Update 1/20/09: Here’s a vid from Channel9 showing the WiiEarthVR project:

Time to talk a little bit about my PDC demo…

About a year ago, I wrote an application to control Virtual Earth 3D with the Wiimote named WiiEarth and a corresponding Coding4Fun articleon how it was done.  Since that time VE3D has been updated several times and code changes have broken my application.  Since their API is undocumented and unsupported, it was bound to happen.

For PDC this year, I decided to write a new version of WiiEarth, now named WiiEarthVR, using the Wiimote and some additional hardware, namely the Wii Fit Balance Board and a pair of Vuzix VR920 glasses.  Using the Balance Board, the user can shift their center of gravity (i.e. lean) and control the VE3D environment as if they were on a hovering glider.

Anyone heading out to PDC2008 this year?  I will be in attendance with (hopefully!) a new Wiimote project and perhaps a few old ones as well.  More details on that when the project is a tiny bit further.  We will also be giving away a free chapter of our new book “Coding4Fun: 10 .NET Programming Projects for Wiimote, YouTube, World of Warcraft, and More” to lucky PDC attendees at the O'Reilly booth.

I will also be co-presenting a lunch session at PDC:

Title: Coding4Fun: Windows Presentation Foundation Animation, YouTube, iTunes, Twitter, and Nintendo's Wiimote
Date/Time: Tuesday, October 28th, 12:45pm-1:30pm
Speakers: Dan Fernandez, Scott Hanselman, Brian Peek, Clint Rutkas
Room: 403AB
Abstract: Spend time with Coding4Fun authors as they walk through some DIY Development projects: TwitterVote, Wiimote, InnerTube, and BabySmash.

You can add this session to your agenda by visiting the PDC site and searching for “Coding4Fun”.

I’ve received information on a few spiffy Wiimote projects using my Managed Wiimote Library in the last couple weeks that everyone should check out…

Wiimote Tracking System Using 3 Wiimotes by Nikolai

This project uses 2 Wiimotes as cameras and a 3rd covered in IR LEDs to create a tracking and gesture recognition system.  Check out the video below.

Wiirtual.Earth - A WPF Virtual Earth 3D Experiment featuring the Nintendo Wiimote by Michael Koester

A pretty spiffy WPF UI integrating Virtual Earth 3D and the Wiimote.  Source code and more information available at the site linked above.

Great projects!

Thanks to everyone that attended my VSLive NY session.  I hope it was informative.  I have posted the slide-decks and source code for both of my sessions so you can tinker with the projects on your own.

• Creating a Simple 2D Game Using XNA Game Studio to Run on a PC, Xbox 360, or Microsoft Zune
• Interfacing External Hardware Using Managed Code

Questions and comments welcome, as always.  Thanks!

Now that we have finished writing the book, we finally have an official title and chapter listing.  Someday we may even have a cover.

The title has morphed into Coding4Fun: 10 .NET Programming Projects for Wiimote, YouTube, World of Warcraft, and More and the final chapter listing (not necessarily in this order) is:

• Alien Attack: Create a 2D clone of Space Invaders with XNA for the PC, Xbox 360, and Zune
• LEGO Soldier: Create an action game using Popfly with a custom-built virtual LEGO character
• World of Warcraft RSS Feed Reader: Use WoW's customizable interface to have feeds pop up while you're gaming
• InnerTube: Download YouTube videos automatically and convert them to a file format for off-line viewing
• PeerCast: Stream video files from any PC
• TwitterVote: Create custom online polls on Twitter
• WHSMail: Build a website with ASP.NET for Windows Home Server that lets you view the messages stored on a computer with Outlook
• "Wiimote" Controlled Car: Steer your remote-controlled car by tilting the Wii Remote controller left and right
• Wiimote Whiteboard: Create an interactive whiteboard using a Wii Remote
• Holiday Lights: Synchronize your holiday light display with music to create your own light show