WiiSpray: Graffiti, without the legal hassles
by Leslie Katz
(Credit: WiiSpray.com)If blank walls tend to stir your graffiti urges, the Nintendo Wii may soon offer a solution that doesn't involve arrests of any kind.
Students at Bauhaus University in Weimar, Germany, have come up with WiiSpray, a concept interactive game that uses a Wiimote plugged into a special spray can. Players then get to unleash their artistry on a virtual canvas.
That canvas "allows the user to decide what is saved and what is discarded, all the while keeping the surrounding area clean and free of what otherwise would be a messy form of media," media students Martin Lih and Frank Matuse say.
The Flash-enabled software offers a range of colors, plus lots of interchangeable spray can caps, along with the option to incorporate personal photos, graphics, and backgrounds into the setting. The buttonless controller--which has a USB port for charging batteries and updating firmware--is said to sit comfortably in the hands of both righties and lefties.
Sadly, we don't read enough German to be able to extract a whole lot more information from the creators' thesis documentation. But the project has already led to some pretty interesting discussions online about whether such a game would lead to less real graffiti because people would have an actual outlet, or more real graffiti because the practice would become more familiar.
Watch the video below to see a teaser of the students' final presentation. Pretty cool--and colorful--stuff.
WiiSpray Teaser from Martin Lihs on Vimeo.
