Wii Tech to Save Lives by Teaching CPR?

My hero.

Can the Wii save a life? Well that’s the goal of a $50,000 grant from the American Heart Association given to the University of Alabama for the development of a game that teaches CPR using Wiimote motion technology.

“Greg Walcott, an associate professor of biomedical engineering, devised the idea of a computer program that could be downloaded on home computers and synched with the wireless technology of the Wii remote to teach users proper resuscitation technique.

The students plan to make the program available, free of charge, on the American Heart Association Web site as early as this fall.

“The Heart Association’s high interest in our students’ innovations points to potential of this project and how it fits in with its desire to deliver reliable CPR education to the masses,” faculty adviser Jack Rogers said.”

I can understand faux-pumping with the Wiimote, but how exactly are they going to simulate mouth-to-mouth? I don’t want me friends making out with my controller, forcing me to drop it in a bucket of Lysol the next time I want to play Mario Kart.

The main obstacle for the game so far is that it’s not actually for the Wii, it’s a PC download that uses the Wiimote. I feel like that will have far less of an impact than a console game would, but I fully expect Nintendo to step in like the kind souls they are and tweak the game into console readiness free of charge. Then they have another blue ribbon to award the Wii as “the only console certified to save lives by the AHA.” Brilliant.

[via UPI]