Halogen lights may interfere with Wii.

[imahawki]

Oh, do I get to break my first story here? Maybe its already been posted?

http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=31945

Anyone heard anything on this, able to confirm it or not?

 

[Sillyhat]

I wouldn't believe a source like The Inquirer.

 

[phimuajedi69]

wtf? that makes no sense whatsoever....

as far as i know, the signal in question is just like a remote (talking about the pointing functionality by IR, not the bluetooth connection) anyone have halogen lighting at home and a problem with their remotes?

the story referenced by that story is here,

it sounds like a minor situation with all the details, even if you have halogen track lights i hope they are in front of the tv that would be kinda pointless and you'd prolly turn them off to watch tv anyway or have major reflected glares

also i personally don't have much point of reference with kotaku, but i have to question the validity of a third generation story

A tipster just sent word on what a Nintendo rep said about the Wii.

so they heard from a friend who heard from an uncle....

I don't know.... anyone have more confirmation of this, or is it just a rumor like the ps3 disc locking?

 

[glassonion914]

Good post.
Their argument is bs though. The remote communicates to the console using Bluetooth technology.
Bluetooth uses radio frequencies from about 2.4 to 2.48 GHz, and the only thing in a home that might interfere with radio waves are other radio wave devices like garage door openers, cordless phones, ...baby monitors. Luckily the good norwegians who made bluetooth thought of this, a bluetooth connection hops about 1600 times per second through random frequencies (2.4-2.48) so it very rarely occupies the same band as another radio device using this range. Turn on 1000 halogen lights and if you don't blow your breaker the bluetooth will still work.
Now there may be some other form of communication going on between the bar and remote (some say infrared, is it infrared? Infrared traditional controllers always had delay problems in the past...). I can't imagine anything that would be disrupted by light. The most absurd part to me is that Halogen light in particular is offensive to the Wii communication. If they're gonna suggest something like this they ought to back it up with some explanation, kind of irresponsible really...but then again last year they found BAT BOY in a cave.

 

[hudson]

Hi, this is my first post. I read the same story on Gizmondo that refers to the article at Kotaku. I really hope they are wrong, I for one do not want to play my games in the dark! Yikes!

But if it is true... this guy's theory seems a bit interesting.
http://robotsumi.blogspot.com/

 

[hudson]

BTW, I registered at Nintendo Forum but it won't let me post... It said I'm restricted. Can anyone help? Thanks a bunch!

 

[Sillyhat]

BTW, I registered at Nintendo Forum but it won't let me post... It said I'm restricted. Can anyone help? Thanks a bunch!

Same thing happened to me. I registered and I can login in but when I try to post it tells me to check my email for a confirmation/registration link and I never have an email from them. I don't know what the problem is, but if anyone knows let us know.

 

[hudson]

Same thing happened to me. I registered and I can login in but when I try to post it tells me to check my email for a confirmation/registration link and I never have an email from them. I don't know what the problem is, but if anyone knows let us know.

That's weird... I got the email and I get to log in. But I have to log in twice - once into the Nintendo site and once into the forum. But when I tried to reply to a thread, it said I am restricted! Driving me nuts!

 

[phimuajedi69]

some say infrared, is it infrared?

it looks like infrared to me, check out the view of the end in this promo, seems to be a typical remote IR cover

and the sensor bar is there to intercept something....bluetooth is radio frequency, thus the receiver can be anywhere (probably hidden away in the wii itself)

 

[tuned]

Well if the controllers are able to be angles and control movement, i'd think it's some sort of gyro based controller that could have ir based control. I also think that's what the bar is for, the infrared aspect.

 

[imahawki]

The controllers use gyroscopes, bluetooth and IR all. The sensor bar actually EMITS the IR and the control receives it from what I read. Basically halogen crosses into the light frequency of IR. I can attest that this is possible from personal experience. For example, I built a night vision security camera because the CCD in the camera responds to light in the IR range too. So I got a bunch of IR LEDs and wired them up. You can't see the light with the naked eye but the CCD could see it so you had video in a completely black room. I'm guessing that's what COULD happen here with halogen and IR.

 

[glassonion914]

I expect halogen lights emit some level of infrared light, I know fluorescent bulbs do. But I think it's really a matter of noise vs an encoded signal. Mind you infrared light blasts from the sun too. I would expect the wii infrared to be a complex short range message, filtered if needed, probably in multiple IR wavelengths (theres a whole range you know, and I can't imagine a halogen bulb saturating a room with huge volumes of all wavelengths of infrared light which would mean lots of heat on everything the light hit, which is hardly there if at all from just a foot away).
No light through the path of my dumb simple tv remote ever stopped it from working, I seriously doubt a 21st century nintendo controller will be susceptible to any type of bulb --other than one on the front of a super infrared wii disruptor, sony is building a giant one in mexico. We better call the enquirer!

 

[therook]

Ok what happens is that the IR gets affected by ANY kind of light... Nintendo know of the problem and it stems round the materials the IR reciever is made of.

So it will be fixed...
Also the IR is used for getting the distance the wiimote is from the screen (or IR reciever) an example of needing this is red steel when you can stab your sword towards the screen...

dont worry the problem with lights effecting the IR should be fixed (similar to TV IR that works fine in different levels of brightness so dont worry )

TheRook

p.s. your going to ask where I got that information and its from Official Nintendo Magazine the current issue (next one is on sale on the 8th of june (with E3 covereage etc)

 

[Riviet]

It's probably best not to read the article by the inquirer, it's really just brainwashing you.

 

[imahawki]

I think theoretically the story is right but in reality it will be a non issue. That's my prediction. Its like how 2.4GHz phones can interfere with wireless routers but 95% of the time no one has a problem.