Mecha Certified IGN Reposter
Stature : 194
| Subject: Microsoft working on wearable controllers Wed Sep 19, 2012 1:24 am | |
| - Quote :
- We've covered "wearable game controller" prototypes before, but every time our reaction was the same: "This doesn't look very fun, but in the hands of a capable company it definitely could be."
Well, a patent application filed by Microsoft back in July outlines "a 'Wearable Electromyography-Based Controller,' … for measuring muscle activity, to interact with and control computing devices … [including] game consoles, televisions or other multimedia devices." As the attached illustrations clarify, "wearable" could refer to everything from a pair of gloves to a shirt and pants to a simple arm-band or pair of glasses.
This could be the first "wearable gaming" development worth caring about.
Motion controls have had various gaming applications, but none of them has ever felt totally natural to non-gamers or sufficiently precise for hardcore gamers. A really good wearable, muscle activity-sensing controller could solve both those problems at once.
Wearable EMG sensors could have all kinds of real-world utility - from controlling prosthetic limbs to playing software-virtualized instruments - but what we really wanted to know is whether Microsoft's planning to use them for games.
The answer: a resounding maybe.
Whatever its purposes for the technology, Microsoft has kept it almost completely under wraps. As Patent Bolt points out, they've been "working on an advanced wearable computer system since at least 2008 without the press getting any wind of it."
It may not be realistic to hope we'll see one of these controllers in action for at least a few years, but it's no stretch to suggest Microsoft's researchers have gaming in mind, at least partially:
"Purposes include … interaction with conventional application such as … wired or wireless game controllers for interacting with game consoles or with video games operating on such consoles, control of pan-tilt-zoom cameras … etc."
Combine a fully wearable controller with Microsoft's rumored immersive display development, and put that in the hands of a capable game developer: there are some very, very cool possibilities.
How would you want to see a wearable controller put to use? Let us know in the comments. Source: IGN | |
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Guest Guest
| Subject: Re: Microsoft working on wearable controllers Wed Sep 19, 2012 3:51 am | |
| This is actually an interesting idea for physically disabled people. |
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Bluenose Founding Father
Stature : 264 Playing : Tu madre
| Subject: Re: Microsoft working on wearable controllers Wed Sep 19, 2012 10:16 am | |
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Archduke Final Boss, 5th Form
Stature : 109 U.S.A. Playing : Nioh and Nier: Automata Watching : 日本のアニメ
| Subject: Re: Microsoft working on wearable controllers Thu Sep 20, 2012 12:44 am | |
| - Teckno wrote:
- This looks retarded.
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Jack the Spectre Post-Game Enemy
Stature : 309 New York Playing : With myself
| Subject: Re: Microsoft working on wearable controllers Thu Sep 20, 2012 7:08 am | |
| Are they gonna have a wearable battery pack as well? | |
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Guest Guest
| Subject: Re: Microsoft working on wearable controllers Sat Sep 22, 2012 7:41 pm | |
| its going to be a bracelet
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Jack the Spectre Post-Game Enemy
Stature : 309 New York Playing : With myself
| Subject: Re: Microsoft working on wearable controllers Sat Sep 22, 2012 8:38 pm | |
| - shigdig wrote:
- its going to be a bracelet
The last thing I want is burn marks on my wrist. | |
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| Subject: Re: Microsoft working on wearable controllers | |
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