TrueMotion Game Controller a Step Up From Wii Remote

Harry McCracken writes "One of my top picks at the Consumer Electronics Show was Sixense's TrueMotion, a game-controller technology that resembles the Wii's remote, but uses an electromagnetic field to provide far more precision — it knows the exact location of the controller in 3D space and which way you're pointing it. (The Wiimote only knows which direction you're moving the controller.) TrueMotion-based remotes are due by Christmas, bundled with a PC game for under $100."

Comments

Eh...

[XPeter]

The Wii remote is accurate enough, for me anyway. I don't use my Wii for anymore then some Wii Sports, Super Mario and Zelda. Consoles aren't meant to be these uber lean mean fighting machines with top of the line parts. If I want that, Ill go play on my computer. Console gaming will never be more advanced then computer gaming and it shouldnt be.

Re:Eh...

[denzacar]

Console gaming will never be more advanced then computer gaming and it shouldnt be.

Console gaming IS more advanced then computer gaming for the sheer ability to just plain work as advertised.

How many console games require a new graphic card, new processor, more memory, DirectX/drivers updates or OS upgrades?

You plug it in, turn it on, drop in the CD/DVD/cartridge and it works.
No half hour installations, needles restarts, patches that take several hours to download and install...

For actual gameplay - consoles have been kicking PC's ass for years now.
But, if you find fiddling around your PC, spending insane amounts of money on hardware upgrades and kicking it once in a while JUST SO YOU COULD PLAY A GAME a part of the experience - well good luck with that.

Only game niches where PC still keeps the crowd entertained with greater efficiency are RTS, FPS and MMORPG games.
For an idiotic reason that console makers refuse to allow onto their consoles games that require plugging in a mouse into their consoles AND comparatively high price for multiplayer gaming.
The second reason being that you need the console+game+online/network access&support+TV screen for each player.
And while each member of the household can validate the need for a personal computer - it is not so with a personal TV and gaming console.
So there tends to be more PCs per household member than consoles, which gives multiplayer gaming on a PC a lower minimum requirement threshold.
Hopefully, with new console's ability to go online something will also move up from the lower regions of the body to the heads of console and console games makers and we will finally enter the era of games that you can JUST PLAY.

Not install, service, update, patch and set up more than you actually play the game.

Re:Eh...

[aliquis]

Only game niches where PC still keeps the crowd entertained with greater efficiency are RTS, FPS and MMORPG games.

And like nobody plays those!

Only game niches where consoles beat PCs is local multiplayer games sitting in the couch and eventually RPGs.

That's cool but....

[Anonymous Coward]

when can I strap one of these things to my dong and control some kind of dildo device on the other end of a camera?

Re:Useless, like all innovative PC hardware

[Nicolay77]

For me at least, if PC gaming is dead, then windows is dead.

OSX and Linux are more than adequate for my Internet and business applications.

Re:I call Bullshit

[evol262]

Uh, the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle primarily applies to quantum mechanics. Beyond which, the polling rate on the controller hardly hits arbitrary precision, and can be thought of more as an extrapolation of vectors from known data points.

If it's as bad as the movie...

[minsk]

Perhaps I'm overly cynical of input technologies, but my take from the movie is that this is a *disaster*.

Start with the best configuration the company could manage for the demo, with in-house software, and an experienced user. The system is still laggy and periodically jerky. It has the same lack of feedback as the Wiimote, so you need similarly simple gestures to make it usable. Their one advantage is that the position sensor should be orientation-independent, whereas the Wiimote's camera needs to see the sensor bar.

If memory serves (and it often doesn't) the two major problems with EMF position sensing in AR are range and interference. Range should be solvable for a local input device. Interference worries me. With a near-optical system, interference sources are obvious: if your Wiimote has problems, look around for the strong light source.

Of course the blog-based press releases do not bother communicating actual benefits or limitations of the technology, beyond "ooh, shiny!" and "ooh, revolutionary!".

