Can we use game consoles for chemistry? Yes WiiChem

I've written about using the Kinect to control Jmol, but there's another game console gadget that's been around for some time that offers similar possibilites - the Wii Remote or more simply, the "Wiimote".

A few days ago, Eric Henon and Mickaël Gadroy of the University of Reims announced the WiiChem project on the avogadro-discuss mailing list:

We are pleased to announce that it is now possible to carry out the Wiimote possibilities into Avogadro.

The Wiimote gives the opportunity to use a cheap, easy and flexible device for educational purposes for example. By pointing a Wiimote at a screen you can create, rotate, substitute atom by fragment, ... molecules. Also, you can use it with projector.

Anaglyph (Red-Cyan)/3D possibilities have been implemented.

The feeback (rumble functionality) can be used to check « on the fly » proximities between the molecular system and the manipulated atom.

This is still a Beta version. The src plugin as well as all instructions to compile it are available at :
https://github.com/mickaelgadroy/wmavo

It would be nice to finally see one of the open source 3D viewers come with this functionality out of the box, so this is a very exciting development.

For more information or if you want to get involved, see the Avogadro mailing list, the github repo, or the website for the project (English/French).

Image credit: maury.mccown