Is controller-free gaming more than just a gimmick?
At this year´s Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) Microsoft showcased Kinect (originally known by the code name Project Natal) for Xbox 360. This controller-free gaming and entertainment system for Microsoft´s video game platform uses - besides speech recognition - motion capturing instead of gamepads or joysticks to establish the human computer interaction.
But is playing games without controllers really a revolution or just another gimmick? Lots of alternative interfaces were already introduced to the community of gamers - like datagloves or virtual reality goggles - but they all could not put gamepads and joysticks out of the market´s top position. You can argue that the game experience is all about the eye-hand coordination and the surface feel of a controller, that gaming is about the correlation of real life haptics and the extension of man into virtual reality.
It´s obvious that Microsoft´s strategy is to broaden the Xbox´s audience beyond its typical gamer base through this natural user interface using gestures, spoken commands or presented objects and images. Microsoft probably even has to do so since Nintendo´s Wii remote stays an overall success when it comes to customer acquisition by defining new target groups. Sony as well reacted to this tendency and presented its own motion-sensing game controller platform for the PlayStation 3 video game console to the public at this year´s E3. This so called PlayStation Move still uses a physical controller but also the already available PlayStation Eye to analyze the users gestures and translate them into user commands. PlayStation Move shows that motion capturing is a technique not only Microsoft´s developers integrate into their new products.
But does this proof that controller-free gaming by using motion capturing is already more than a gimmick? It sure does not, but considering that the science and technology of machines that see - called computer vision - is an inherent part of today´s research in artificial intelligence, it´s sure worth thinking about where controller-free gaming could head to in the near future. A beautiful example for motion tracking is the Eyewriter Initiative.
This initiative was formed by members of Free Art and Technology (FAT), OpenFrameworks, the Graffiti Research Lab and The Ebeling Group communities. They have teamed-up with a legendary LA graffiti writer, publisher and activist, named Tony Quan aka TEMPTONE, who was diagnosed with ALS in 2003. Mr. Quan is almost completely physically paralyzed and can only move his eyes. That is why this international team is working on a low-cost, open source eye-tracking system that will allow (ALS) patients to draw using just their eyes.
Thinking about the topic of controller-free gaming it is easy to predict that by using such a set-up it will be possible for (handicapped) patients not only to draw but to play games as well. And then controller-free gaming is for sure way more than just a gimmick!
TIM FEHSKE
Tim Fehske hat seinen Magisterabschluss an der Universität zu Köln in der Fächerkombination Theater-, Film- und Fernsehwissenschaft, Ethnologie und Pädagogik gemacht. Der Titel seiner Magisterarbeit lautet "Musikvisualisierung zwischen Reklame und Videokunst - Ist VJing ein Aufstand der Zeichen?". Er promoviert derzeit zu der Thematik "Digitale Elite" bei Herrn Prof. Dr. Lutz Ellrich.
Kontakt: tf@colognegamelab.de