Tell You What Technology Can Do

Changing the Accelerometer in Wiimote
By Jose Fermoso

UPDATE 12/5/2008: An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated that STMicroelectronics was being challenged as a supplier of accelerometers to Nintendo.

At the heart of the success of the Wii is the accelerometer chip inside the Wiimote that detects motion in three dimensional space.

According to a report from Japan, Nintendo is now looking into improving the efficiency and sensitivity of the control.

This is a separate issue from the recently announced Wii MotionPlus controller, which adds extra position sensitivity and horizontal rotation (with the help of a gyroscope) to the Wiimote, while keeping the original control innards intact.

One of the two companies supplying accelerometers for the Wiimote is STMicroelectronics. That company and its main contributor, Italian physicist Benedetto Vigna, have already been recognized for their contribution to the innovative game system.

Before their findings that led to the chip inside the Wii, small accelerometer designs could only detect motion in two dimensions. For example, early airbag designs included accelerometers, but they only inflated in the same direction as a collision.

STMicroelectronics main contribution was the merging of a three-accelerometer panel design with an electronic circuit that, according to Vigna, could recognize 'the displacement of fewer than 10 electrons' and was good enough to detect sensitive motions from 'a flick of the wrist or a big movement of the arm' and could be built at a cheap price.

A couple of years later, the $3 sensors were born and were placed in the Wiimotes. When they were combined with the infrared system that determines a player's initial position and then added to the usual Nintendo quality gamesmanship, they made the magic happen. By 2007, the chips were a part of the biggest selling game system in America.

But even successful technology needs to improve to keep the pace. Future microelectromechanical chip systems are bound to get even smaller, more sensitive, and become even cheaper to build.

Maybe in three years the chip design will be so advanced that we'll be able to play Wii Bowling with super-small chips in each finger.

Source: IEEE, CEATEC Japan