Sony R&D explains some background on the PlayStation motion controller
By Paul Miller 
posted August 30th 2009 9:14AM
posted August 30th 2009 9:14AM
[Via Engadget Spanish]
posted August 30th 2009 9:14AM
Sony PlayStation 3
A look back on popular stories from today in a specific year.
Now that we've thrown 'em off the trail, use the form below to get in touch with the people at Engadget. Please fill in all of the required fields because they're required.
Just a note: Richard holds a PHD from Stanford......A very bright guy, I was lucky enough to attend of of his presentation way back in Stanford.....and he knows his stuff.
That's right, I'm not up sony's ass like they are up mine with their rootkits and 'security services' that they tried to install on my system numerous times, they incidentally hired 3rd party companies with geniuses for that. They keep their own intellect busy on finding ways to block sound consumer input asking for simple things like a second analog controller on the PSP.
And you are an unpleasant asshole burns11, thanks for listening.
Oh boy, more devices for us to wave our limbs around in front of and look like a douchbag! I hate MS, Sony, and Nintendo for their gimmicky bullshit. I prefer to relax and play video games, not jump around like a moron.
Let's just hope they accept that and don' go 'hopping-exclusive", because indeed I would not want the future to only have 'monkey' interfaces, next you'll have to leap around at the ATM to get your money, or dance around to buy a ticket at the subway andsoforth.
Gamezine.co.uk points to a study showing that near infra-red cameras,
Natal, do have a problem tracking people with darker skin types.
Using Near-infrared spectroscopy, 17 volunteers with dark skin were scanned. The scanner failed to work on 9 of the 17 volunteers and the problems correlated to skin color, the darker the skin, the more likely the scanner would fail. That’s a 53% failure rate.
every failure rate in xbox is above 50% ...........
I'm sure that will be fixed before Project Natal comes out.
So project natal is a racist...
@zmathue ..... its a technical flaw not a racist attempt.........but microsoft should have considered it from the begining
Bitmob is reporting that noted game reporter N’Gai Croal (formerly Newsweek’s game columnist) couldn’t get Natal to recognize his steering in Burnout Paradise, despite the fact that it worked fine for the lighter skinned Kudo Tsunoda (Natal’s Creative Director.)
this is the future. Just like the douches on the subway who jerk off there iphone to change song tracks.
SONY (or even Logitech), please release a game controller for us PC gaming FPS players. I do NOT want to use a gamepad for playing first person shooters, keyboard+mouse is the only way I can play.
Yes, I have seen the FragFX but it is a poor quality build and I don't care for the nunchuck aspect. WASD all the way please.
I'm not sure if Sony is reading this blog.
But maybe you should email them. sony@sony.com
Check out Left4Dead with Sixense:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6VBMEN5Bvpg
> Check out Left4Dead with Sixense
Mediocre at best. Just like me.
Keyboard+Mouse allows one (after some training) to move, jump/evade and shoot simultaneously. I do not see it in the video.
Probably they need to find a better player and film couple of minutes in Quake Arena. Google for videos "quake arena" and see how it should look ( e.g. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kRMn1tj5-Nc ). Otherwise I'm not interested.
You call this a new thing? Did try bother checking Nintendo Wii? This is just like the Wiimote with a different name.. I guess we're about to see a new courtroom drama once Sony releases the "PSP Motion Controller".
Unless they will make good use of this technology and comeout with a killer "game" apps, this will look like a rip off from Nintendo. So what will MS call their own version?
I think the one from MS is called Natal, ryt? something like pre-Natal.. hehehe... but their just trying to catch up on what Nintendo did with Wii, I guess with all the R&D being done on MS and Sony's side, these controllers won't be cheap...
I sure hope their good as advertise!!!!
If this works as advertised i would be THE sales-argument for getting a PS3, the argument that is missing now that it's no longer the only choice worth considering for bluray player
it*
@Wwhat
You forget about games. As it stands, very few game developers managed to produce games for WiiMote coming even close to what Nintendo has.
I'm not per se against the wand or natal. My point here: bring games to prove it.
Without games, even most technically excellent controller is a plain gimmick.
wait your saying game companies can't produce games better then Nintendo's Tech-demos that they sell as games?
Seems more of a flaw of the system then of the developers.
"I'm kind of a big deal. I mean people know me. I have many leather bound books and my apartment smells of rich mahogany."
I had a rough idea of how I thought it works, and then he basically confirmed it. I feel like we've actually taken a step backwards; it looks like a Wiimote with a glowing ball that requires a camera. It may be more accurate, but come on, in 10 years time, people will look at this and go "What? You needed a glowing ball AND a camera for it to figure out where you are?"
Fanboy's never cease to amaze me!
Forget your brand preferences and just admire the technology. Both Natal and PS3 motion have great tech behind them, they both offer a new take on motion gaming.
This isn't a "rush job" to get to market before Natal, they've been working on projects like this since PS2's eye-toy, PS3 motion just builds upon that. I'm sure Microsoft have been working hard for some time on Natal too.
Personally, i think PS3 motion will have more varied uses in gaming than Natal, the accuracy and tactile buttons open up more options. Natal does look like a great way to browse media without the use of a physical controller, but i'm not as convinced about its use in gaming.
