Ball-it, A New Challenger For The Wii Remote

The Nintendo Wii remote has inspired many companies, scientists and copycats to emulate its simple yet sophisticated interactive element but no such gadget has gained as much popularity as the original. A Finnish company aims to replace the Wii remote with its product called Ball-it.

Ball-it is a tiny ball with wireless sensors that can communicate with phones and computers via Bluetooth. You can even squeeze the ball to make it behave like a joystick.

Additionally, you can even squeeze the ball — effectively making it as effective as a joy stick — letting you do things like shoot guns, hit a tennis ball, or zoom in and out on maps (depending on the game or application, the squeeze function can be interpreted in different ways). The ball senses geomagnetic field, orientation, direction, speed, air pressure and acceleration — letting it do a bunch of things I haven’t seen its competitors able to do.

Besides gaming, Ball-it can serve other useful purposes such as a virtual car key, pedometer, compass and a measuring tape. The ball has raised $1.5 million so far and is going to retail for about $20 when it hits the market.

The future looks promising for this ball.

Image & Via: VentureBeat