balance

"Ron" Tajima of Japan has figured out a clever hack for his Wii Fit balance board and Roomba.

He calls his latest creation the "Surfin' ba."

Instead of just showing off with fancy footwork, Tajima also demonstrates how he did it. As with his other Roomba hacks, Tajima attaches a serial Bluetooth adapter he developed himself to the Roomba.

This is Tajima's third Roomba hack. His others are a version of a Wiimote-controlled Roomba, and the Pacmba, a Roomba with LED lights.

(Via Electric Pig)

Can a video game get you in shape? Nintendo says that Wii Fit will definitely point you in the right direction. With more than 40 exercises and activities, the game helps you keep track of your BMI (body mass index) over a period of time, allowing you to become more aware of your body.

While the game may not have you losing pounds left and right, it'll certainly help you improve your balance and posture--it can even make you work up a sweat.

The Wii Fit package comes with the Wii Fit software and balance board. The board is … Read more

CNET was more than happy to attend an exclusive roundtable Q&A regarding Wii Fit with Nintendo mastermind Shigeru Miyamoto on Thursday afternoon at the Le Parker Meridien in New York. Miyamoto led the presentation with an in-depth look at the origin of Wii Fit and the challenges that came along in developing such an ambitious platform.

Interestingly enough, Wii Fit was conceived by Miyamoto in the process of his own personal awareness of his body weight. By graphing his weight over a period of time, he was able to see a visual representation of how it fluctuated. With his family encouraging him to keep in shape, Miyamoto did so by creating a personal game out of the whole thing--as a result, Wii Fit was born.

What separates Wii Fit from other "working-out-can-be-fun" concepts is that it creates a game around each person who plays it. Nintendo hopes that this personalized experience will attract people who would otherwise not be playing video games--and we think they're on to something. By making Wii Fit an easy-to-use, practical, and accessible device, it can appeal to just about anyone who can stand on a scale. Wii Fit may not have you dropping pounds as fast as intense exercise and dieting would, but it can definitely make keeping track of your progress a whole lot easier and definitely more entertaining. Miyamoto explained that Wii Fit makes you more aware of your body, which is the first step toward improving your health. Wii Fit is already starting to pop up in gyms across Japan and we'd imagine a similar response here in the states.… Read more

Rumors have been circulating for several weeks that the upcoming Nintendo interactive fitness game, Wii Fit, which comes bundled with the Wii Balance Board peripheral (pictured), would be priced at $89.99. Well, now that number has become official along with the not-so-secret May 19 launch date.

According to Nintendo's press release, Wii Fit boasts, "A dynamic mix of more than 40 yoga, aerobics, strength training, and balance activities, Wii Fit provides consumers with a fun, easy, and affordable way to incorporate exercise into their daily routines. Using the included wireless Wii Balance Board accessory, every member of … Read more

Back when I was a neuroscientist, I participated in all sorts of "Women in Science and Technology" events and outreach programs. I have been thinking a lot lately about another kind of "woman in tech," namely those who are able create new jobs for themselves thanks to online connectivity and business tools.

This comes about in many ways. As a writer, for example, blogging has clearly revolutionized grassroots journalism. But beyond that, digital technologies have transformed all parts of the publishing world, creating new opportunities for product development, printing, distribution, and publicity outreach.

I got in touch with author/entrepreneurs Sarah Headrick and Sarah Rivera after coming across their site Custom Made for Kids, which has the quality design of a site you would expect from a large company, but operates from a Yahoo Store platform. I was taken by the concept and illustrations for their personalized children's storybook, The First Adventures of Incredible You, and decided to find out more about the partners behind this new venture, suspecting the the internet was the key ingredient powering every level of their startup company.

Headrick and Rivera confirm that this is the case:… Read more

Ask any first grader to name the five senses and sight, hearing, touch, smell, and taste will roll out as a satisyfying answer. But this list leaves off the sense of balance, along with body position. We generally don't think of this sense because it is always on. We close our eyes and it gets dark, but we still know which way is up and what our bodies are doing. Gravity feels like a constant force of nature, and we feel firmly rooted in our bodies.

The key word here is feel. As much as we may take it for granted, there is a true sensory process going on, involving the vestibular organs of the inner ear, the positional information coming from our joints, as well as integration of other sight and touch cues. And since it is a sensory process, it can be manipulated to induce an illusion. Neuroscientists have used surprisingly low-tech methods involving virtual reality goggles and a stick to create an out-of-body sensation in ordinary people.… Read more

The (parent.thesis) blog is coming to you this week from the lakeside woods of Northern Michigan. Family vacations used to mean getting away to what felt like an alternate universe, a place that seemed to materialize only in the summer, and disappeared from consciousness the rest of the year. We used to feel cut off from the rest of the world up here. There was no TV, and if we didn't get the newspaper we could miss out on a whole week of news.

But now the online world has bridged these two universes. I checked the upcoming week's vacation weather from home, before we left. Using the Microsoft Virtual Earth map on Weather.com, I zoomed in down to the level where I could see my family's house. I know we've probably all done search on own houses at some point, but to see the vacation house from home gave me a true though-the-looking-glass-feeling.

We're still not exactly high tech up here. We don't have an internet connection in the house, but we are allowed to connect to the house next door's network. So I am sitting in the woods, on a plastic chair, blogging on my laptop. This experience crystallizes the best and worst of remote connection for me. … Read more

Health-conscious gamers can finally put the Wiimote down and put away Wii Sports. Nintendo's upcoming Wii Fit uses the new Wii Balance Board controller to measure how you move as you stretch, dance, and dodge through 40 different fitness activities. Wii Sports is expected to hit stores early next year.

Ever since Wii Sports got gamers off their couches and onto the floor in front of their couches, the Wii has been a big deal for health-conscious gamers. The Wiimote's motion-oriented controls keep players active as they swing, slash, and roll in different games. Now Nintendo is taking the next step in making the Wii fitness-friendly, and they're not even using the Wiimote to do it.

At a press conference today, Nintendo announced Wii Fit. Like its name implies, Wii Fit is a fitness game for the Nintendo Wii. Like Brain Age used the Nintendo DS to exercise … Read more