. There was blessedly little speech-making; mainly we were let loose among numerous stations set up with Wiis and uDraws to try our hands at the new peripheral.

I tried the tablet with the bundled uDraw Studio software (two game titles, PIctionary and Dood’s Big Adventure, $29.99 each, will also be on store shelves at holiday time). Using the uDraw was like using a simpler wireless Wacom tablet; the Wii Remote docks in the tablet to provide connectivity. The 4- by 6-inch drawing surface provided plenty of room to draw. Getting started and figuring out the various controls was fairly simple (and then I found the tutorials, of course). Not so easy was controlling what I was drawing; it’ll take some practice for me and I suspect for most people. But the possibilities are a bit mind-blowing! (More after the jump.)

THQ Announces uDraw GameTablet for Wii

UDrawGameTablet.jpg

Now there’s a new way to enjoy your Wii gaming console: by drawing on-screen. Game developer THQ has just announced the uDraw GameTablet, a Wii accessory that will be available this holiday season. The tablet will come bundled with a drawing, coloring, and art-based video game called uDraw Studio, for $69.99.

But that’s not all you can do with the tablet. Two other titles that use the tablet, Pictionary and Dood’s Big Adventure, will hit shelves at the same time and will each list for $29.99. While the tablet will only be available to U.S. buyers this holiday season, it’s scheduled to debut in Europe and other destinations not yet named in 2011 and beyond.

UDraw Pen and Tablet for Wii

A Wacom-style graphics tablet for the Wii? It’s a fantastic idea, and if THQ, the maker of the uDraw, can make it work as well as a Wacom, it could have a winning peripheral.

The tablet, officially a “GameTablet”, has a slot onto which you slide the Wiimote, and this allows it to communicate with the console and also powers the tablet. The pen is tethered (a good thing, otherwise the kids would lose it in five seconds), and lets you draw on a 9 x 7-inch panel.

The uDraw will cost $70 and will ship with a game called uDraw Studio, a painting app which also uses some of the Wiimote’s buttons as controls: hit the minus-button to undo a brush-stroke, for example. It all looks worthily educational, and has the bonus that you won’t have to clutter the beautiful door of your SMEG refrigerator with the paper detritus of your kids’ scribbling sessions.

THQ has some more titles on the way already. A draw-along platformer called “Dood’s Big Adventure” (which sounds awful) and a version of Pictionary, which could be a genius move from THQ.

The uDraw will ship at the end of this year, almost certainly in time for Christmas. The games will follow, for $30 apiece, in 2011.

uDraw [Wonderful World of uDraw via Yahoo]

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THQ’s uDraw GameTablet is like a Wacom for Wii (video)

THQ's uDraw GameTablet is like a Wacom for Wii

Art games on consoles tend to be unpopular creations, Mario Paint about the only one to even approach retail success, but maybe all they needed was a proper input method. That’s what THQ is hoping, at least, announcing the uDraw GameTablet for the Nintendo Wii. It’s a chubby, pencil-like stylus tethered to a tablet that connects wirelessly to the console thanks to the Wiimote that slots right in. The tablet comes with a drawing game called uDraw Studio, while THQ is also working on an artsy platformer called Dood’s Big Adventure and a digital version of Pictionary, which could be this thing’s killer app. (You can catch a glimpse of them all in action in the video after the break.) The tablet will cost $69.99 when it ships by the end of the year, while games will be a rather more affordable $29.99. THQ also promises more games to come through 2011, but we’re guessing their release is somewhat contingent on just how many little Picassos find these in their stockings this holiday season.

Continue reading THQ’s uDraw GameTablet is like a Wacom for Wii (video)

THQ’s uDraw GameTablet is like a Wacom for Wii (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 17 Aug 2010 07:29:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Wii Classic Controller Pro gets gilded for revamped GoldenEye 007

Alright, gamers — time to fess up. Even if you’re a self-proclaimed new schooler, there’s no way you’re passing up the option to flash back to yesteryear in order to play GoldenEye 007 the way it was meant to be played. The Wii remake of the game actually doesn’t look all that different than the original when it comes to polygon count, but for those who aren’t keen on taking control of Pierce Brosnan (let us dream, okay?) with a Wiimote, there’s the gilded Classic Controller Pro. The limited run controller itself is a familiar beast, but rather than being coated in a standard black hue, this one will be doused in much the same color as 007’s Golden Gun. It’ll reportedly ship later this year within a “Classic Edition” game + accessory bundle for $69.99 (a $20 upcharge over the software alone), but it’s still unclear if it’ll be available as a standalone peripheral. Not like it matters — you know you’re buying this game, anyway.

