First of all, the Nintendo Wii did take the world by surprise (and storm) when it was unveiled a few years ago – motion controls in a video game? That’s practically not well implemented before, and the novelty pushed the Wii to great sales figures for some time before it started to peter out. Well, since then, Microsoft has achieved its own success with the Kinect controller, and right now Medibotics’ U.S. patent 7,980,141 for Motion Recognition Clothing (MRC) has been approved to lead the way in motion controls. Just what is MRC? For starters, this will be a new kind of technology that can translate body motion into computer-readable signals, perhaps changing the way future full-body game controllers work.
Gaming isn’t the only arena where MRC can be applied, as it can also see action in virtual reality settings, sports training, medical therapy, virtual exercise, weight management, and telerobotics.
MRC works differently by integrating air-filled or fluid-filled tubes into clothing that longitudinally spans multiple body joints, where changes in pressure within these tubes will be used to measure the motion of these body joints. Sounds like an extremely sensitive system to begin with, and it ought to offer a greater level of precision and accuracy, although that might mean it isn’t going to be as hardy as say, a Wiimote. I guess you can’t have your cake and eat it – hopefully MRC will develop into some kind of solid, no-nonsense full body game controller that offers a superior level of precision and accuracy while retaining a degree of hardiness knowing how gamers can take out their frustration on their gaming gear.
The next time you walk into a video game store, someone might even ask you – what size is your controller? [Press Release]
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