Published: June 28, 2008 in future » experience by Thomas Baekdal
We were all amazed when the Wii controller came onto the market. The ability to swing a virtual tennis racket, play golf or bowling similar to the way we do it in real life was quite spectacular. But a company called Softkinetic has taken this a step further. Now you don't need a controller at all.
Softkinetic is using 3D cameras to track your movement and converts it to similar movements in a virtual space. If you need to jump over an obstacle you simply jump, if you want to reach out for something, you simply do that.
You can watch how it works over at On10, or take a look at the videos below.
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This is the next step in natural interaction. It is currently being developed for games, but just as multi-touch has changed the way we interact with phones (and soon computers in general), this technology can solve a lot of the interaction problems we got today.
One example is media centers hooked up to your TV. Today you have to use a TV remote, which is not really that efficient and is very inflexible to use. TV interfaces are generally over simplified simply because of the constraints in the way we interact with it.
With Softkinetic's technology you can track your movements in space, which allows you to do much more complex stuff on your TV screen.
In a conference room you could interact with a big digital whiteboard half-way across the room. Or you can create simulated 3D environments, like the one made by Johnny Chung Lee (see the last video), without the need to wear special gear.
Not to mention all the new possibilities of interaction we have yet to discover.
Technology like Multi-touch, the Wii remote and now Softkinetic's "iisu" technology is allowing us to interact without being constraint by the technology itself.
(via on10 and Softkinetic)
Cool. Very much more like where game controlling needs to be going. I wonder, can people sitting in the background - on the sofa - mess up your game by waving or gesticulating?? :-)
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I wonder, can people sitting in the background - on the sofa - mess up your game by waving or gesticulating?? :-)
I don't think so. As far as I can tell, then the camera is capable of detecting multible people and seperate their actions.
Hi Thomas, Cool article!!
Again i have to say that iv'e seen this live many times. Every thing from the human tetris to the flying like a bird has been done at AAUK.
As always products are what reach masses not prototypes.
"As far as I can tell, then the camera is capable of detecting multiple people and separate their actions"
Background subtraction is a very well studied field, many solutions to the problem exist. So definitively yes; Changes in background should not affect the system.
Writer, Project Manager and Interaction Designer
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Ian, Yes, I have also seen experiments with with both Human tetris - and flying. But this is the first time I have seen a working system that didn't require extra sensors atttached to the person.
BTW: If you see something at AAUK that is interesting, please send it my way - I would sure like to see it.
The prototypes i have seen used solely cameras to track movement. Unfortunately i don't have videos of any of them.
I'll be glad to send things to you. But keep in mind that most things tend to get done at the end of semesters. Deadlines really drive development ;-) .
Writer, Project Manager and Interaction Designer
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Deadlines really drive development
Oh yes...
They've been trying this technology with gaming for years (mainly in arcades, the PS2 had the EyeToy), but it always never seemed to work quite right. It seems like they're getting better at it though and with the Wii being popular now, they can attract a bigger audience to the idea.
HI THERE YOU THINK SONY'S EYE TOY CAMRA IS SOME THING I GOT A SURPRIZE FOR EARTH AND HUMMANS I AM A MASTER CHIEF SPARTAN 117 MY BORG COLECTIVE WILL GIVE YOU TRON TECHONOLGIES HALO DECKS BORG NANO PROBES AND BE CONECTED TOO THE BORG COLECTIVE SPACE SHIP FOR MULTI DIMINSIONAL MULTI UNAVERSAL GAMING WARP DISC DRIVES THATS MY IDEAR OF FUTURE GAMING 32 CENTRY TECHNOLOGIES VERSES 20 CENTRY TECHNOLOGIES TIME TRAVEL.
Writer, Project Manager and Interaction Designer
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James, my next article is actually about the Playstation Eye.
hi,
I am a Post Graduate student at the National Institute of Design , Bangalore, India.
Currently i am doing a research on interaction and gaming ( in India) and your inputs have been really useful.
thank you,
chinmay
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Jun 30
2008
Zyb
This looks like fun. :) Everytime I see new gaming interaction designs, though, I think of all the people out there suffering from carpal tunnel syndrom (like myself) caused by using the average crappy mice and keyboards all day everyday for all their working life. To me, it seems the greatest challenge to improve usability and ergonomics of the most basic input and controlling devices. But there's not that much money in it, I guess - people will buy the most expensive gadgets, but they're not willing to invest much in the basic setup of their workstations when the effect is not immediately noticeable.
Sorry for the rant, it's kind of offtopic.