Rice Using WiiMote To Research Motor Skills Learning

Researchers at Rice University make heavy use of high-end motion capture systems (glued on ping-pong balls and all) when studying how humans acquire and improve motor skills, but perhaps a WiiMote will do the job.

In studying how stroke victims re-learn physical tasks, the researchers found that the motion sensors in the WiiMote compared favourably with the existing systems. Tests are continuing with data being gathered from high-end kit to help the evaluation.

“It’s the only part of the system we really need,” says Marcia O’Malley, director of Rice’s Mechatronics and Haptic Interfaces Laboratory, “We’re already grabbing motion data from the Wiimote,”so soon we’ll be able to measure a range of motion and then turn it into a mathematical model.”

Wii bit of fun at Rice University has serious intent [Rice Unicersity via Edge]