Examples of DIY balance board-like controllers have been doing the rounds online for some time, but this clip on German youtube has to be the first example of using an actual Wii Balance Board for non-Wii applications.

Techie readers will know that the Wii board communicates wirelessly with the Wii console via bluetooth which means that essentially, the board can communicate with any bluetooth enabled device. Now, after a beer and Bratwurst (one would imagine) fueled moment of inspiration, it seems that two boffins at the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence have developed a C# application that allows the Wii balance board to control any PC-based application.

In principal it's quite simple. The application, on a bluetooth enabled laptop, receives signals from the four balance board sensors and converts these signals into events which can, for example, be mapped to particular key events like pressing the left, right, up and down arrows on a keyboard.

So far, the video shows them using the Wii board with Google Earth and Microsoft Virtual Earth as well as controlling the movements of a Second Life avatar but the possibilites are endless and not just for gaming and fun stuff. You could almost see this going mainstream - endless rows of cubicle workers frantically tapping balance boards under their desks as they shift our personal details from one department to the next.

Update: turns out I was wrong about this being the first example of a Wii Board hack. Check out this wiki stub from the end of April.