Wii-proofing Panasonic's plasma TVs

(Credit: Crave UK)

At its 2008 product showcase in Valencia, Panasonic revealed that every year some people manage to hurl their Wii controllers at their expensive flat-panel TVs. Anyone who reads gadget sites will have read these tales of woe and possibly even seen the photos. The good news is that Panasonic has created a Wii-proof TV. Well, it's Wii-proof as long as you don't have the lobbing arm of a caber thrower.

You might think it seems daft to go to all that effort, but Panasonic didn't really have to change very much at all. Generally, plasma TVs do have a much more rigid screen anyway--always with a tough glass front, unlike flimsy LCD panels. So making it resistant to more chucking force can't have been exactly rocket science.

The specially treated panel does offer resistance of around 4 joules of energy. In case you don't know what a joule is, allow us to educate you. A joule is the unit of measurement for heat electricity and mechanical work. As a rough guide, 1 joule of energy is the amount needed to lift one small apple--the fruit, not the MacBook Air--straight up one meter. Joule, interestingly, is exactly 10⁷ Ergs, according to Wikipedia.

Panasonic also showed us an LCD panel that had endured the same treatment, and as you can imagine, it was truly messed up--a fairly predictable outcome, if we're honest. If you've got a Wii and don't know how to hold onto things, perhaps this is the TV for you.

(Source: Crave UK)

[Shaun822]

Just be careful

In the majority of cases of WiiRockets the person was trying to throw a football/baseball/swing a sword like Tom Brady/Roger Clemens/Conan the Barbarian and the Wii-mote flies out of their hand the wrist strap breaks and ta-da skewered plasma.

[C433Z]

Someone should make...

Someone should specialize in making cases for peoples' tvs. Like a plexiglass one that wouldn't break if a tank ran over it.

[Marth_Koopa]

Are people really that incompetent?

I never use the wrist strap OR wiimote jacket, and I have never had the wiimote slip from my hands. People deserve to have their TVs busted if they are seriously that bad with handling a controller.

[chanthaso23]

haha wii controllers!!

thats some funny stuff

[unknown_unknow]

The tougher the better.

Why not? Wii just isn't the only cause for screen damages, specially at home. Kids, dogs, cats and the service people too, can damage the screen. So this is indeed good news - hope the manufacturers build not just stronger screens, but ones resistant to chemicals too, and the glass can do this.

[speedvillain]

Old technology is still Superior in some ways.

How flimsy is technology these days when a plastic gadget can cause sufficient dammage to your expensive Plasma or LCD screen. You have to give credit where it deserves an old Cathode Ray Tube will never even receive a scratch from the WII controler.. I guess the better technology gets the more flimsy it is...