History of Motion Detection in Gaming 47
kukyfrope writes "In the spirit of the Revolution controller, GameDaily takes a look at the history of motion detection in console games, including U-Force and the infamous NES Power Glove, to name a few." From the article: "When the Sega Genesis came around a few years later, Sega decided to try their hand- and legs and feet- in the motion-sensor game with the release of a device called the Activator. This was a grid-like octagon that laid on the ground and allowed the user to stand in the middle of it, and then use a number of motions to convey actions in a series of games that worked with it, including Sega's brawling titles Streets of Rage 2 and Eternal Champions. But, again, it took too much effort to really figure out how to make it work in a comprehensive manner, and many folks just ended up taking a pass on it."
Revolutionary Dream (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Revolutionary Dream (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Revolutionary Dream (Score:1)
Re:Revolutionary Dream (Score:2)
Consider http://www.getupmove.com/weightloss.asp [getupmove.com] for instance...
Re:Revolutionary Dream (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Revolutionary Dream (Score:2)
It's still a motion device. Watch a good DDR player, you'll get the idea.
Re:Revolutionary Dream (Score:1)
Re:Revolutionary Dream (Score:2)
Seeing as how I've never seen anybody with a controller dancing around, I cannot say I agree. Besides, if you really get down to it, motion tracking devices are a little more than a set of switches. If you step on the DDR pad, your motion has been 'detected'. Wave your hand in front of the U Force, you're interrupting a beam, triggering a switch. Blah blah blah. It's like saying a skateboard is the same thing as a bicycle just be
Re:Revolutionary Dream (Score:4, Insightful)
Anyway, most of the time these technologies havn't taken off because they just plain don't work. The power glove was almost impossible to use, the stupid Sega octogon grid thing was flaky as all get out and on and on. If Nintendo actually gets the motion sensing to work properly on the Revolution, it will truely be a revolution.
Re:Revolutionary Dream (Score:2)
I remember playing Rad Racer with the Power Glove and two things were a problem. One is that y
Re:Revolutionary Dream (Score:2)
I'm disappointed at how much was left out of this article. The tilt sensor inside the GBA cart for Wario Ware: Twisted, for example. Or hell, the tilt sensor inside any pinball table.
Re:Revolutionary Dream (Score:2)
The Wizard (Score:1)
Virtual Reality (Score:1)
This is all really neat, and it may be old technology, we're getting closer to a more interactive game where the player is more envolved.
But this of course also opens up to more addictive games....
Re:Virtual Reality (Score:2)
Something like the virtual boy for display today should be realtively cheap to make (it sold for what, $150 back in '95 or so? - plus blue and green LEDs are much cheaper now, so a full colour display could be practical). Combine that with some sort of glove that has simple motion detection, maybe a couple of gyroscopes and an accellerometer, a
Re:Virtual Reality (Score:2, Insightful)
Maybe all these problems have been overcome now, but the truth is that the last time anyone checked, Virtual Reality was all hype and no substance. The only thing keeping it going was it being just out of the reach of the common person. If it h
Re:Virtual Reality (Score:2)
I'd settle for another go on a virtuality machine though. Anyone reading this know where you can still find one in the UK?
Re:Virtual Reality (Score:2)
Porn is the driving force behind all development (Score:2)
They Left Out My Favorite! (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:They Left Out My Favorite! (Score:2, Funny)
Re:They Left Out My Favorite! (Score:3, Funny)
You can get a similar result with the PS2's dance mat controller.
It's quite fun after you've had a few beers.
Matt
Re:They Left Out My Favorite! (Score:2)
--Robert
Full exploitation (Score:5, Insightful)
With the revmote we also have an infinite range of gestures, but in a 3D space. The question is will this be exploited to its full potential beyond the obvious gestures like slashing a sword? For example, can I draw a U shape in the air to throw an uppercut in a boxing game. For a fight game, less intuitive gestures (e.g. draw a circle for a roundhouse kick) could be used, but would still be surely easier than trying to remember a random combination of buttons.
The revmote certainly has the potential to change things for the better, but it remains to be seen if this will be delivered.
Yes. (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Full exploitation (Score:1)
This controller may work with fishing games and the like, but it wouldn't do anything good in fast paced games.
Re:Full exploitation (Score:1)
Re:Full exploitation (Score:2)
Re:Full exploitation (Score:1, Informative)
Re:Full exploitation (Score:2)
Re:Full exploitation (Score:1)
Check out the tutorial section for the dirt.
whee!
-m
Remember Police 911 (Score:2)
That game rocked. You could duck, move from side to side, shoot, it was pretty cool. The AI wasn't amazing and the motion sensors could be improved, but the thing came out 6 years ago, and I haven't seen anything like it recently. Also no mention of it, or its boxing counterpart in the article.
IF you mention ddr then they should mention the ne (Score:2, Funny)
Re:IF you mention ddr then they should mention the (Score:2)
Re:IF you mention ddr then they should mention the (Score:2)
Re:IF you mention ddr then they should mention the (Score:1)
There were 3 rows of sensors on the "running" side of the pad. If you had some friends over, you could just hit the sensors with your fists instead. It worked great for events like the hurdles. With 6 "feet" running, you can just plow through the course and be finished before the computer reaches the first hurdle.
They missed Atari (Score:2)
The issue with motion detection (Score:4, Insightful)
Let me attest that it is VERY hard to get motion sensitivity right. I was using a 2-axis 2g accelerometer to try measuring gravity, and mapping the orientation of the controller with respect to the gravity vector onto the left analog stick's horizontal axis.
I tried for a good three weeks, attempting to perfect an algorithm for smooth playback. In the end, I couldn't get something that worked universally for all games. It turns out that the DualShock2's analog sticks are pathetic. They jitter around their "center value", and I use that term lightly because "center" could be anywhere from 0x70 to 0x90. Meanwhile, a Mad Catz controller returned 0x7F dead on every time.
So part of the problem is building a reliable interface. I think this is why Nintendo is rumored to use several different sensors. I've heard stuff about IR, ultrasonic, gyros, accelerometers, etc.
Now, if the response of these sensors is very well understood and presented to developers in an intuitive manner, and they're consistent, then this could take off. But those are the biggest issues: getting consistent, reliable information from the sensors, and effectively decoding that information into game inputs.
Re:The issue with motion detection (Score:2)
I find the sticks don't tend to respond until they've been moved over 25% from the center which is annoying when you want to make small adjustments. But if the sticks never read a stable resting position then it would seem the dead zone is there to stop all that jittering from translating into the game and making Solid Snake having some sort of epileptic fit on screen!
I love this article... (Score:2)