5/25/2021
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`Hack: The Nintendo Wii | MIT Technology Review
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`PlayStation 3 and Microsoft Xbox 360, the Nintendo Wii has wiped the sales floor with its
`competitors. In February 2007, 335,000 Wiis were sold in the U.S., versus 228,000 Xbox 360s
`and 127,000 PS3s. Behind the Wii’s success is its unique controller: simple and wireless, it
`responds to your movements in a natural manner, turning into a baseball bat, a sword, or a hand,
`as necessary. It is, in a word, fun.
`
`MEMS Sensor 1 (Wii Remote)
`The key to the Wii’s main controller is its three-axis microelectromechanical-system (MEMS)
`accelerome ters, which measure movement in three dimensions. Two-dimensional MEMS sensors
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`Hack: The Nintendo Wii
`Technology Review looks at the inner workings of the Nintendo Wii game console.
`by Daniel Turner
`July 1, 2007
`Initially discounted by game-industry watchers as graphically underpowered compared with the Sony
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`Hack: The Nintendo Wii | MIT Technology Review
`5/25/2021
`have been around for a while, but adding the third axis presented challenges. “You have moving
`parts that you have to protect from the environment,” says Christophe Lemaire, a marketing
`manager at Analog Devices, which makes the sensor used in the Wii Remote. Most MEMS
`sensors come in hermetic packages made from ceramics or metals. But this increases the devices’
`size and cost–a problem that the additional sensory dimension was only going to aggravate. “What
`we do,” says Lemaire, “is put a cap over the sensor elements at the wafer level.” That creates a
`hermetic cavity and enables the use of a cheap, small, lightweight case.
`
`– Flash Movie. Do not edit.–
`
`Bluetooth
`The Wii Remote uses a Broadcom Bluetooth chip to wirelessly
`send a constant stream of position, acceleration, and button-
`state data to the Wii console. The chip also contains a
`microprocessor and RAM/ROM memory for managing the
`Bluetooth interface and converting voltage data from the
`accelerometers into digitized data.
`
`MEMS Sensor 2 (Nunchuk)
`Many games on the Wii take advantage of a second controller,
`called the Nunchuk, which plugs into the Wii Remote. It
`features an analog joystick and two buttons, but it also has its
`own MEMS accelerometer, this one provided by
`STMicroelectronics. Benedetto Vigna, an STMicroelectronics
`physicist, says that the company’s three-dimensional
`accelerometer had a “really quick” development time; the
`
`company first met with Nintendo about the Wii in March 2005, only nine months before the
`product shipped. Vigna notes that there are two chips inside the 5-millimeter-by-5-millimeter-by-
`1.5-millimeter plastic package–the accelerometer and another chip that translates the tiny wiggles
`of the sensor into voltage. As in the Wii Remote, the voltage readings are then translated into
`motion data by a microprocessor, and the data are transmitted wirelessly from the Wii Remote via
`Bluetooth to the Wii console.
`
`Infrared Sensor Bar
`The accelerometers in the controls gauge movement but not position relative to the TV screen. So
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`This story was part of our July
`2007 issue
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`Hack: The Nintendo Wii | MIT Technology Review
`5/25/2021
`the Wii comes with a “sensor bar,” to be placed at the top or bottom of the screen. The bar sends
`out an infrared signal, which is picked up by detectors at the front of the Wii Remote. The Remote
`uses distance and angle information to triangulate its location, which it sends, along with
`acceleration data, to the console.
`
`Wi-Fi
`Nintendo saw the value of adding Wi-Fi wireless connectivity to its popular DS handheld gaming
`device, which allowed users to play against others wirelessly, so it did the same with the Wii. If
`you have an Internet connection, you can use the Wii to surf the Web or access information
`hosted on Nintendo’s servers, such as weather and news. Developers have said there will be Wii
`games that offer online play, though as of this writing only one–a Pokémon title–has been
`released.
`
`https://www.technologyreview.com/2007/07/01/271887/hack-the-nintendo-wii/
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