GS: So did they propose the idea to you?

WY: Yeah, they asked AiLive if we could do something about the difficult situation with coding.

GS: Why didn’t Nintendo do these tools in house?

WY: (laughs) Well really, I don’t think these are the kinds of tools that just anyone can do. I think we’re way ahead of the industry. This is some deep, deep, deep science. It’s very specialized.

GS: Can you explain how it actually works?

WY: One of our core technologies is context learning. Context learning is basically the ability to let one or many sensors play together, and learn together. We stick an artificial intelligence brain into as many sensors as you want to use, and then you can, through the sensor, set input. And Wii basically learns. So you can train the AI brain. We have this technology for game characters – you can use an AI brain for game characters, you can put one or thousands of these AI brains into characters, and then the designer only has to train them by example.

So how do we do this? We take an AI brain and stick it into a Wii remote. Et voilá! The rest is what you see.

GS: Are you talking about a physical kind of sensor, or in code?

WY: It’s any kind of sensor. Either one, or multiple. It can be radar, or multiple radars, or infrared, or gyro, or all kinds of sensors.

GS: So how do you demonstrate what the remote should be able to do? How do you use this tool to create controls?

WY: The game designer demonstrates, and the AI brain will learn. It just does what the designer wants it to do.

GS: They take this remote, demonstrate the actions, and this is recorded somehow?

WY: Then the brain learns, yeah. You’re basically training it.

GS: Can you give a specific example of something you might be able to do?

WY: Almost anything. Anything you can conceive with the limitations of the hardware. If you have the Wii remote in your hands, whatever you want to do, Wii will be able to do it.

For example if a game designer wants to tape the Wii remote to peoples’ feet, and try to do a kickboxing game, the Wii can play along with how you kick, the direction, the speed, how much force you use, and so on. So basically you can train it however you want. It will learn.

GS: So if the game designer places some examples of kicks, then the Wii can compare this to future users’ kicks?

WY: Yes, when the player plays, the Wii can determine the direction and speed and everything.

GS: So it learns by example, and that’s output as code?

WY: Yeah, it outputs for game code. Wii really is an analog controller. Today’s traditional analog controllers, I personally really don’t like. They’re really digital. But in the natural world, there’s nothing digital about it – everything is analog. The Wii remote has some digital, but also some truly analog parts. Analog control is what the natural world is all about.