Illinois students revive the Power Glove
Tilt-sensitive controllers? Magic-wand-style pointers? That's just kids stuff. Everyone knows that the Power Glove is the only video game controller so good that it's so bad. Now, two University of Illinois grad students are bringing the concept into the next generation with a prototype glove controller of their own.
The glove, developed as part of a technology entrepreneurship class by Jason Skowronski and Shivani Jain, accurately models the bending of finger joints and the hand's position and orientation in space, according to a (Champaign, Ill.) News-Gazette story. While video games are the most obvious and lucrative application for such a device, the glove is also being considered for use as a virtual mobile keyboard or a sign language interpreter.
The pair is reportedly trying to get the technology into the sub-$100 range as they patent their ideas and pitch them to game companies. We hope someone bites -- just imagine being able to flip someone the bird and see it accurately recreated in your game of Barbie's Horse Adventure 2: the Revenge. How's that for interactive?
