Case: New Wii Contollers

After our discussion about possibly developing a Sports Training tool using similar technology to the Wii, I thought I'd have a look around to see about variations in controllers, seeing as different sports will require differently designed interfaces.

Obviously not very useful for a sports tool, but I found a steering wheel that Wii have developed to have the controller slot into. This was mentioned in the meeting, we could develop a device that could be plugged into different interfaces/controllers/remotes to allow the child to achieve the same experience as the real sport.

I then found an article in a magazine and a website that focused on some controllers that are being developed. The magazine article mentioned the steering wheel, but also describes a golf extension and a tennis racket (the Wii remote will plug into both - see article for photos). The website details the development of a super-sensitive tennis racket, that will be more realistic to use than the Wii remote. It will be able to calculate such things as topspin, allowing the player to feel more involved in the game.

Here is a picture of the tennis racket off the website mentioned above:

The article can be viewed by clicking the image below:

The opportunities seem endless and the technology seems to be developing very quickly. We need to decide whether we're going to focus on several different types of sports or focus on a particular sport/variety, e.g. Tennis/Batting sports.

If you want to read more about the Wii steering wheel and it's specification you can find the web link here.

The article about the super tennis racket can be found here.

Magazine Article - Flipside March 2007 No.21 - Wii Sports Pack

Taste Buds Manipulator

I was joking about making healthy food which looked like tasty food - burger shaped sprouts and pizza shaped broccoli etc.

Mark said that the illusion would only last until you bite into it then the whole benefit is lost - Instead you should make healthy food which tastes like unhealthy food! Eating sprouts but tasting pizza?! Munching down broccoli while savoring divine burger flavours?!


I propose a device which stimulates the taste buds in certain combinations to replicate favourable flavours. This would encourage children to eat healthy foods which do not appeal to their juvenile pallet.

Gordon Ramsey and Jamie Oliver would hate us for ruining the world of food but hey - Crisps don't taste of potato do they?

This idea was developed in tandem (that means together, at the same time darlin) with Mark.

Case: Virtual Baby Visit

Baby Mobile is a tool developed in the Netherlands to allow parents to visit their baby in the hospital using their mobile phone. The device is tipped for success as Baby Online is a free service that has already proven to be popular (this tool allows users to visit using the Internet).

The point I'm trying to stress with this article is that we shouldn't be afraid to cater for very young children, e.g. babies.

More on the Baby Mobile can be found here