Sony patenta un nuevo mando

Sony Patents Wiimote-Killer Game Controller

In case you are not yet in your 20s, you should know that in the late 80s there was a wacky controller for the NES called the Power Glove. Manufactured by Mattel, it was the first controller to recreate human hand movements on a video game system. Unfortunately, the device didn’t have the enough game support to become a success and like most peripherals, it was meant to fail.

Almost twenty years later, the Wii remote is Nintendo’s second attempt to introduce a revolutionary game controller that thanks to its motion sensing capability can act as a hand tracking device. Sony’s cheap attempt to copy Nintendo has materialized in the SIXAXIS, who got a last minute motion sensing feature that can’t match the Nintendo Wii controller.

But Sony could once again be in the forefront of gaming peripherals if its latest game controller patent becomes a commercial product.

Sony Computer Entertainment has patented a “hand-held computer interactive device” that has the ability “to capture a user's hand movements.” But in addition of doing so by detecting the movement of the hand through motion sensing like the Wiimote does, the Sony patented controller can also capture your finger, hand and palm movements.

This device is designed to be held by users in their hands and features a “plurality of protrusions;” in layman terms: extensions for each finger designed to detect your input. Additionally, the controller can provide “tactile feedback” to the user, so you know when you have in fact performed an action.

This functionality should not be considered revolutionary, as the Dataglove in which the Nintendo Power Glove was based on could detect yaw, pitch and roll, the position of the five fingers and it also had sensors to detect finger flexure.

But Sony has decided to take another router because it claims that “one of the shortcomings with the gloves is that manufacturers are finding that consumers do not like to wear a glove for entertainment applications.” Sony states:
The gloves require the user to constantly remove the gloves and put the gloves back on, especially if the user is moving between multiple applications. For example, where the user may have to perform typing or some other function requiring a sense of feeling in the hands, consumers tend to remove the gloves. In addition, the data glove hinders the movement of the hand and has substantial weight. Thus, gloves have not been embraced by users for entertainment applications.

Additionally, in what looks like a direct attack to its own EyeToy development and Microsoft’s research in gesture tracking, Sony explains why it chose this handheld device over a camera-based solution:
Another solution being offered as an alternative input device is computer vision systems. However, computer vision systems are limited in their applications for the entertainment environment. Computer vision systems do not provide for tactile feedback and are limited by lighting conditions. Furthermore, computer vision systems have the problem of "address", i.e., the question of whether the gesture is intended for the computer. Also, parameters are inferred and hence are potentially inaccurate. In addition, the input device must be within view of a camera. Still another disadvantage of computer vision systems is that some gestures are self-occluding and are difficult to interpret.

Are we looking at a revolutionary game controller? Could this be the game controller that the next PlayStation will use, thus including EyeToy-like functionality in every console? Will Microsoft take the glove, Wiimote or camera-system approach for its next Xbox?


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