Nintendo did not take Jack’s advice to hire Wii hack maestro Johnny Lee. Instead, Microsoft realized a genius was in the room and hired him to work on Project Natal, the camera attachment for Xbox 360 that recognizes full boy motion. 

“I have been helping Xbox with Project Natal,” Chang said on his blog. “Speaking as someone who has been working in interface and sensing technology for nearly 10 years, this is an astonishing combination of hardware and software. The few times I’ve been able to show researchers the underlying components, their jaws drop with amazement.”

Having played Natal first hand, I can only say the same. Gotta catch a flight right now, but I’ll explain later. 

See more: Johnny Lee

TED was last month, but this video of Wii savant Johnny Lee went up last week/over the weekend. It’s cool stuff, but the really neat part is how inexpensive the setup is–especially compared to the thousands professionals spend on similar technology. Like Lee says in the video, you pay a mere fraction of the cost of a “real” rig and get 80% of the functionality. If that means a poor schmuck like me can play 3D head tracking games on the cheap, that’s fine by me.

He’s at it again … Johnny Lee is blowing minds and expanding the scope and reach of the Wii remote with his incredible inventions. Nintendo, snatch this guy up today and pay him lots of money–the future of video games depends on it!

Well, ok, maybe not, but this kid’s pretty set in life after he gets out of school, IMHO.

JOhnny Lee is a smart, smart man. And he sees some hidden potential with the Wiimote. Hey, whaddaya know, me too.