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An Inventor Used a Nintendo Switch and Labo to Operate a Wheelchair

Since the very beginning, Nintendo has been all about creating innovative experiences with their video game controllers. Like, here’s a fun fact: The NES controller was the one that popularized the D-pad that has been on virtually every game controller since. Since then, whether it’s the unconventional N64 and GameCube controllers, the Wii remote, the Wii U game pad, or the current Nintendo Switch Joy-Cons, Nintendo has always thought differently when it comes to input.

The Joy-Con is particularly interesting because of how versatile it is, as the cardboard Labo kits prove. There are so many things you can do with a Joy-Con or two, like go fishing, play “All Star” by Smash Mouth, and now, operate a wheelchair (via Kotaku).

https://twitter.com/Takeru_FTX/status/991267031520460800

One of the Toy-Con Labo kits you can get is a motorbike, which turns your Joy-Cons into handlebars you use to play a first-person racing game. Meanwhile, Japanese researcher and inventor Kentaro Yoshifuji has been developing new technology to improve wheelchairs since he was in high school, and for a 13-year-old boy who is bound to a wheelchair due to a heart condition, he somehow rigged up the motorbike Labo kit to the kid’s wheelchair, so he can operate it the same way he would control the in-game bike.

https://twitter.com/Takeru_FTX/status/991539649423097856

Yoshifuji captioned one of the videos (via Google Translate), “The wheelchair is not a vehicle exclusively for people with physical disabilities, but it should be a convenient ride that anyone can use. My son who often thought that, “I am sorry just to have fun while everyone is walking.” It rushed up to the driving style. The shortage of the body is not only negative.”

What other unexpected ways do you think the Joy-Cons and Nintendo Labo could be used? Let us know what you think in the comments below?

Featured image: Nintendo

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