I was lucky enough to get a new Nintendo Wii games console on the 8^th of December 2006, the day of its European launch.

 

This shiny piece of white plastic encases the culmination of years of research, millions of pounds of investment, the latest silicon chip technology, and (for me at least) years of patient waiting.

 

One of the games I have for my new machine is Wii Golf. Now, I have owned many different golf games over the years, on many different games machines, and there is no way I could get my girlfriend to take part. For starters, she hates golf. She also isn’t to big a fan of games. So a golf game is not her idea of spending quality time together. Until now…

 

And worse… she can’t stop winning!

 

So what makes this machine interesting? The graphics are nowhere near the HD enabled Xbox 360 or Playstation 3. The sound is fine; Dolby Pro Logic II providing nice rich tones. It is cheap. In fact it was £189 with a set of games thrown in; the Xbox 360 £280 when it came out, and the Playstation3 could be as much as £425 when it comes out later this year!

 

But the real factor that makes non-gamers, like my girlfriend, love it is its unique controller.

 

Nicknamed the Wiimote, the Wii controller is a stylish mixture of an Apple I-Pod and a TV remote control. It contains sensors that can detect what angle it is held at, how fast it is moving and where on the screen it is pointing. So to play golf, you swing the controller like a golf club!

 

Rather than spend months trying to train your hands in the art of digit-acrobatics required for most standard games, the Nintendo Wii asks the user to mimic reality. The interface between user and program disappears in a split second of understanding. Anyone can play these games. Anyone.

 

So if a rethink of the way we interact with a video game can attract new audiences, what would happen if we found a better way of interacting with the Personal Computer?

 

The mouse was invented in 1964, and has changed very little since. The technology that drives it may differ (balls and laser encased in plastic rather than wheels wrapped in wood) but the fundemental function remains the same. So what is next? How will we be interacting with our computers 5, 10 years from now?

 

Alex, our work placement student, sent me a video the other day. It shows one of the first public demos of a new Human Computer Interaction (HCI) technology.

 

Watch it here

 

I think it speaks for itself…

 

Alastair Paines