At a recent conference called D5, there was a comment made by Bill Gates about Video Recognition. Bill seems to think that this will be the future of game control input. Shortly after this, there was a flock of bloggers commenting on the potential of "Motion Controls" coming to the 360. I have no idea why people hear what was said, but fail to listen or understand. Hmm it could be because bloggers flock like sheep and don't bother thinking for themselves. Anyway, here is the comment made:
Now it is very clear that Bill was NOT talking about Motion Control. So what does he see for the future of gaming input? What does Video Recognition mean?
Video Recognition is when a camera watches your actions, recognizes your signals, and interprets those motions into game control. This isn't just an innovation for the future; the Xbox360, the PS2, and the PS3 already have the hardware on the shelf. There are already a dozen games released that run only on video recognition, but the trend has not really caught on yet.
What? The PS2? Yes, don't tell me that you Xbox fanboys never heard of the
EyeToy. Microsoft released their camera last winter, the
Xbox Live Vision. These are simply usb webcams, which is a fairly cheap piece of hardware these days. Ok, so if this has been around for a while already, why is it on Bill Gates' list for the future of game control?
It's all about the software. So far, the dozen or so games developed for video recognition have sucked. That doesn't mean the idea is bad, just that this is a concept that has not been done well yet. This is something that will require some real investment of time and money from developers. Current EyeToy titles include dancing, boxing, and exercise programs. They all appear to be easy to program for, but none have any mainstream appeal. The only one that appears to have potential is
Anti-grav which uses your arm and body movements to control a racing hoverboard. Microsoft has just started working with the concept, their only released title to use video recognition is
Totem Ball. It has you waving your hands up and down to control the character rolling around on a ball, and the
reviews were ugly. The controls are sloppy, it requires a brightly lit room, and you need to hold your arms up in the air longer than most people find comfortable.
All the other games that support the camera do not use it for gameplay. Video chat is becoming more common, as is putting your face on the game character. While these have more of a mainstream appeal, you can imagine the line at the complaint department when you mix in-game video chat with the immature gamers normally found on Xbox Live....
If game developers ever take the concept of video recognition control past the original gimmick, it really does have potential. You can look at Anti-grav and see how this
could be fun if done correctly. Bill sees a future world where you can bring your REAL tennis racquet, your favorite 9 iron, or baseball bat into the game. The camera will watch what you do, and the game will mimic your actions onscreen. Why should Microsoft bother with adding "motion detection" to the controller when the camera can track your motions directly? Besides, if you put
your tennis racquet through the family room HDTV, it won't be
their fault...
I believe that with some really hard work from developers, Bill might be right. (it wouldn't be the first time...) I don't see us throwing away our beloved 360 wireless controllers anytime soon, but hopefully the near future will bring us some good alternatives for game control.
What do you think?
