Wii Speak mic “might not be the gimmick it first appeared to be”

Jack On July 16, 2008 16.07.2008 with 14 Comments
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Interesting praise from ars technica this afternoon about the Wii Speak microphone.

All this voice chat was happening courtesy of the USB “Wii Speak” microphone, placed on top of the sensor bar of the demo Wii. What was impressive was that, in a loud room filled with the sounds of many people enjoying their demos, the speaker was able to pick up my voice from around ten feet away as I talked to Mario in a normal speaking voice. I had a comfortable conversation with Martinet, and we had no problems hearing each other or understanding what the other person was saying, even in these less-than-ideal circumstances. In other words, the Wii Speak speaker is a pretty nifty piece of tech.

The Mario voice was provided by none other than Charles Martinet, the voice of Mario, who was hidden away in another room. It’s another Wii accessory, sure, but it works as advertised.

14 Responses to “Wii Speak mic “might not be the gimmick it first appeared to be””

  1. ECC says:

    thats awesome!

  2. Johnny Lee says:

    It’s jawsome!

  3. Used Cisco says:

    Yeah, very cool. I hope lots of games utilize this. I would definitely like this better than a headset. I hate playing with a headset on.

  4. Laird HexDSL says:

    seee… jsut like ive been saying to everyone that will listen. its a social comunication solution not like antisocial headsets

  5. Rushli0n says:

    So if I read this right…the sound comes out of that device as well? So it’s a dual mic/speaker?

    Glad to hear it sounded ok in a room filled with noise. I was expecting the sound to come out the surround sound or TV.

  6. daverage says:

    Here’s a demo of the WiiSpeak in action if anyone’s curious:

    http://youtube.com/watch?v=RgRriCJARvU

  7. Sean says:

    Oh look, Daverage posted a rickroll variant. Hooray for lamest of internet fads!

  8. daverage says:

    Don’t be jealous Sean….

  9. peshue says:

    Sounds like it works exactly how it should. I don’t see how this should be a surprise to anyone.

  10. Dustin says:

    Except it was really funny

  11. Kevin says:

    I’ll believe it when I “hear” it myself. Also, I would appreciate it if they had a headset option. My wife doesn’t want to listen to “my buds”…

  12. TheConstruct says:

    They DO have a headset option.
    See: Headphones/Wireless

  13. razorkid says:

    I know its off-topic, but Ravi’s hair in that youtube clip was strangely hypnotizing….

  14. Luigi Kid says:

    I just want the game,I don’t have any friends anyway.

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