TechEBlog put together a top five list of the best Wiimote hacks we've seen before, and as usual, I agree with most of their picks, but not their ranking:

• 5. DJ WiiJ
  
• 4.
• 3.
• 2. Tennis WiiBot
• 1. Smarthome Wiimote
  

The one I find the most interesting is #3, the 3D dome virtual reality simulator seen in the video above. Paul Bourke and others at the University of Western Australia used the Wiimote as a cheap tool for space simulation navigation. The result is using the Wiimote to look around or even fly through the map at great speeds, making it one of the best untapped virtual reality setups I've seen in a while. The 3D dome even looks sleek as opposed to the majority of the clunky virtual reality projects in the past, I'd gladly spend a few thousand bucks on this if it meant Nintendo, Sony, or Microsoft was making games for it.

Today's a pretty slow news day, so I went looking for some cool technology and found this. Neurok Optics has a 3D PC monitor that they've made - complete with geeky glasses too. If you're interested in knowing how it works, they explain the physics of the polarized goggles here. They're currently selling 22 inch 3D monitors for $999, but if you pre-order them by March 15th it's only $819. That's still a lot for some ritzy retinal gear though, luckily the 3D glasses are only $10 each.

Their goal is to replace all two dimensional monitors one day, with gaming as their first target audience. LAN parties with these setups would definitely be awesome, but I wouldn't spend that much money without trying the screens out first. They've got a few clubs set up around America for people to try their products out for free, but none anywhere close to me. So if you live in New York, California, Indiana, Texas, Florida, Arizona, or even Hawaii, then make sure you check out their different locations here to see if it's anywhere near you. Hopefully in another few years the price will drop and we'll finally take the early steps to virtual reality gaming.

No, not the virtual reality game that I'm working on for my class project with a local hospital - my instructor finally sent over the pictures and a post about that will be up in the morning. This virtual reality game is completely different. Setting up a ceiling camera to track their movements from above, these gamers play "Bomberman Evolved" wearing colored beanie hats so the camera can track their movements for the characters on the projector screen at the from of the room. With all the tables pushed aside, the two gamers run around the room and the characters follow their paths in the game. It looks like they have controllers for dropping bombs too, can you imagine the level of exertion this would take to play for some games? It would be worth it though, even if it meant pausing the game every time I reached the front of the room just to run to the back and unpause and keep playing my game, I'd love to use this for a dozen different games. Racing games and Geometry Wars is definitely not one of the ones that would be fun though.

I just stepped out for a few hours for a colij class field trip. For those of you who are new to the site, I'm half a year away from getting my dream degree in video game design in Pittsburgh. When signing up for my next round of classes recently, I noticed a 'Virtual Reality' course had appeared out of nowhere and signed up without asking any questions. I'm glad I did - so far things are looking fucking awesome. We traveled 20 minutes to a nearby hospital clinic facility and on the fourth floor we all gathered into a virtual reality room, yes, a virtual reality room. I don't want to spoil the fun without pictures though (it looks nothing like the picture to the left), so you can expect a full write up on it tomorrow morning once my teacher sends me the pictures he took of the place today.

What's the point of the class? In a nutshell, we get to use their motion-balance therapy VR studio to design an Unreal Tournament mod that we will get to play in the 3 wall game station. T minus 10 weeks to gameplay. Can't. Fucking. Wait. Expect a detailed explanation of everything tomorrow morning. Posting will now resume.

Nvidia has teamed up with the University of Washington's Harborview Burn Center and Imprint Interactive to make a virtual reality system called SnowWorld, that helps reduce pain for burn victims by getting them to become so immersed in the game that they forget about their injuries altogether. Using Nvidia's graphics technology, the virtual reality setup will take the players on an interactive journey through an icy 3D canyon and lets you throw snowballs at anything from snowmen to mammoths. PS3's Afrika game that's in development interests me for the same immersive reasons as this game does, but it's great to know that it's being made purely for the benefit of injured gamers. If you live near the Smithsonian's Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, then you can even check it out for yourself where it will be on display until July 29 next year.

If you're interested in similar medical gaming setups, there's also a virtual reality system for phantom limb patients.

The often painful phantom limb sensation occurs in people with amputated or missing limbs, where the body thinks the limbs are still attached and moving. Leave it to video games to help ease the pain -- a few U.K. scientists have created a virtual reality program that will help treat patients with phantom limb pains. The scientists said that early tests showed the simulation can ease an amputee's phantom pain, that if patients have the illusion that a lost limb is restored, their pain can subside. The project leader Craig Murray said that "One patient felt that the fingers of her amputated hand were continually clenched into her palm, which was very painful for her. However, after just one session using the virtual system she began to feel movement in her fingers, and the pain began to ease."

It's good to see video games finally get some purely positive press for a change. Their studies showed that their virtual reality treatment worked for four out of the five patients over a period of about three months. Currently, the researchers plan to run their tests on a larger group of patients to find out which patients are most likely to benefit from the treatment. So forget about that lame PS3 this Christmas, instead cut your arms off and you'll have a futuristic virtual reality game system in no time. That or you'll be stuck with having your mom duck-tape a Wiimote to your dick so you can finally get your hands on . . . your dick on Zelda Twilight Princess. It would be worth it.