Cheap sensors could enable next-gen mo-cap games

Now that the Wii's thoroughly indoctrinated everyone and their mothers (and grandmothers) into the joy of motion-sensitive gaming, it's only natural to ask what's next -- and a system of cheap accelerometers, gyroscopes, and ultrasonic sound emitters developed by a team at in Switzerland could provide some answers. The sensors are linked up and used like a rudimentary motion-capture suit -- only instead of needing a controlled environment and special cameras, microphones worn on the torso pick up beeps from the emitters to locate your limbs as you flail about. The system is flexible enough to be used during active sports like skiing or bicycling for more accurate motion capture or just to control video games, since no silly ping-pong ball suit is required. The team says the $3000 system is built from off the shelf parts, yet compares favorably to commercial mo-cap systems costing tens of thousands more -- and what's more, they expect the price to fall to "hundreds of dollars" soon. Excellent -- we were thinking it was about time to do some real damage in Wii Boxing. Check a vid of the system in action after the break.

[conor.galligan @ Nov 27th 2007 10:11AM]

That's really neat. Imagine in the future...you could be in full control of your character! You don't play as Master Chief; you ARE Master Chief.

[Noshino @ Nov 27th 2007 10:26AM]

nah, I bet you the first genre of games in which this will be implemented on will be sex games...

[JustinAndrew @ Nov 27th 2007 10:16AM]

this is going to make second life way more humorous.
although the possibilities for virtual-cos-play and any fitness game will boon from this.

[Sean @ Nov 27th 2007 10:34AM]

I think I saw virtual penis. Errrrrrr....

[Brian @ Nov 27th 2007 11:12AM]

Or... you could just call up a friend and go play tennis in REAL life...

[ethana2 @ Nov 27th 2007 2:26PM]

And have no record of the game, no impartial judge, a ball that can be lost among your furniture, etc...

I would prefer using this-- as long as it has open specs (so we can make proper software interfaces for it for Linux and Blender).

It looks like good hardware, and I'll be eagerly awaiting the gradual price drop.

[Mike @ Nov 27th 2007 11:19AM]

I'll definitely be looking forward to this as a game developer...

[Wilder.K.Wight @ Nov 27th 2007 11:26AM]

This is stupid.

If you're going to make all the motions of playing tennis, or football, or boxing, or shooting/running, then why not GO OUTSIDE and actually play a game of tennis, or football, or a few rounds of boxing, or a paintball tournament?

The reason I play video games is because I want all the fun of extreme physical activities without the physical stress. If I have to actually get up and RUN to make Mario run, and JUMP to make Mario jump, I'll just have to shoot my game console.

I don't want to use mo-cap in a game. If I'm going to make all the damned motions, I'll actually DO the thing I'm doing the motions for. Sword fighting? I could rejoin the fencing team. Race-car driving? I could do that, too, on a public track. FPS? Paintball. Platform game? Go to the gym and get on a stairmaster! Most sports would be more productive in the real world than running and making throwing motions in your living room would be. I can't think of a single reason why I'd want motion capture to power my games.

"It's just like doing the real thing!" THAT'S BECAUSE YOU *ARE* BASICALLY DOING THE REAL THING, DUMB-ASS!

[KeithTalent @ Nov 27th 2007 4:30PM]

Yeah, but you have to admit it would be nice to do all of those things in your pajamas.

[kneeyogi @ Nov 27th 2007 11:59AM]

While you make valid points, there's are reasons why things like virtual golf simulators exist. Namely space, time, and weather.
Good luck trying to find a paintball field in the middle of a city. To a lesser extent, time on a tennis court may be hard to find as well. While inclement weather may be fun at first for paintball, it can get a little old after a couple hours. And it would be great to do all of the above in your underwear.

[dpk @ Nov 27th 2007 12:33PM]

I don't have acres of land to play football on, or want to bother arranging for a permit to play in a park, or want to play when it's raining (winter) and dark out (which is about 5PM now). So, I'll play games at home indoors, and be proud of it.

[G @ Nov 28th 2007 4:32AM]

Think about your arguments before you call readers dumbasses. Doing these things in real life is not at all the same as doing them in mocap, as kneeyogi said, there is the issue of location and weather but others come to mind such as money, other players, and pain. Paintball is a good example, would I rather...
- Phone up several friends, organise a time, date and location, hope the weather is good on that day, spend money and time travelling out of town to get there, suit up, pay ridiculous amounts of money for paintballs, use the crappy single shot guns they provide then feel sharp stinging pain every time I get shot and repeat all these steps if I want to go again.
OR
- Wake up, go downstairs, play with as many players as I want (CPU or online) and use any weapon (or vehicle) I want, without feeling pain, and being able to go to the toilet or grab a bite to eat whenever I want?
Remember why the hell games were invented in the first place...

