WiiSpray: Graffiti, without the legal hassles

The spray can controller has a USB port for charging batteries and updating firmware.

(Credit: WiiSpray.com)

If blank walls tend to stir your graffiti urges, the Nintendo Wii may soon offer a solution that doesn't involve arrests of any kind.

Students at Bauhaus University in Weimar, Germany, have come up with WiiSpray, a concept interactive game that uses a Wiimote plugged into a special spray can. Players then get to unleash their artistry on a virtual canvas.

That canvas "allows the user to decide what is saved and what is discarded, all the while keeping the surrounding area clean and free of what otherwise would be a messy form of media," media students Martin Lih and Frank Matuse say.

The Flash-enabled software offers a range of colors, plus lots of interchangeable spray can caps, along with the option to incorporate personal photos, graphics, and backgrounds into the setting. The buttonless controller--which has a USB port for charging batteries and updating firmware--is said to sit comfortably in the hands of both righties and lefties.

Sadly, we don't read enough German to be able to extract a whole lot more information from the creators' thesis documentation. But the project has already led to some pretty interesting discussions online about whether such a game would lead to less real graffiti because people would have an actual outlet, or more real graffiti because the practice would become more familiar.

Watch the video below to see a teaser of the students' final presentation. Pretty cool--and colorful--stuff.

WiiSpray Teaser from Martin Lihs on Vimeo.

[cgarrett]

I don't know why I'm posting this, but since the Wiimote responds to shaking, and also has a built-in speaker, I'm strangely hoping that you can shake your virtual spray can and hear the little mixing ball bounce up and down.

[bobmarleypeople]

Wii remote has a built in speaker for exactly this.

There needs to be life size digital walls for these kind of things though. Then you could have events with the thing and people paying a little money to paint a huge digital wall with virtual paint. It'll probably sell better than Wii Fit! (lol just kidding)

[tdwindustries]

Check this out, virtual graffiti and tried and tested!

http://www.vimeo.com/4183359

[tdwindustries]

YrWall is an interactive drawing art tool where users create virtual digital graffiti on a large wall using a modified spray paint can. It is basically graffiti with a can that contains no paint, only a button and IR light source which is tracked using a computer vision system.

www.yrwall.com

[molotov]

Wiispray is so fake. And besides; do we really want these kids get graffiti practice at home so they can destroy your rooftop later? Albeit; at a much nicer design.

[Stefaninafla]

You know, I can just see the 34th St wall painter using this as practice...
Where I live, there is one wall in town that people are allowed to paint on as long as they follow the rules (Namely, don't park your car on the sidewalk, keep the paint on the wall only, and clean up after yourself.)

[pblspbls]

hook me up