Interesting Technologies

I recently bought a Wii I'm not a huge fan of overly complex games and I don't need life like graphics to enjoy a good time killer so I've been quite happy with it. The best part is the Wiimote. This is basically the wireless controller that comes with the Wii. It has motion sensing capabilities as well as a built in speaker and rumble pack. With the right game it is a very effective device that adds significantly to the gameplay. Being a frequent traveler I know that many hotels now have internet access via the TV. I've mistakenly tried to use this getting endlessly frustrated with the wireless keyboard and cursor-like mouse movements. The Wiimote (based on Gyration technology) is a much more effective device for interacting with a screen like a TV. In its simplest form you just point at the screen and click. For many this is the type of experience they would expect had they not been forced through years of small rodent education (aka the common desk mouse).

I decided to see if I could do a little mockup with my laptop. Turns out the Wiimote uses simple bluetooth to communicate with the Wii console. Even better is the fact that you can add this to any bluetooth capable PC. With a piece of software called GlovePIE you can then program all the Wiimote movements to interact with your computer. The GlovePIE application acts like middleware and interprets the Wiimote movements and then translates them into mouse and keyboard commands. A simple scripting language as well as plenty of default scripts can be used to add the Wiimote to virtually any application comfortably.

As part of my TV experience I also want to be able to stream content from any device to any device. After quite a bit of searching I came across TVersity. This application must be run on one PC in your network and basically hosts the content. All other devices can view the content directly over the network. Any video or audio is automatically transcoded for the device which can be autodetected. This means that XBOX, PS3, Wii, PDAs, Mobile Phones and other PCs can all share content feeds from the TVersity server. Best of all it's free!

My experience still isn't complete however as I want my TV desktop to have a few more useful applications. Digging a bit more I was able to find IM and VoIP plugins for my Facebook homepage. Today there is a limited selection so I resorted to adding a Meebo plugin as well as SkypeMe. Now from the comfort of my sofa I can interact with my big screen LCD and make phone calls, IM, view streaming content and surf the net all from a single desktop interface that is entirely run over HTTP meaning I'm not locked in to an OS.

From this single entry point I can also access my photo library, add RSS feeds and manage blog posts. Twisting this technology around a bit a hotel could offer guests a guesttop (patent pending ;))that allows a full suite of services through their guest room TV. This profile could be saved and recalled during future visits. Now combined with full online check-in I can arrive at my hotel room and immediate get the content I want on my TV. Further I can interact using the Wiimote to provide a much more intuitive experience. Now let's add remote call control and I can initiate a VoIP call from the hotel phone all enabled through the services interface that the guesttop provides.