Sunlight rumored to throw off Wiimote

So that’s two things rumored to cause reception problems with the Wiimote – halogen lights (this one cropped up back in May) and now natural sunlight. This latest one was discovered by a member of the Nintendo Insider Forums who was at Nintendo World back in September 14 (but uploaded his impressions only recently). It seems that a couple of Wii kiosks were “unplayable” while they were “shrouded” in daylight. We would use the term “bathed,” but you get the idea, right?

Later in the day, when the sun went on in its natural course, those kiosks (which were a couple of Wii Sports demos) moved out of direct sunlight, and they were playable again. Interestingly, another set of kiosks, this time for Metroid Prime 3: Corruption, had curtains to shield them from light coming into the store.

It’s not like someone would play with the TV (and thus the sensor bar) in direct sunlight, what with glare and all, said some comments to the forum post. Still, it does show that bright lights can interfere with the Wiimote’s communicating with the sensor bar. As birdy58033 pointed out back in the halogen story, the Wiimote and sensor bar uses light-based sensors as well as tilt sensors to tell the Wii where it is.

So that’s two things rumored to cause reception problems with the Wiimote – halogen lights (this one cropped up back in May) and now natural sunlight. This latest one was discovered by a member of the Nintendo Insider Forums who was at Nintendo World back in September 14 (but uploaded his impressions only recently). It seems that a couple of Wii kiosks were “unplayable” while they were “shrouded” in daylight. We would use the term “bathed,” but you get the idea, right?

Later in the day, when the sun went on in its natural course, those kiosks (which were a couple of Wii Sports demos) moved out of direct sunlight, and they were playable again. Interestingly, another set of kiosks, this time for Metroid Prime 3: Corruption, had curtains to shield them from light coming into the store.

It’s not like someone would play with the TV (and thus the sensor bar) in direct sunlight, what with glare and all, said some comments to the forum post. Still, it does show that bright lights can interfere with the Wiimote’s communicating with the sensor bar. As birdy58033 pointed out back in the halogen story, the Wiimote and sensor bar uses light-based sensors as well as tilt sensors to tell the Wii where it is.