Head Tracking for Desktop VR Displays using the WiiRemote
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2008 Tokyo Game Show Journal: Day 5
4 color rebellion — One of the things I was told I HAD to do at the Tokyo Game Show was to take a picture posing by the main sign. I had done thins every year with the other staff that came with me. This year by day four of the show, I was all by myself so this is my kind of sad picture. Still, as alone and tired as I may be, I was still excited about the 4th day of TGS. I thought it would be good to take a short video of what the crowds look like at TGS. To tell the truth, in most areas it is actually more crowded than this video shows but it was also too crowded for me to use ...

Wiimote hacked to create inexpensive theremin
Opposable Thumbs — Hackers have done many interesting things with the Wiimote, and it's a little surprising that Nintendo hasn't taken any cues from some of the great ideas that the online community has thought up. The newest idea? Use the Wiimote and a pair of gloves to create a virtual theremin . Yes, it works and yes, it's awesome. A theremin is an instrument that doesn't need to be touched, you simply move your hands around two antennae to control volume and pitch. If you've ever watched an old sci-fi movie, you know the sound a theremin makes; it's that otherworldly trilling that you usually hear when flying saucers are on the screen. Creating the effect using Wii hardware ...

Blitz 3D
Pixel-love — http://flickr.com/photos/barron/2253769108/ Midlands game company Blitz today announced new tech for making 3D games . That GI.biz piece links a few other announcements of games companies going into 3D tech. I wonder if it could actually catch on? This kind of thing really excited me as a child, until I realised the only way to experience it at the time was in theme parks. Next to real roller coasters has to be the worst possible place to show off this kind of technology. Lately my local multiplex has been offering some films in 3D for a few extra pounds on the price of a normal ticket. It had novelty value, but that seems to be it. Though people seem to have less of a ...

Blog Banter - What I want in 2009
Unfettered Blather — Welcome, welcome to Blog Banter, the monthly blogging extravaganza headed by bs angel! Blog Banter involves our cozy community of enthusiastic gaming bloggers, a common topic, and a week to post articles pertaining to said topic. The results are quite entertaining and can range from deeply insightful to ROFLMAO. Any questions about Blog Banter should be directed here. Check out other Blog Banter articles at the bottom of this post! Dear Game Industry, This is what I want to see in 2009 - The Wii is a huge fount of untapped potential. If you actually bothered to watch the ...

Master Wii Hacker Joins Microsoft Ranks
The Escapist : Latest News — Johnny Lee, the genius modder who gained some YouTube fame for conjuring up hacks like Wiimote head-tracking for VR displays and Wiimote finger tracking, now has a deserved job developing games hardware. But it's not with Nintendo. When I first saw Johnny Lee's videos ...

The 3 motion technologies compared
That VideoGame Blog — Sony / How does it work? Sony have not been very forthcoming about how their controller works, but it seems fairly straightforward. Despite the obvious visual difference to the Wii Remote (primarily due the light source on its tip), the technology inside PS3’s motion controller is likely similar to the accelerometer and gyro in Nintendo’s controller. The PlayStation Eye’s raw specs strongly suggest that by itself, it cannot be used to track the controller accurately enough for motion controlled games. The Eye’s camera has a maximum resolution of 640×480 - not nearly enough to track the light source with the sub mm ...

The Possibilities of Natal
Kombo.com — [image] For some reason, whenever anyone mentions things like Wii and Natal, the first images that jump out are people jumping around like goons in their living room. Why is this? Oh, that's right: every demo ever . However, I think the real implementation has potential for far more subtlety. While trying to throw together a list of ideas about the potential that Microsoft's Natal, one that came up was the idea of using the camera to augment — not replace — the modern FPS. No one's going to crawl around on the floor pretending to fire an invisible gun (five-year-olds don't count), and until we get 360 Degree Television or those sweet virtual reality helmets from the virtual ...

Sony Teases With High-Quality 3D for PS3
Evil Avatar - News Items — At the recent CES 2009, Sony demoed some PS3 games in full 3D. After E3 and the positional-input demos by the big-3, it's clear that 3D gaming is the next logical step. Sony's input solution impressed me the most at E3. Now if we can get Johnny Lee-style head-tracking into the mix we'll have something epic. Sony refused to discuss the technical method used to ...