David Philip Oster has taken two useless things -- a Balance Board and a Mac* -- and made them useful by connecting them to Google Earth.

This year for Macworld I decided to create a program that allows people to "surf" any region on the Earth's surface using a Nintendo Wii Balance Board and the Google Earth API. To do this, I used the Google Earth Browser Plug-in with a Javascript API. The Wii Balance Board transmits the your movements to the Earth Surfer application using Bluetooth and allows you to maneuver a virtual milktruck by shifting your balance as if you were on a surfboard.

Yep, a milktruck. That wouldn't be my first choice of vehicle is I was to roam the face of the Earth, but I guess "magic carpet" was too predictable.

Oster, a member of the Google Earth team, says on the team's blog that he intended Earth Surfer to be an inspiration for folks to make more full-featured programs. As you can see in this video, it looks like a pretty straightforward set up with no practical application. Also, Oster calls it the Wii Balance Beam, which I think would be a much more interesting peripheral to adapt to a Google Earth interface. I hope someone gets on that.

* Kidding! I'm a gamer, so I'm predisposed to making unfounded nasty comments about Macs.