Make: DIYSUPERHUMAN
D
E
A0–A4 (terminals 21–25) respectively, and
pin 7 of the cable to digital port A7 (terminal
28), as shown in Figure D.
3. VERIFY COMPUTER CONTROL OF THE GAME.
At this point, a good intermediate checkpoint
is to connect the data acquisition device and
test Guitar Hero in Auto-Play mode. By routing the video signal to your PC, Matlab can
detect each oncoming note from the game
and then automatically send the digital signal
to play that note for you. The software looks
for the bright pixel intensities above the fretboard within Guitar Hero and then plays the
corresponding note. (This is especially useful
if there’s a song in Expert mode that you just
can’t beat!)
Connect the USB video capture device to
the Wii and to your computer, and install the
drivers on your computer. This will allow the
game to run on your PC.
Optional: Download and install Audacity
(
audacity.sourceforge.net) to allow “Software
Play-through” of the game’s audio channels
through your laptop speakers.
Attach the USB-1208FS to your computer
and install the drivers from makezine.com/go/
usb-data. Once the drivers are installed, open
the configuration utility (Start → All Programs
→ Measurement Computing → InstaCal), and
ensure that the device appears in the list of
detected PC boards (Figure E) and that it’s
configured for 8 single-ended analog inputs
F
(as opposed to 4 differential inputs).
Download the MiniVIE package from the
Subversion repository at
makezine.com/go/
minivie. This is a package library based on
the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics
Laboratory Virtual Integration Environment
(JHU/APL VIE). It has a basic signal simulator
that you’ll use to test the functionality of your
modified guitar controller.
Open Matlab and navigate to the MiniVIE
directory. Type the following commands at
the Matlab prompt:
>> MiniVIE.configurePath
>> Presentation.AirGuitarHero.AGH
The Wii console will display on your PC within
Matlab (Figure F). Use the guitar controller to select and start the game. Once the
song begins, click Auto-Play. The MiniVIE will
graphically detect notes and then play them
using the digital output pins automatically!
Robert Armiger / Carol Reiley
48 Make: makezine.com/29
