More Immersive Gaming with This DIY Motion Control Rig

Modern video games are truly amazing pieces of technology, allowing us to traverse a virtual world in three dimensions with a keyboard and mouse. While a good input method, in real life when you move your head up and down your perspective on the world changes. In a computer environment, this normally means that you’re simply looking at another spot on your monitor.

In order to add a bit more depth to his gaming experience, Eric Hill has come up with what he calls DIY Motion Control Gaming. At its simplest, it uses a Wii Remote (or Wiimote as they are commonly known) sitting in a fixed position — while the normally fixed sensor bar is strapped to the back of a player’s head. The Wiimote senses this movement, and translates it into a computer input using GlovePIE to help with head movement mapping. It’s interesting to see it in action in the video below, creating a sort of virtual depth to a monitor — as one’s head moves to one side or another while looking at the screen.

Hill also goes over how to make your own sensor bar with infrared LEDs and perfboard, as well as the details of connecting a Wiimote to a Windows PC in the project write-up. Both are useful if you’d like to take this concept even further, perhaps adding extra input methods, or as an alternative input device for those with limited mobility.