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What does National Instruments have to do with the Nintendo Wii? That’s what I was curious to find out!

I love playing the Wii but I can’t say the same thing about NI products. They’re not exactly something I play with although I entertain myself by looking for connections between NI products and “stuff” that I’m more interested in. NI products are used in many interesting applications.

So today, my inquisitive mind wants to know if any there are any connections between NI products and my favorite video game console. NI with their enormous product line must have something to do with Nintendo, right? Surely enough, I entered “National Instruments and Nintendo Wii” in Google and got a few search results.

Check out the following video from Engineering TV of a robotic arm controlled by a Wii remote.

The technology Behind the Robotic Arm

• high-resolution camera
• 3-axis accelometer
• Bluetooth wireless link
• Nintendo controller (Wii remote)
• LabVIEW (the software I write documentation for)

To learn more about this application and/or download the Wiimote interface VIs, click here.

Here’s another video of the robotic arm controlled by a Wii remote.