Doctors at the University of Melbourne recently made an interesting discovery about the Wii Balance Board. It’s actually comparable, in their words, “clinically comparable,” to the $18,000 medical device used to help stroke victims with recovery. The Balance Board costs $99.

Researchers from the University disassembled the board to have a look at its guts, in part to determine just how useful the thing could be. As it turns out, the strain gauges in the Balance Board are good. So good they could save hospitals hundreds of thousands of dollars and given smaller rehab facilities the tools to help a wider variety of patients. “I was shocked given the price: it was an extremely impressive strain gauge set-up,” lead researcher Ross Clark told New Scientist. Clark and his team published a paper verifying the quality of the Balance Board as a medical device.

Source: New Scientist

A couple guys at Asobitech have put together a PC case mod that instantly set me to drooling.

As you can see from the pic, their mod takes shape in the form of an old SNES. Using the guts from an Acer Aspire A150 they hacked together a fully-functional PC into a UK SNES case. It’s not just the case mod, though, it’s that they have fully supported connections coming through the controller cables. These guys have also managed to turn an old cartridge into a slot-loading DVD drive that you can eject with the SNES eject button. Yes, it’s that awesome. According to their site it’s coming to eBay soon.

According to a Financial Times report this week, Nintendo toyed with technologies similar to Project Natal and the Sony wand announced at E3 and rejected them, citing better results from Nintendo’s own accelerometers. Nintendo apparently made experimental games using hardware rigs that were similar to those from Sony and Microsoft.

Financial Times says this is Nintendo’s way of throwing the gauntlet at the feet of it’s two competitors. I say it’s more like a schoolyard insult from a company that sees its highly successful strategy adapted to fit the more hardcore consoles. Nintendo has sold some 50 million units worldwide, compared to 30 million 360s and just 23 million PS3s. As Nintendo president, Satoru Iwata, says, “Companies whose people said that motion-sensing wouldn’t work are now proposing motion sensors.” Will they be able to top the Wii?

Despite what FT says, Mr. Iwata seems nervous, and a little confused “Until they say when they’re releasing it, how much it costs and what software it comes with, we won’t know whether that is the route we should have taken.” So Nintendo rejected the technologies because the Wii had a better solution, but it’s still potentially a route Nintendo should have taken? Sounds like Nintendo dumped a hot girl, found out about her incredible new boyfriend and stands waiting for the wedding vows to make an objection.

Source: Financial Times