Re:Useless, like all innovative PC hardware

[Yvanhoe]

At my former job I used to create softwar for Polhemus sensors, which apparently use the same principle. Let me tell you that the wiimote is nothing close to these devices. The Wiimote really looked underwhelming : orientation is approximative, aiming is impossible, lag is big. Here is something using such sensors. The games are not on par top what Nintendo can produce, but try to accurately position a lightsaber in the hands of someone with the wiimote (everything is realtime in the video)

Re:Inaccurate wiimote description

[Paralizer]

The statement "The Wiimote only knows which direction you're moving the controller" is not accurate

That statement is accruate.

The wiimote knows that direction it is moving in wiimote space, but not world space. I can prove it to you. Face north, hold the wiimote directly out in front of you with the A button facing up, and move it horizontally to the right. The force will push the accelerometer x-axis to the left, so the wiimote knows it is moving right. Now turn your body 90 degrees so you are facing east. Move the wiimote again to the right. Just like before the wiimote knows it is moving to the right. However, relative to the room you are standing in, you just moved the wiimote in two completely different directions. The wiimote doesn't know that.

Re:Useless, like all innovative PC hardware

[tepples]

For me at least, if PC gaming is dead, then windows is dead.

If PC gaming is dead, then indie gaming is dead. The vast majority of indie games are developed on and for PCs running Windows, Linux, *BSD, or Mac OS X, or they are developed on one of those for a phone.

Re:You Are Full of Shit

[denzacar]

Take it easy kid. You sound ridiculous getting wind up about particular way of playing games.
Actually, you sound like you are 15 and sexually frustrated.

First - learn the difference between "can" and "have to".
For example...
CAN you play every game that ever came out for 360 without hardware upgrades?
Do you HAVE TO upgrade your 360 in order to run (not play - run) the latest 360 games?

There were always patches on a PC, on consoles it is a recent "bonus".
Still, in general, console games tend to "just work". PC hasn't had a "just working" game since they realized that they can have more than just the .exe file.

PC gaming isn't anymore expensive than the consoles when they're brand new, and when they're brand new, they tend to have more features than their second and third generation counter parts (and so on).

I have no idea what in the hell you are trying to say here.

PC gaming on a brand new PC isn't more expensive than on a brand new console?
Also... consoles tend to be stripped down in the later editions?

Ouukay... PS3 launched at $499 and $599. XBox launched at $399 and $299 (Core). Wii launched at $249.99.

Now... I dare you. I double and triple dare you... I double and triple dare you and call you a sissy. I double and triple dare you, call you a sissy and I am making claims about your mother's weight...
Assemble a "gaming PC" for ANY of those prices. Without a monitor. Let us for a moment live in an imaginary world where people play HD console games on old 15" TVs.
And since it would be unfair to ask for you to run anything new on such a PC a year later I'll give you even more rope to hang yourself with.

Take the higher price of each console, add 'em up together, and assemble a gaming PC that will run the newest game TODAY on full details and effects.
And since I am a bastard - I want it to run the latest game on full details and effects a year from now.

Naturally... we are talking about GAMES games. Not your mom's solitaire or flash games, or some poor freeware game.
We are talking about those titles that get the TV commercials and front page reviews in PC and gaming magazines.

The only thing you might have is gameplay, but that's only because certain types of games don't work to well with mouse + keyboard combo, but gamepads have existed forever to negate that.

So tell us, when was the last time you played on a console? And what Console? Furthermore, when's the last time you did PC gaming? You seem to lack some knowledge on both fronts.

Excuse me? Which game is that? The one that does not work with 100+ key controller and an additional 2+ keyed pointer device?

As for my gaming experience...
Some light Xbox 360 - DMC 4. PS2 and PS3. Mostly multiplayer, various Tekkens, Soulcaliburs, soccers, Guitar Heroes, N4Ss etc.
PC... HLs and Portal (re-played), BF2, S.T.A.L.K.E.R., F3.
Also, gave up on the Oblivion somewhere in between those.