ASUS Gives the Eee Wii-like Controls for Gaming

ASUS is milking the Eee name for all it is worth since it first introduced the small, cheap netbooks with the moniker. ASUS is now expanding the Eee name to a PC controller for gaming that looks sort of like a pair of Wii Nunchuck's. The controller is called the Eee Stick, connects to a PC wirelessly, and turns hand movements into movement on screen. The idea behind the Eee Stick is very similar to that of the Stix controller we talked about before, except that the Stix is only one device and the Eee Stick has two handheld components.

ASUS says that the Eee Stick is plug and play compliant and can act as a 3D remote in a similar fashion to the Logitech MX Air we reviewed before. The Eee Stick is bundled exclusively with specific models of the Eee PC and the Eee Box desktop along with games designed to use the controller. The system consists of an Activation stick, a Navigation stick and a 2.4GHz USB RF dongle. Both the sticks are vibration capable and the wireless range is 10m. Power for both sticks is from a pair of AA batteries (or 1 pack of USBCell) and both sticks can sense 8-way 3D motions. The Activation stick has seven keys and one mode switch with the Navigation stick getting four game keys and one joystick.