[TH @ Nov 27th 2007 2:35PM]

This is everything but stupid. This isn't just gaming gear, although of course that would be Engadget's angle to this, but a system for motion capture in general. The authors themselves envisage this to be used as a controller, but also see other potential uses. There's a lot of research in this field, everything from basic research in body dynamics to sports and music research.

One big problem is that the equipment is very expensive, one MoCap camera costs thousands of dollars and you usually need about 8-16 of them. And then you need to bolt them to the walls, so you can only study motion that can be produced in that space. This setting is portable (although that also creates a problem, it doesn't have a fixed reference point in space) so it can be used to study motion in everyday situations, such a driving a car, and in settings where MoCap usually is impossibe, such as skiing down a slope.

Also, as data collection with this system isn't tied to the lab, it allows new kinds of longitudinal designs and just collecting massive amounts of data. And all this for a few thousand bucks, I'd say that's very smart.

[Scooter @ Nov 27th 2007 4:01PM]

think a bit more about it: after games emulating real life, next will come capturing your real-world experience for replay, e.g. via games.
Strap on a series of sensors (e.g. a sensor suit or bunch of straps with MoCaps and a recorder) then go play ball. At home you download to your Wii (or other device) and watch the (virtual) replay. Maybe interact with the replay (get that goal you missed). A brave new world.

[evyatron @ Nov 27th 2007 11:28AM]

They should record the sensors being blended.
That could've made Joe Cartoon much more disturb... err, funny.

[ethana2 @ Nov 27th 2007 2:35PM]

I look forward to the day when this completely replaces bluescreens.

...and I would aggressively market this at Blender users.
'Walk cycles? Screw 'em! You can walk, can't you?'
(our apologies to the disabed)

[Yo @ Nov 27th 2007 1:12PM]

The only thing that sucks, other than it being HUGE and needing batteries, is that it doesn't capture the actual translation of the person in space. This could be big for all mocap not just games.

I wonder how much filtering/processing went into the "results" they show.

[ethana2 @ Nov 27th 2007 2:37PM]

Just toss in GPS.

When you just want your actions recorded, you don't want your character drifting out of center.

[Fruition @ Nov 27th 2007 2:07PM]

Bah, video games are meant to save us from exercise, not force us to engange in it. I'll stick to my d-pad and my L and R's and all that jazz.

[ethana2 @ Nov 27th 2007 2:43PM]

I wholeheartedly disagree. If you're not standing up, your heart's not pounding, then you're not enough into the game.

...and yes, I know we look ridiculous...

[Fruition @ Nov 27th 2007 3:14PM]

Your heart doesn't have to be pounding just from exercise. If you're really "into" it, your heart can race from facing the final boss in a Final Fantasy game. I would say that your more immersed in that kind of game than you ever would be with a form of superficial exercise.

You seem to suggest that the only way to get "into" a game is by movement, and I would strongly disagree with that claim. You can be emotionally invested in a game, and that can produce a much deeper level of immersion than any amount of physical interaction ever could.

[Grant Baxter @ Dec 3rd 2007 8:41AM]

I gotta be honest, not all of you, but a lot of you, are being very short sighted with this.

Try thinking about the implications outside of you dancing and jumping around like and idiot in your living room (granted that would be a lot of fun).

Look at injury prevention through poor posture etc, you can have real time information, professional sportsmen and women would benefit hugely from this.

Imagine being able to look at your golf swing from any angle and slow it down to analyse any areas that need work, adapt and seconds later have meaningful feedback.

Combine this with VR headsets and you really do have a fully interactive enviroment (Lawnmower man anyone, lol) instead of standing in a little circle and controling movement with a pad. You just go to a big warehouse and you can really explore the enviroment.

For military applications, take this, tie it in with HUD's and GPS and you have real time tracking of your troops combined with reality augmented video information. Lets give a real world example of this, its 1am, you're in the middle of a dark field with your SA-80, you see a movement, so you turn, aim etc... The motion tracking combines with the gps and the video information either tells you that the guy in your sights is a friendly or not (no more friendly fire anyone?).

Combine your console with a high speed internet connection, you're thinking of buying a car, sit in the car and really drive it, see how it handles, see the blind spots, the height everything (this is screaming out for a good force feedback system).

And possibly the most obvious, Shrek? Toy Story? all your CGI movies, how about actually having the actors really acting and then overlaying their skeletal models onto the animated characters? How much do you think this would cut development time?

Or how about cost effective robotic control systems?

Think about it guys...