Continue reading Wii Classic Controller Pro gets gilded for revamped GoldenEye 007

Wii Classic Controller Pro gets gilded for revamped GoldenEye 007 originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 11 Aug 2010 12:22:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Wii Sells 30 Million in U.S., Signals the End of the Geek

In a sign that computer geeks no longer rule the Earth, Nintendo’s Wii, the console that it couldn’t even keep in stores for most of its life, has sold 30 million units. Still not impressed? That figure is for the U.S. only. Worldwide sales to the end of March this year were 71 million.

The Wii is 45 months, or almost four years, old, making it the fastest-selling console of all time, and something of a money-spinner for Nintendo.

But why? Why has the Wii sold so much better than the objectively more powerful, “serious” consoles from Sony and Microsoft? Because it appeals to the mainstream market. Us geeks are no longer the target customer of tech companies. Normal, non-nerds are buying more gadgets than we ever can, and it is changing the kind of gadgets that are being made.

The Wii’s appeal is obvious. It has that neat controller than anyone can pick up and use, and it was marketed from the start to parents, kids and people who don’t play videogames. It doesn’t hurt that Nintendo itself has consistently been the best first-party games-designer since Jumpman first kicked Donkey Kong’s ass, avoiding games that appeal only to the teenage boy.

We can see the shift elsewhere. Take Apple, for instance: Despite what whining, protesting nerds might think, Apple doesn’t care about us anymore. If you know what a file-system is, or care what interface your peripherals use to hook up to your machine, the iPad isn’t for you. It’s for people who don’t use or like “computers,” just like the Wii is for people who don’t play “videogames”.

It’s great that nerds like me and (some of) you also love the simplicity and reliability of the iPad, but we don’t matter either. We’re mere tinder to the market: As we show our new toys to our family and friends, we will light the fire of the real tablet market, which will surely grow much bigger than the “real computer” market just as the Wii has continually outsold the “real” consoles.

Expect this trend to continue. Enjoy the last few years of being a geek as our interests become the norm. Look at the bike for an example. Thrill-seeking cyclists used to be club-joining enthusiasts in spandex. Now, the bike is just another way of getting around. Even fixed-gear bikes, once the preserve of racers and bike messengers, have become so commonplace that you can buy them in Wal-Mart.

Read more about the games that made the Wii the fastest-selling console over at our sister blog, Game|Life.

Nintendo Wii Sales Reach 30 Million In U.S. [Information Week]

Photo: Shayne Kaye/Flickr

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Engadget Assembles the Ultimate Weapon: Wii Laptop

This article was written on January 19, 2007 by CyberNet.

Wii Laptop There is no doubt that the Wii causes enough damage as it is from arms being whipped through the air as excitement builds in a game. Heck, there is even a site, Wii Have A Problem, that is dedicated to sharing everyone’s stories on how they got injured or what objects they have broken. All of this commotion comes from one little video game system that has motion sensitive controllers.

So now Engadget decided to go all out and assemble the Wii console into a laptop…thereby forming the ultimate weapon. I’ll get into that in a second, but first checkout this video of the Wii laptop:

It has everything from a 7-inch screen to a built-in power supply, which gives you nearly everything you need to play your favorite Wii games no matter where you are. So what’s the problem? Swinging arms! I could only imagine the number of people that would get hurt when they are on a airplane or a bus traveling somewhere with a portable system like this. With the Wii controllers it would feel natural to swing your arms and I’m sure it would be tough to hold yourself back. Thank goodness this isn’t a mass-produced device. :D

I do have to admit that this “laptop” was very well designed and they plan on revealing all of the juicy design details next Tuesday. With the Wii’s small size the whole package measures just 8.5 x 7.7 x 2-inches, but what I really want to know is how much it weighs. Maybe they’ll divulge that detail later on.

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