Wii mower takes the yawn out of lawn mowing

I know Wii remotes have already been used to control coil guns and extremely unsettling black widow spiders, but now you can actually have fun mowing the lawn.

A group of highly domesticated scientists at the University of Southern Denmark decided the world needed to be spared from the pain of shortening grass until the next unseasonal downpour. So they created a lawn mower controlled by a Wii remote.

They've called it Casmobot. And just when I thought this name might have an allusion to something vaguely Viking, I was disabused by the explanation that the "Casmo" part stands for Computer Assisted Slope Mowing.

The design is quite simple. The Wiimote is connected by a little Bluetooth to a computer and a bunch of robotics in the machine.

Depending on how much fun you want to have, you can either keep tilting your Wiimote to direct the mower or you can just guide it around the perimeter of an area and it will automatically cut all the grass inside.

But the greatest joy will be experienced not by ordinary folks with little lawns that don't even offer birds sufficient lunch.

No, those crafty scientists, led by Kjeld Jensen, went straight to those for whom a Casmobot will narrow a chasm of boredom--municipal employees. Here are people who might have to mow vast swaths of pristine green that exist merely to beautify the municipality or even just to please the mayor's eco-conscious spouse.

"We have been introducing (Casmobot) to the professional workers at the municipalities and the minute they got this Wiimote in their hands and started cutting grass, they were smiling and laughing all the time so I guess I'm not the only one that thinks this is a very good idea," Mr. Jensen told the Telegraph.

Of course, given that the Wii promotes a gentle form of remote competition, one can only wait for the first time municipal workers actually race their Casmobots to see who can finish mowing first.

Perhaps local councils, in an attempt to save themselves from bankruptcy, will try to charge the public to watch Casmobots race to mow the communal grassy knolls.

Then Vegas would get involved. Suddenly each Casmobot would have sponsorship and its own pit crew.

I see TV coverage, don't you?