Wii Hub - Coming soon

8/20/2007

One problem I am having now is that I have so many applications that use the Wiimote. How to share it?

Right now each application must connect and disconnect. But this is a hassle, and certainly I do not want to shut them down each time. Disconnecting and reconnecting based on focus has side effects as well. What I would really like is for the Wiimote to act like a keyboard or a mouse, where applications can receive input based on who has focus. Combine this with the ability to watch for global events, and the ability to switch between applications using the Wiimote, and it is a presenters dream!

In short, that is what I am working on. I call it Wii Hub. It allows programs to register themselves, manages who gets what inputs, etc.

Wii Hub also can be networked. I am sure others will find more uses for this, but my main use is this. As I have said before, Bluetooth sucks. I have 4 Bluetooth adapters, and only one is usable (some work partially) with the Wiimote. This is no fault of the Wiimote by the way, but the Bluetooth specification and implementation in dongles and software. The only one that works is the integrated Bluetooth in my tablet. But my desktop is my primary development machine. So for me it will allow me to develop, run, and debug on my desktop, yet have the tablet handle the actual Wiimote. The Visual Studio remote debugger is a great option too, but it does not work in all scenarios. This is especially true when I have a high powered application that needs to use the better graphics capabilities of my desktop.

I am expanding WiimoteLib to be transparent. That is it can connect directly to the Wiimote, or to Wii Hub. This way developers using WiimoteLib can use either BlueTooth, or Wii Hub without changing their code.

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