Microvision's PicoP laser projector meets rifle-shaped motion controller, mayhem ensues
By Vlad Savov 
posted December 11th 2009 3:16AM
posted December 11th 2009 3:16AM
[Thanks, Tony]
posted December 11th 2009 3:16AM
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wake me up when September ends
motion sickness.
What happens if I want to turn around 180? If I do, I'll shine this thing out my window and my neighbors would think I'm a moron for flashing them with random beams of light.
@horchata
I can see how that would be a huge problem... No, wait, i dont!
True gamers aren't supposed to have windows in their room! or at least they are covered by something (usually by one of their blankets, but some may have their parents hang up thick curtains)
you should have to do this in a round room (like a bal)..with no corners and the game should be made panorama... with more beamers so you can see who is atacking you from the back or side...
That would be crazy!
and the army could use this for a war simulator or something..
@horchata Look at the Trimersion headset. Their solution was to have controls on the gun to move, as well as sensors on the helmet. I would expect something similar to be adopted by Microvision.
@horchata
That's why there would have to be some sort of circular pull down/up screen to display this shit on.
@daniel142005
Great, now you make me feel like a nerd for having flannel blankets draped over all my windows. It's not my fault; plasma tv + sunlight = bad glare. Then again, I am on here...
/goes and cries in corner of dark room
@Shiprat What about when he has to turn around?
@Jamboy5590 Couldn't they just up the sensitivity so that a full 90 degree turn would be construed by the software as 180 degrees? Better yet, weight the sensor data by the acceleration so you can still make fine movements for sniping, but still be able to whip around quickly.
that looks fun... for about 10 minutes, after that id get tired holding the rifle. still pretty kool though, it looks around the level when you turn the rifle.
@ImDaIllest
Thats when you get a swiveling chair and rest the gun on the armrest.
You men are true warriors.
you'll basically need a white spherical game room (closer to a ball if you wanna look downish... which you do in any game i've seen in the past 10 years)
but if you do, that'll be pretty awesome
finally a reason to run for president?
But actually oval would cause the edges to be out of focus, and this thing will always have distortion and focus issues (if it doesn't have some sort of autofocus)
@Wwhat It only has focus issues for people that can't read.
I assumed the infinite focus thing was sarcasm and/or some tradename, perhaps I was wrong, but you'll still have distortion when you stand in front of a surface and looks aside, you'll get a nice trapezium.
Looked it up and it seems it does have 'infinite focus' by cleverly using the laser to bounce of a tiny mirror last as I understand it, that's pretty nifty I must say.
Before I saw the video I thought this would be like the guns for the Wii, which was nothing less of a pain in the ass. Only problem is turning from what I see, and turning with a button would be lame... so either:
1) They should ditch the projector and use glasses for a more "virtual reality" style.
2) Have the projector designed for projecting the same size screen but with the gun 1 foot from the wall, if thats possible. Then sell a cylinder "game room" with a 4ft diameter thats set up like a tent so the person can stand in the middle of the room and have equal walls on each side.
If either of the 2 options above came true (or something better) then I would buy the thing in a heartbeat. Especially if it had 3D support! Imagine Call of Duty with this thing... where aiming is based off how well you can actually aim instead of who is better at moving a little joystick.
@daniel142005
I second the use of glasses instead. The field of view of most video games are one of the most annoying factors. Also you should be able to look to the side without turning your body. That said, anyone ever been in the army knows your gun should always follow your eyes ;)
@daniel142005
I agree, playing CoD would be beastmode.
You'd also have to figure something out to track your head as well. Maybe another sensor on the glasses. Otherwise, when you lower the gun to just walk around, you'd always be staring at the ground.
@ah2049
Independent movement of head and gun is a feature I'd love to see in FPS. It makes things more interesting. I imagine this could be possible without any extra hardware on the PS3, using the (forthcoming) motion controller and camera in conjunction to track both head and controller movement. No 3D rotation, but I honestly don't see how that appeals to a mass market anyway. I can't imagine what my girlfriend would think of me if I bought one of these systems.
@daniel142005 Controls are not horrible when placed on a gun. They could put a toggle, or even a simple sensor, so that when your finger is over it, instead of looking L, R, U, D with the gun, you turn left or right, or move forward or backward. Integrating all of the controls found on any given console's controller within the gun is what they need to do.
