Gametrak Controller Wins Award

Philipp Lenssen writes "According to German Spiegel Online, the Gametrak controller by In2Games just won the "Best of GC" award at the Games Convention in Leipzig, Germany. Cyber-glove Gametrak is announced to launch across Europe next month for the Playstation 2. Once the right software is released (fighting game DarkWind comes first) you should be able to punch opponents, use golf clubs, dance around, and bounce virtual basketballs. A demo video is available."

Comments

How I presume it works

[FrenZon]

For those who can't get the video, it looks like the tracking system is pretty simple (and likely pretty robust) - each cord connecting a velcro glove to the base station is on a pulley (hence the wheel-like things on either side of the station), This gives the system distance data. To get angle data, the cords come out of the base station through joystick-like nozzles.

It mentions it can get 1mm accuracy within a 3m cube - I wonder what the latency is like, or how much 'pull' there is on the gloves (I wonder if future versions could change the amount of pull in order to simulate weight).

Good luck to these guys - it looks like it could actually work well unlike some other alternative-input devices (*cough* P5 glove *cough), and if it works with a PS2 > PC converter, I'll be getting one to muck around with as soon as I can.

Re:How I presume it works

[strider_starslayer]

yes, it would be less limiting, give you more freedom of movment, and be more comfortable; however, it would also be a great deal more expensive, more prone to breakdown, and require that there be power in the gloves themselves (batteries).

Also, this is meant to be played in front of a TV- why do you need the full 6 degrees of freedom, will it so radically alter your gaming experiance to be able to spin around in circles with your arms out? Or will you be served just fine by looking at the TV and being tethered to the consol?

Somtimes technology like this is best served by the simple, easily mannaged, solution- I'm sure there were dozens of options for the orriginal DDR pads (including things that would look like the 'oh so cool' virtual police setup), but simple buttons on the pad worked best, because this way the pad was affoardable!

This type of setup should allow me to play virtual police (or simmilar game)at home, on my PS2, including all the ducking and weaving (though I could 'fake out' the controller by lowering my arms and moving them to the side without my body), while this is dissapointing, I'd rather that then having to pay ten times the ammount for a much more prone to breakage setup!

Nintendo Powerglove

[Abreu]

The site is slashdotted, so can someone tell me how is this different from the infamous Nintendo glove (it looked cool, but thats all it did)

Re:Future FPS controllers

[Doctor O]

Actually I don't understand why the hell they don't bring back those light guns from the 80's which were used on those pong-consoles to shoot. It would be pretty easy and cheap to include distance metering to keep people from putting the thing near the screen and cheat. Imagine Counter-Strike with "gun look". I would dig it, and it would give much to the meaning of "aim", which right now means "the gift of those who can spend several hours a day on a game".