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Razer Hydra Brings Motion Control To PC Gamers
Zothecula writes "While motion controllers are becoming a staple for console gamers with the release of the Wii, PlayStation Move and Microsoft Kinect, PC gamers have been left wanting. Razer is looking to change that with its Hydra motion controller which has been developed specifically for PC gamers. Unlike console-based motion control systems, the Hydra uses magnetic tracking technology by way of a base station that emits a magnetic field that Razer says allows the exact location and orientation of the handheld controllers to be detected with millimeter accuracy."
Great, now lets get the 3d head mounted display - which is where this type of tracker was originally used way back when - and get on with the real 3D environments. I played Dactyl Nightmare in the early 90's and have been waiting for that to arrive at home for like 16 years. And that was powered by what? An Amiga?
While motion controllers are becoming a staple for console gamers with the release of the Wii, PlayStation Move and Microsoft Kinect, PC gamers have been left wanting.
No, not really.
It may be 7 digits, but at least it's a semiprime
It is to a millimetre accuracy, it's just that that is also the full motion range of the controller.
Supporter of the +1 Over Dramatic mod option. In memory of apk.
TFA: "Razer says the magnetic field put out by the Hydra base station is 20 times weaker than the Earth's magnetic field, so it shouldn't affect objects such as credit cards, HDDs or speakers in the surrounding area."
Motion controller? I want motionless controllers. I can frag 10 players with a slight wrist motion and even that is too much work. I want sensors connected to the back of my skull that let me tea-bag players without moving at all. I want to be suspended in a viscous fluid with my eyes closed fully submersed in virtual reality. I've played Wii tennis, and it's great and all, but real tennis is better. If I want to dance, dance revolution than I'm old enough and rich enough to go to a club in L.A., with a woman. One that smells nice. Need exercise? Go outside! When I game I need to be a cybernetic killing machine or a flying space monkey with a doomsday device. Waving my arms around in my living room is fucking stupid. I stopped playing portal 2 to post this rant. Let's see them do Portal 2 with a Kinect. Sorry, it won't work. The next games shouldn't even need you to open your eyes, because even that is too much. All the interaction should be in the game using virtual reality. That's why computers were invented. And porn.
Not from a magnetic field from any reasonable distance, not by itself, liars.
You need a whole slew of additional sensors to even get close to such accuracies.
The Polhemous Liberty and other devices have been around for a while now and offer 0.03" accuracy with 6DOF: http://www.polhemus.com/?page=Motion_Liberty
These only use a single sensor (for a single location, can use many with one base station for multiple points tracking), I've used them for motion tracking and they seem pretty accurate to me. I'm not sure what you consider reasonable range, but considering the Razer system is supposed to be used with a PC, I'm guess you're not counting in the 10s of metres. This system has an optional source which can get you 5 metres of accuracy from the base station.
These are quite expensive (in the thousands of pounds sterling) so would be interesting to see how Razer managed it on the cheap.