If you had been in the army you'd know that you don't keep that up for more than 15 minutes, plus it's not practical, when you are marching and scanning around you you don't wave your gun around like some windmill, endangering your mates.
That 'gun-eye' thing is for when they enter a building with expected trouble inside.
i think i just jizzed in my pants...
So ... how do you jump, strafe, duck, crawl, or umm ... reload?
All newer FPS's are console-ified, or lameified, and do that stuff automatically, even on the PC, auto-reload or never-ending ammo and auto-aim and that kind of dumb stuff.
@lowem
With a little coding, it would be easy to use the accelerometers to recognize vertical movement and input a button press for jump and crouch. Movement is already controlled by a d pad on the controller, you can watch him strafe in the video. Kneel down and press forward on the D pad and you would be crawling.
The barrier here is not controls, its that this requires way too much of the environment you are gaming in.....and even after you built a spherical room for your gaming, your still using a D-pad for all your movements. Use one of these bad boys for the floor(and relate it to on-screen movement) and maybe I'd be interested in trying it out. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BQw1tsgrJOs
@Wwhat Oh really? Major shooters like MW2, Halo, L4D, Killzone 2 don't do any of that so you might want work a little more on your zomg consoles killed gaming editorial.
Not my type of game. Impressive implementation, though.
What if you placed the projector on the end of the barrel, face it backwards and place a curved screen closer to you on the gun. The projector would 'back-light' the scene. This should eliminate the turn 180 degrees problem.
@catfood Hmm, that could work really well. Nice big curved screen in front of you (big enough to fill your field of vision if possible), rear projected. Might be a bit heavy but could be fun.
@catfood you could just as well have an lcd then, instead instead of a projector
@mrqs A screen and a projecor setup would be lighter and cheaper (a curved screen sure isn't going to be cheap).
Just to ad to my previous post, I'm gonna make this using an 'Eyeclops' pico projector for $125. Throw it on my Wiimote with a wii zapper case and use glovepie to make it talk with my pc (or play onslaught on the wii until I figure out a better glovepie FPS script).. I agree, kinda nerdy.
This would be more convincing if the in-game gun was hidden.
@(Unverified)
Have you ever shot an assault rifle before?
Because that's the view you see when you hold one in your hand blowing someone away. Remember this isn't Scary Face.
@(Unverified)
Disregaurd my last post. I got what you was saying.....
Yes it would be much better.... My apology...
@(Unverified) I was thinking the same thing (and posted after missing yours). It would really make this thing nice. I am sure there wouldn't be much involved from game developers to simply add a 'hide weapon' button in the game options. There would still be some minor mismatching from things like placing explosives or using non gun weapons, but I think those could be worked around.
Many game makers go to trouble to prevent you hiding it because it's an unfair advantage and the obscuring is part of the difficulty level.
I know of games where people hacked away the gun then the game was quickly updated to remove that cheat.
The tech involved in tracking the gun is similar to what Trimersion used for it's head tracking software. Trimersion's final product was compatible with a host of consoles and PC and it worked well. I would expect nothing less from Microvision.
You should have to do this in a round room (like a bal)..with no corners and the game should be made panorama...
with more beamers so you can see who is atacking you from the back or side... That would be crazy!
and the army could use this for a war simulator or something..
check out our demo of mobile motion projection here http://moject.com/ . Mvis and Intel demo suffers from Gyro drift.
The next thing they need to do is find a way to not have to see your hand and gun on the screen. You already can see your real arms and gun. The only problem is then not knowing what weapon you are actively carrying, but they could fix that with a symbol in the corner.
This system is MUCH more impressive then I was expecting.
Its cool until somebody with mouse crash your party.
The Eyeclops projector is tiny and very light. Much lighter than a small screen.
For some reason Gamer was the first thing that came to mind when I saw this =P
You are all joking around about this but it has massive potential as the gamegun redneck guys set up does.
Imagine a wrap around cheap white/reflective screen in your room or garage. Then a wide screen pico set up on your 'light weight' gun. Then turn off the gun image on the screen. Then project it in stereo as you wear simple goggles similar to the big assed sunglasses type i wore a the 'A Christmas Carol' screening recently. Man, the imersion will be amazing.
I'd also go for the swivel chair too thought.