Microsoft's patent application suggests possible console- and PC-gaming applications.
September 18, 2012
We've covered "wearable game controller" prototypes before, but every time our reaction was the same: "This doesn't look very fun, but in the hands of a capable company it definitely could be."
Well, a patent application filed by Microsoft back in July outlines "a 'Wearable Electromyography-Based Controller,' … for measuring muscle activity, to interact with and control computing devices … [including] game consoles, televisions or other multimedia devices." As the attached illustrations clarify, "wearable" could refer to everything from a pair of gloves to a shirt and pants to a simple arm-band or pair of glasses.
This could be the first "wearable gaming" development worth caring about.
Motion controls have had various gaming applications, but none of them has ever felt totally natural to non-gamers or sufficiently precise for hardcore gamers. A really good wearable, muscle activity-sensing controller could solve both those problems at once.
Wearable EMG sensors could have all kinds of real-world utility - from controlling prosthetic limbs to playing software-virtualized instruments - but what we really wanted to know is whether Microsoft's planning to use them for games.
The answer: a resounding maybe.
Whatever its purposes for the technology, Microsoft has kept it almost completely under wraps. As Patent Bolt points out, they've been "working on an advanced wearable computer system since at least 2008 without the press getting any wind of it."
It may not be realistic to hope we'll see one of these controllers in action for at least a few years, but it's no stretch to suggest Microsoft's researchers have gaming in mind, at least partially:
Combine a fully wearable controller with Microsoft's rumored immersive display development, and put that in the hands of a capable game developer: there are some very, very cool possibilities.
How would you want to see a wearable controller put to use? Let us know in the comments.
Jon Fox is a Seattle hipster who loves polar bears and climbing trees. You can follow him on Twitter and IGN.
Well, a patent application filed by Microsoft back in July outlines "a 'Wearable Electromyography-Based Controller,' … for measuring muscle activity, to interact with and control computing devices … [including] game consoles, televisions or other multimedia devices." As the attached illustrations clarify, "wearable" could refer to everything from a pair of gloves to a shirt and pants to a simple arm-band or pair of glasses.
This could be the first "wearable gaming" development worth caring about.
Motion controls have had various gaming applications, but none of them has ever felt totally natural to non-gamers or sufficiently precise for hardcore gamers. A really good wearable, muscle activity-sensing controller could solve both those problems at once.
Wearable EMG sensors could have all kinds of real-world utility - from controlling prosthetic limbs to playing software-virtualized instruments - but what we really wanted to know is whether Microsoft's planning to use them for games.
The answer: a resounding maybe.
Whatever its purposes for the technology, Microsoft has kept it almost completely under wraps. As Patent Bolt points out, they've been "working on an advanced wearable computer system since at least 2008 without the press getting any wind of it."
It may not be realistic to hope we'll see one of these controllers in action for at least a few years, but it's no stretch to suggest Microsoft's researchers have gaming in mind, at least partially:
"Purposes include … interaction with conventional application such as … wired or wireless game controllers for interacting with game consoles or with video games operating on such consoles, control of pan-tilt-zoom cameras … etc."
Combine a fully wearable controller with Microsoft's rumored immersive display development, and put that in the hands of a capable game developer: there are some very, very cool possibilities.
How would you want to see a wearable controller put to use? Let us know in the comments.
Jon Fox is a Seattle hipster who loves polar bears and climbing trees. You can follow him on Twitter and IGN.
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