Nintendo keeps coming up with new gaming possibilities for the Wii’s innovative motion controls: Conducting music, playing sports, and driving cars — it’s all in there. Nintendo continues to find other uses for the Wii as well, such as real-life exercising with Wii Fit or home-schooling CPR.
What’s the next stop for this amazing piece of hardware? It appears that the Wii’s destined for an airport-security checkpoint near you. [Via Popsci]
Future Attribute Screening Technology (FAST) is a project funded by Homeland Security to the tune of $20 million, and the Wii Balance Board is at the forefront. Researchers hope that the sensors normally used to make characters on your TV mimic your movements can also detect a person’s heart rate, breathing, eye movement, body temperature, and more. This could possibly help rent-a-cops quickly figure out who has something to hide and who gets tired of standing on plastic playthings.
Field testing for the screening program is set to start in 2011. Just don’t expect to make it past that heavyset guy on the X-ray machine any faster because you got the high score in Shaun White Snowboarding.