Can't wait to see what games use Natal and PS3 motion in the future, the tech is worthless without great games to back it :)
What's up with my display pic on engadget? It's like it runs on a slideshow LOL
New icon, then old, then black square, then old icon again.... what the fail?
Is it just me or is Sony trying really hard to justify this because the Natal already pwned this weird contraption just solely based on the concept and usability alone, without going into how its gonna effect the control in games.
Im a Playstation owner but I dont believe none of this XBox vs PS fanboy douche baggery, every thing has its own merit but first impression of this is Microsoft or which ever company they bought Natal from 1uped Sony hawrd.
? i dont understand your comment really.
shouldn't it really matter how the device will actually CONTROL gameplay? Natal is basically an advanced eyetoy , something sony has been doing for like 5+ years already, and anyone who knows about camera games, they are typically only good for casual party games.
Sony's wandcontrollerthingy is showing true 1:1 motion, with feedback and analog sticks/triggers, they also have the camera to do body face tracking. It's a total merge between what wii and microsoft are both bring. Not quite just waggle, not quite just camera.
I don't know how you can make any judgments about natal when we have hardly seen anything but a concept video and a dodgball game. Even the Burnout demo looked crappy, I read a reviewer talking about how the acceleration was either "all the gas on" or "all the break on" and their was no way to control the speed accurately. I think those are going to be the limitations of being a camera only system. Imagine that demo using the ps3 wandcontrollerthing, the analogue trigger they were talking about would be exellent to control the gas, your arms on the steering wheel could just be using the tracking in the wands.
I just dont understand how you see "1uped Sony hawrd." you just go back and watch the E3 demos again and realize that most of what microsoft showed was concept only. Then think about which controllers would be good for more traditional core games.
The guy summed it up in the video, it's just an "off-the-shelf webcam" that runs at 60 fps. Then they appear to have some simple computer vision software that tracks light blobs. We know Natal is a depth-sensing camera that measure time-of-flight of IR pulses, it even works in complete darkness. Then add on software that does human body joint tracking in real-time. It's orders of magnitude more complicated. Sony's setup is proven and done before, hell I could probably setup something similar in a weekend. Natal puts out technology that's never been in a consumer product before, and then add-on software that significantly advances the state of computer vision, tracking 48 joints/person on the human body in real-time. There isn't anything with that kind of performance, not even in CS academia research.
http://pyromancerous.mybrute.com guys play this online game it is tight!
I hope you can add weights to it, having a stupidly light controller while swinging a virtual sword makes things awkward.
Well this thing looks to be up and coming but the E3 presentation did feel kinda forced, Natal is not the same as this thing to whomever said that. As someone who owns all three current gen consoles and plans on getting natal and PS's motion control I'd still give the edge to M$ and before you go sicking the flamethrowers on me just take a good look at the two and the tech inside of them if you own a PS3 Eye look at its reliability, now I havent had a hands on with Natal so I dunno all its capabilities but the feedback from valued sources (keyword valued, not biased fan sites) and the results have been pretty fair. If you read the actual tech in Natal you'll see the two are not the same, that doesnt mean that this wont succeed but just because they both have cameras involved doesnt make them the same
I'm wondering if they're looking at ways to have that sphere smaller, cause its pretty big how it is now and not only distracting as a user, but cosmetically ugly. If they made it more like the size of a marble it would be better. not sure how much that would change how the camera see's the sphere's size (at distances it might look the same size even tho it is in fact getting a bit closer to the cam, who knows?)
i'm sure they might have looked at all size options for it. it just takes more R&D.
Yeah I don't know why they are using visible light? I don't think its the camera picking up IR because the point sources are different colors in the demo.
Is that Jean-Michael Vincent?
wow this is nice
Even if this a rip off of the Wii, it takes away nintendos only hardware advantage. Same thing with MS natal. The issue between the Sony and ms is wheather having buttons to press will be an advantage to Sony. Also none of this on either side matters if the games cannot use them in creative and useful ways. Imagine the same games developed for Sony and ms but had two completely different feels to them even though the games are identical. Imagine Wii games being porter over and enhanced for the two systems. The target is to destroy nintendos Advantage who has kicked ass with more primitive specs
Also this is a move needed by the console industry to fend off the comming online game service that allows streamming gamming straight to your tv. Don't remember the name of the company, but it has gotten support from most of major developers cause of the idea of proofing games from piracy. No disc to buy or data to save to a computer. No mods to console systems. Both options are going to be pricey, especially Sony. From the demos I assume that Sony will have a more accurate product to adapt to more conventional games at first release. Ms will have to create a far more unique gameplay mechanics in a game to make up for no buttons in the natal system.
Sorry if somebody's already said this, I don't have the patience to read through all the comments but I hate the idea of motion sensing technology. I have kept my mouth quiet about it but it's eating me up inside. Who here can imagine playing a 20-30 or 40 hour game complete based around motion sensing technology? I'm sure game developers will find a way but like others before have said, it's a gimmick. 5 hours max and you'll be sick of playing with the new controllers. The time I spent at my 10 year old cousins house playing his Wii was short lived. Played a few games and never went back seeing as how repetitive the game play was. Unless I'm being short sighted, I do not see anyway that motion based games can have nearly anywhere as much depth as traditional games. It's saddening to see the entire industry heading in this direction.