Hackers have found their latest toy -- the "Wiimote."
The wireless, motion-sensing controller has made Nintendo's new Wii game console this holiday's gotta-have-it gadget. Wii's games let the player swing the controller like a tennis racket or fling it like a fishing pole.
But some of the more interesting uses of the controller aren't part of Nintendo's official game library. Within weeks of Wii's November launch, videos were making the rounds on YouTube showing the controller used to move a PC's mouse cursor, play Half-Life 2 and even control a music synthesizer and drum machine.
Hackers quickly discovered that the controller was using standard Bluetooth signals for its wireless communication -- signals that were recognized, right out of the box, by personal computers equipped with Bluetooth receivers. Specifically, Windows PCs recognized the controller as a nonstandard human interface device, or HID.
This meant little, however, without software that could interpret the signals coming from the Wiimote.
