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Microsoft's Moving Xbox Ad Was the Best Thing About the Super Bowl (cnet.com)
Mark Serrels, writing for CNET: Super Bowl 53 has come and gone and, for me at least, there was one clear highlight. This Microsoft commercial. [...] Essentially a commercial for Microsoft's Xbox Adaptive Controller, this ad follows up on an earlier ad from the Christmas period, which highlights young kids with limited mobility playing video games. It's incredible.
It tells the story of kids with limited mobility and their love for video games. All kids love video games and if you're a person with limited mobility, video games can often provide a pathway to experiences that are often difficult in the real world. But in some cases, particular types of limited mobility can make even the games themselves difficult to play -- which is where the Xbox Adaptive Controller comes in. Further reading: Xbox wire; and Why Xbox spent a year designing the Adaptive Controller packaging.
It tells the story of kids with limited mobility and their love for video games. All kids love video games and if you're a person with limited mobility, video games can often provide a pathway to experiences that are often difficult in the real world. But in some cases, particular types of limited mobility can make even the games themselves difficult to play -- which is where the Xbox Adaptive Controller comes in. Further reading: Xbox wire; and Why Xbox spent a year designing the Adaptive Controller packaging.
Agreed, it's not often you get to see a good defensive battle anymore.
Just another day in Paradise
This is not correct, highlights a very minority opinion, and belongs on the toilet paper of some insufferable blogger's tackily decorated rental mobile home.
At least people care about football athletes. Try cheerleading if you really want to feel expendable.
Star Wars peaked early, specifically in that episode where Picard used the Tardis to help Frodo escape from the Cylons so he could save Princess Leia from Thanos.
Super Bowl 53 has come and gone and, for me at least, there was one clear highlight. This Microsoft commercial.
I guess the game of Handegg was pretty uninspiring then.
If you gave me a choice between a printer and a giraffe with explosive diarrhoea, i'll get my ladder and my raincoat
The controller, I mean?
Since I've been creating input devices for people who cannot use "normal" ones for one reason or another for many years now, I'm curious. How close are they to actually providing an interface that offers a comparable accessibility to people with reduced mobility or fine motor skills? What sorts of input do they already provide?
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
I'd expect to see one at a GameStation near you pretty soon. I'd be very curious to hear about your work. How, for example, do you deal with the "smoothing" problem? With differentiating between small muscle or neurological impulses and the significant signal that people actually want action for, as quickly as possible, without waiting too long to accumulate a valid signal? I'm looking at https://www.sciencedirect.com/..., which gives a good detailed analysis of the problem. The necessary delay to accumulate a reliable signal is roughly 200 milliseconds. That is fairly slow for a reactive "twitch" combat game.
Is it comparable to the delay of electro-mechanical devices you've used? I'm quite curious if you've seen limits to response time with your techniques, or to hear what basic mechanical or electrical designs you use. With some luck, if they're continuing with this project, perhaps they would provide some funding or consulting work for children their design does not quite work for.
They're really nice: The controller base looks and feels very solidly built. The stand-out bits are that it has USB, so you can plug in some existing devices, but more importantly every button and trigger has a 3.5mm plug associated with it, so that you can attach any custom pedal/button/switch/lever/etc for which you can hack in a 3.5mm jack.
This is good for games, but it's also good as the core for other types of customized input arrangements.
~D
This sig has been enciphered with a one-time pad. It could say almost anything.
The best thing about the Super Bowl was the Bud Light/Game of Thrones crossover ad.
Wow.
This is Slashdot, man. You gotta know your science fiction better than that.
It peaked when Buck Rogers stole the Galactica to save the Minbari from Battlefield Earth.
Picard was like, three years later.
An ad played during a jock-sniffing contest is now news for nerds?
My kingdom for a way of giving wedgies online.