Scale Balance

There is now a little over a month since Wii Fit was launched in the United States and although response to the game were mixed, overall It was a huge success, demonstrating once again why Nintendo continues to dominate the video game market. In the period before the launch of Wii Fit, Nintendo's marketing machine went into overdrive and the buzz surrounding the game has been phenomenal, but what many people seemed missed was the real innovation behind the game, namely the Wii Balance Board.

Described by some as a glorified bathroom scale, this device Amazingly, the revolutionary Wii Remote was when it was first launched and as the Wii Remote he Microsoft and Sony will catch-up game as they try to put the same functionality to their consoles. When the excitement subsided the Wii Fit, it will Wii Balance Board is recalled that the device has been game to the next level.

But there is a whole story behind this seemingly simple piece of kit that taken months to develop and went through many prototypes of shapes and sizes, before becoming the whiteboard it was slim at home living rooms around the world.

A ladder to Miyamoto-san

Before you can understand the logic of the balance board you need to step back to understand the original vision that led to the need for such a device. This vision through Shigeru Miyamoto, Nintendo's Senior Managing Director.

As the driving force behind games such as Pikmin and Nintendogs, Shigeru developed a reputation create games based on his personal hobbies. Wii Fit is no exception as the original concept for the play came from his interest in weighing himself and registration its weight on a daily basis. This led to the launch of a project called "Health Pack", which later became Wii Fit.

From the Initially, the challenge was how to take something as simple as weighing yourself, something he enjoyed but many regard as trivial, and do an activity that could be fun for the whole family. This proved to be a major challenge for the development team which at one time was about to be broken.

Two scales are better than one

Progress on the game was slow until a developer brought two ladders, after seeing how sumo wrestlers have to use two scales to weigh themselves and the team suddenly realized it was quite fun trying to balance so equal on both. It was at this point that the equilibrium position has become the central theme of the Wii Fit and the team began to consider using balancing exercises as a means of keeping fit.

Initial negotiations with manufacturers scale has received little support and the team soon realized that they must develop their own device. It would also be more functional than the usual scale and if the idea developed to measure the balance of one to four points. At this stage, the team began to realize that could be more than just scale, but actually a gaming interface

Circles, squares and octagons

Once the overall concept of the balance board was decided and it contains four sensors, work began on Determining the optimal shape and size of the Commission and how it communicated with the Wii console. This proved to be a long process of trial and error and a constant battle between the cost and ease of use.

Initial prototypes of the board were circular and square and even a octagonal point, but it soon became evident that these forms have been impractical especially when one considers as pumps. Once again, the solution was Miyamoto who understand that the natural position of a person before the training was to remain with their feet shoulder width apart so it was decided that the board become more rectangular.

The second major challenge was deciding how the Council equilibrium would communicate with the Wii console. First time, keep costs down it was decided that the balance board would actually connect to the Wii Remote that was quickly deemed too much pain and abandoned the idea. It was finally decided reconstruct wireless component of the Wii remote from scratch to create a wireless module that could be incorporated into the card itself.

Once these two major obstacles have been overcome, it becomes a process of refining the design, ensuring that the board was strong enough stand on and it was safe to use. The end result was the revolutionary new device that we see today.

What's Next for the Wii Balance Board?

Several members of the team developing Wii Balance Board admitted that at first, they never really understood Shigeru Miyamoto's vision of such a device. But the council has taken shape, they began to see more than just an accessory that could weigh players. Even before Wii Fit was launched globally, speaking from inside the can WiiWare titles and even the possibility of a Balance Board version of Nintendo in 1080? Snowboarding.

Fortunately for fans Balance Board, developers as Namco, EA Sports and Ubisoft have already pledged to release exciting new titles in 2008. In fact, We Ski from Namco was already available with Launch of Wii Fit. Games like EA Skate It and Shaun White Snowboarding has been confirmed and more games are in preparation. One thing is for sure is that the last Innovation from Nintendo, the Wii Balance Board, has a bright future.

About the Author:

Martin is a recent Nintendo convert and a big fan of the Wii Balance Board.

Article Source: ArticlesBase.com - The Wii Balance Board Story

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