Sony Don’t Need An Invisible Steering Wheel
The wand / 3D camera system gets even more confusing.Published 03/07/2009 at 13:30 by nofi
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If you were delighted at Sony’s “wand” showing this E3, you’ll be even more delighted to know that apparently, you don’t even need the bloody thing. We’re confused – the wand seemed like a great idea, but a new patent has been found by Siliconera that appears to ’scan’ in any household object and use it as a controller. The patent graphics show a bizarre U-shaped block which is translated into a sword on screen, but the text says that the scanner’s abilities will include items such as “coffee mugs, drinking glasses, books [and] bottles” so let’s hope there’s not going to be a Glasgow simulator where you go around smashing stuff on people’s heads.
It appears the the system, which has not yet been officially announced, would request that the user ’show’ the camera different angles of the device in question before it can recognise what it is and what it will be used for in-game. This means that you’ll be able to use your cat as a golf club, for example, or a tin of baked beans instead of a bazooka. It also makes a slight mockery of Microsoft’s invisible steering wheel when you can just use Grandma’s old China plates instead. Whilst in principle this idea is fabulous, I for one assumed Sony were concentrating all their efforts on making the most out of the original wand idea – if the camera can track anything in 3D space, why would we need to buy yet another bit of bloody plastic?
Siliconera have, for some reason, omitted a direct link to the patent but you can see the graphics used in the document via the link in the first paragraph, above.
Thanks, Tuffcub
Comments
Please note that all comments are the opinion of the individual author and not TheSixthAxis.
cc_star | 03/07/2009 13:41
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Anybody else wanting a Glasgow simulator?
Without having to drink Special Brew obviously.
zb100 | 03/07/2009 13:46
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Special Brew? Don’t you mean Buckie!!!!!
(Buckfast Tonic Wine – brewed by monks, drunk by neds.)
DarthSharkey | 03/07/2009 14:25
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Yes I would love a Glasgow simulator.
Coming out the Catty or the Garage and being molested with “awrite mate, want ay tap us a fag” then “naw, whit ye meen naw, al dae yi in ya dobber” then you can smack them with a Sky remote or something.
crestfaller | 03/07/2009 14:31
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lol.
ad456m | 03/07/2009 13:43
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Would this not to be to do with the eyepet kinda titles?
Jumping Monks | 03/07/2009 13:44
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This sounds pretty cool to me. Have to keep tuned on this one.
Pemberton_ | 03/07/2009 13:46
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Am I the only one thinking dirty, dirty thoughts?
3shirts | 03/07/2009 14:04
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You are a bad person
Tuffcub | 03/07/2009 14:06
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Seel below – no
Alex_Assassin_08 | 03/07/2009 19:53
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trust us, no.
billsmugs | 03/07/2009 13:49
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Presumerably the the reason to buy the wand would be for the buttons that you’d need for some games.
Coming back to this patent though, how stupid would you look to friends/family if they walked into the room and saw you holding a plate and pretending it was a steering wheel?
matty | 03/07/2009 14:03
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my mum would grab it and slap me thinking i was smashing them up or something but there is a practiacal use for it you can be playing then dinner tyime comes so you put ya plate down and eat off of it the pick it backup and play again
hannes_truce | 03/07/2009 13:57
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The idea of using a cat for a golf club has had me chuckling for the last 10 minutes.
Tuffcub | 03/07/2009 14:00
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You could use a gerbil as the ball.
Tuffcub | 03/07/2009 14:00
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You saw the demo they did of the wand where it turned in to a sword… what if you scan in two, “real” light sabres (aka Sticks). You can have a physical fight in the real world and that would translate in to a light sabre battle on screen, complete with effects, scoring etc. Bloody hell think of that.
zb100 | 03/07/2009 14:02
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My poor light fixtures!
Tuffcub | 03/07/2009 14:03
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Of course you could just scan in your…. you know.. thingy. And then load up and RPG and swing it about and use it as a real pork sword.
matty | 03/07/2009 14:05
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lol wont be able to bring the ps3 down stairs then lol
fid | 03/07/2009 14:55
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My poor light fixtures
3shirts | 03/07/2009 14:04
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You could use your cat to interact with an eyepet and it would be like you have a real pet…
X_Yoshy_X | 03/07/2009 16:18
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but u do if its interacting with the i pet??….
YOURMUMANDME | 03/07/2009 17:24
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lol
elpabl79 | 03/07/2009 14:12
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It already sounds like a Geordie device
Uhyve | 03/07/2009 14:41
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You kind of see them scanning stuff for use as a control in this really old video for the original eyetoy:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FpNdkm9s8AY&feature=fvst
Plus there’s this cool tech demo for the PlayStation Eye where they scan stuff into the game:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hXJPok3NZEk&feature=channel_page
matty | 03/07/2009 14:49
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good find
Raen | 03/07/2009 16:03
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In principle couldn’t you do the same thing with Natal? I mean you don’t even need to actually scan the object, it would just be a real world reference that gets translated.
Rob92 | 03/07/2009 21:22
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so a plate could become a steering wheel with natal? Swear with Natal you dont hold anything. I guess Sony are going for physcially holding something is better.
Raen | 04/07/2009 14:48
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You don’t HAVE to hold anything with Natal. We haven’t seen anything that says you CAN’T hold anything. Big difference. Of course it may just be that there isn’t enough info to tell.
Amphlett | 03/07/2009 16:39
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Magic Wand or no Magic Wand, I don’t care! I bought the PSEye well over a year ago and have hardly used it (Eye Create and Burnout – hardly a great list of uses).
I saw the top-down tank battles demo about a year ago and held my breath for a quick and cheap version coming out on the PSN. I turned blue and eventually had to exhale.
So yes, I am looking forward to this new development coming along and blowing some life in to my PSEye. Who knows, EyePet might prove to be more than just a fancy tech demo.
YOURMUMANDME | 03/07/2009 17:29
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I think the U shaped device , from what I can see , stands for ‘universal’ object .
I think this may just be a patent , there’s no reason to say that this is going into production , which ( @Raen ) I think could be to atop Microsoft developing Natal any further in that direction . Even foul play is fair play in the world of business !
Raen | 03/07/2009 19:10
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Well my point is with Natal, at least in principle, you wouldn’t even need to scan the object. As it’s using your body for the reference rather than an object you could be holding anything and it could still work. Of course it may present issues with recognising players.
Finally MS already showed scanning objects into the game world (the skateboard in the demo video), so it remains to be seen whether or not they have anything planned in this area.
Timesh1993 | 03/07/2009 19:29
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Sony’s new ideas FTL!