Gaming for the next generation
Normally I laugh at consoles. Really, I do. I do not do console games. I giggle at people claiming their console is better than my pc, shake my head and walk in the other direction. About two weeks ago that changed… the Friday before Christmas, a friend of mine brought along his Nintendo WII. A What? A WII. The WII is a next-gen console. It is rather cheap, and graphically not very top of the line. It is Nintendo’s new toy. So what makes it next gen? Well, remember the 8-bit Nintendo and Duckhunt, where you used a gun to shoot down ducks? That laser-type gun? At the time of its arrival, it was definitely hip and new. You could actually shoot at your screen and the console would respond properly. This was a form of motion capture. Not the nice way we have it now, but definitely motion capture.
Now we move to the Lord of the Rings- films. Have no fear, all connections shall become clear (hey, that rhymes… give me a Pulitzer!). Remember Gollum and his human counterpart Andy Serkis? Well, Gollum was created by means of motion capture too. Andy wore a motion capture suit, and every move he made was transferred to Gollum in the film. Motion capture is really rather simple, you just note a few key points in the human body, track them with a tracking and registering system, preferably in 3D, and voila, you can track the movement of the human body. Those are the basics, of course, but you get what I mean. Motion capture is also used for video games to enhance the movement of characters in the game. Martial Combat games are excellent for this kind of thing, as with proper motion capture you will get a very live experience.
Right… the WII. Nintendo’s WII has one thing I have not seen on any other console system yet: The controller is unique. It does not require a cable (wow, big deal) and communicates via infra-red. It communicates your button presses, your movement with the controller if need be, and your movement with the controller. Yes, both. It sends the moves you make with that little cross thingie, and it also tracks the movements you make with the actual, physical controller, and translates those to movements on your screen. The WII controller has motion capture. I spend some time boxing whilst playing WII sports, and I stood upright, moved my arms, smacked the opponent down with well-aimed punches (controllers in the hand), blocked by lifting my arms, scratched my head on the screen when I scratched my head with controller in hand, and once he was down, I cheered with my arms in the air and so did my little WII-Me. The force-feedback and the extra speaker in the WII controller add to the fun.
But the buck does not stop there, not by far. The next generation was already steaming hot. We alredy had force-feedback joysticks, real steering wheels and other modifications for consoles and pc-games, and the virtual laser-keyboard has also arrived (www.virtual-laser-keyboard.com). It projects a keyboard and picks up your keystrokes via laser motion capture. I shall enter the area of speculation now. I predict that within ten years someone will have made a glove that contains all the necessary motion capture elements, and will have hooked this to a very expensive HUD which are pretty much only goggles, projecting whatever you need to see on them. The HUD combined with the goggles will lead to the virtual reality we read about in science finction… at an affordable price. VR exsists, motion capture exists, force feedback exists, pressure pads exist, all we wait for now are some bright minds that miniaturize it at an affordable cost, write some nice programming to go along with it and we’re off to a new world. Gaming for the next generation folks, it is here. Gaming, remote control of robotic equipment, highspeed connections to the other part of the world, within a decade or two you’ll be doing lightsaber fights in VR. At that point I suggest you find yourself an old PC, start it up and start Doom… the Shareware version of part 1…. re-titled "Revenge of the PIXELS!"
//Barry
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