Fully Charged: Wii and Nintendo DS online service shuttered, inside the Oculus Rift and Kinect holodeck, and the creep-thwarting expandable dress

Nintendo Wii, DS games lose online functionality

Nintendo largely stopped supporting the original Wii with software once the Wii U was on the horizon, but consider this one of the last nails in the coffin: As of today, the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection for both Wii and Nintendo DS first-party games will cease to function.

That means that top titles like Super Smash Bros. Brawl, Mario Kart Wii, Animal Crossing: Let’s Go to the City, and Mario Kart DS can no longer be played online. Each system’s respective online store will still function going forward, along with video streaming apps like Netflix and Hulu Plus.

Games from third-party publishers may or may not still feature working online connectivity, but that could change soon as well: Electronic Arts, for example, recently announced that servers for many such titles will go down at the end of June. Granted, the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection was largely a mess, thanks to cumbersome friend codes and lacking features, but it’s always sad in this online-centric age when great games are forever diminished.

[Source: Nintendo]

READ MORE: The six Nintendo Wii U games you need to play

Oculus Rift + three Kinect sensors = holodeck?

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Considering all of the buzz around the Oculus Rift VR headset’s gaming possibilities, some of the most intriguing uses to date have come from odd, out-there experiments meant more to test the capabilities of the tech than entertain. Case in point: software developer Oliver Kreylos used the headset and three first-generation Kinect sensors to transport his entire body into a simulation, making for an experience akin to Star Trek’s holodeck.

Skip ahead a couple of minutes in the above clip to really get a sense of what we’re talking about. While his own visage appears rough due to the low-resolution nature of the original Kinect sensor—and the fact that three are working in tandem to stitch together a 3D model of his body—it’s a very impressive first pass at the concept. We can’t wait to see him replicate the effect with the Xbox One version of the Kinect.

[Source: Gizmodo]

READ MORE: The tech that’ll turn your living room into a holodeck already exists

Sensor-equipped dress expands when others are near

For women who feel like their personal space is violated in cramped public spaces—like commuter trains and buses—then perhaps this concept for a mechanical expanding dress will satisfy. It features proximity sensors on the front and back, which trigger a plastic armature and expand the garment when someone is too near.

The "Personal Space Dress" is part of a series of art projects by Kathleen McDermott, but it’s all done using the open-source platform Arduino, and instructions are available online. Granted, it’s not particularly practical, but it might be worth making one just to see the reactions from fellow commuters during the morning slog to work.

[Source: Kthartic via BT]

READ MORE: Microsoft lifts moods with smart bra