Posted Jul 03, 2009 at 11:08AM by Karl B. Listed in: News Tags: Sony, patent
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When Sony showed off its new motion control tech at E3 last month, the demo featured a LED wand as a controller. A recently published patent, however, hints that Sony may also be working on tech that would let players use everyday objects as controllers.

According to Siliconera, the patent details a system where any three-dimensional object can be mapped by a camera for use in a video game. Say for example you're playing a driving game. You can map in a plate, your shoe, heck maybe even a severed head and use it as a steering wheel. The mapping part is explained in the second and third images below:

Sony motion tech patent - Image 1 Sony motion tech patent - Image 2 Sony motion tech patent - Image 3


The patent also includes some examples of how the tech can be used. In the first image below, a U-shaped object is used to simulate some sort of lightsaber-like sword. When the object is pointing upwards the sword is on and it turns off when the object is pointed down. Other examples mostly deal with usage in sports games.

Sony motion tech patent - Image 1 Sony motion tech patent - Image 2 Sony motion tech patent - Image 3
Sony motion tech patent - Image 4 Sony motion tech patent - Image 5




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17 Comments


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   by kon_e3 - 2009-07-03
 » lol

Ight looks like Im gona have to invest in a baseball bat

   by foxdog - 2009-07-03
 » humm...

so i could play gran turismo with my shoe.... haha


   Re: hush404 - 2009-07-03
 » dude

i WANNA DO THAT.

   Re: VashioKun - 2009-07-04
 » .

Just epic lol
   by ptspyder - 2009-07-03
 » LoL!

So its like everyone said, Natal is an eyetoy. Thats really groundbreaking microsoft. Only about 6 years behind.

   by Mr Toasty - 2009-07-03
 » ...

http://www.camspace.com/

AHEM..


   Re: Relys - 2009-07-03
 » I was thinking the same thing.

I beta tested for that.

   Re: Shady0808 - 2009-07-04
 » AHEM... 2D

That camspace thing works via 2D data only, like the EyeToy, whereas the PS3 and PlaystationEye can detect depth and therefore 3D data...

   Re: Shatterdome - 2009-07-04
 » Sorry...

I own the playstation eye, and it is not possible for it to measure depth acurately....

It could measure a "default" size for an object and track whether it gets bigger and smaller....but this would be far from accurate.

In order to give a computer (ie 360/ps3) a real 3D view of the world, you need 2 cameras....plain and simple. (it's called stereo photography, google it, i'm not explaining it to you)

The Natal is basically two eye toys.....

what this patent is showing is that PS3 can scan in a shape and then create different responses within the game depending on the orientation of that shape. Ie...if the "U" is pointed up, your lightsaber is extended, if it is pointing down, it's not extended.....


   Re: Shatterdome - 2009-07-05
 » and...

I just played with the camspace program for awhile.

It seems to be the same concept Sony is working off......map an object you want to be your controller....than it keeps track of how you are moving it. Same concept, and as you can see, camspace cannot track 3D movement....
   by cmonkey99 - 2009-07-04
 » Well

If kids can destroy TV's and break their bodies with plastic bats and fake objects I want to see how much damage they can do with real bats!


   Re: Musev - 2009-07-04
 » ...

If you're talking about the accidents with the wii, that was mostly old people and adult women wasn't it?

If you think about how they drive it makes sense too.
and by that logic, I wonder how much damage it would be if it was an asian woman.

   Re: Shatterdome - 2009-07-05
 » Also...

no one is using real bats...

If you look at the picture it says "real world" and "game world" in the "real" world you are using a dualshock, which translates to a bat in the "game" world....
   by gr8tlegend - 2009-07-04
 » Lol

There were plenty of accidents with the wii once ppl found out they could try 2 sue. lol hints the wii safety vid. wasn't there who caught her in the celling or the lol the baby that hits its head on the table play tennis youtube it lol


   Re: truk - 2009-07-05
 » lol

i like the one where dude smashes his hand off the ceiling light and tares his hand up.

i can't wait for videos involving a ps3
   by Silver-Tiger - 2009-07-04
 » ...

so much to Natal.....

   by the by - 2009-07-05
 » well,

lets put it this way, MS had a fancy well rehearsed video for natal, and lets face it, with videos you can sugarcoat anything, due to editing. We will see what both systems are really like soon enough!



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