Datum 2014
Five Technologies That Will Change
the Future of Gaming
THENDRAL .J.P B.Sc CT (G1) - IV
Everyone's seemingly squirming under the pressure to introduce the next great leap in interactivity,
but a handful of engineers and developers have already made serious headway towards reinventing the way
we'll play games in the years to come. Here are five of the most promising and revolutionary technologies
that may one day find their way into our PCs, consoles, and mobile devices.
LEAP MOTION CONTROLLER
The Leap Motion Controller may share a
few similarities with Microsoft's Kinect, but its form factor
and approach to gesture controls are quite different. It's small, reasonably priced at $69.99 and
designed to track minute finger or stylus movements at a threshold of .01 millimeters.
Though the Kinect is capable of tracking your
entire body, its strict lighting and relative-orientation requirements are a major turnoff for most
customers, and in turn, developers. Leap Motion's
tech eliminates these barriers, and while it may
only capture hand/finger movements in its current form, that in itself is an invaluable capability rife with potential. Most Leap Motion demos
take place at a desk in front of a PC monitor, but
there's no reason the designers couldn't simply
extend the cable or implement wireless functionality to adapt it to consoles and coffee tables.
EYE TRIBE
Eye Tribe's goal is to integrate hands-free controls into devices such as cell phones, tablets, and feasibly,
gaming devices like the 3DS or Vita. While tracking retina movements isn't groundbreaking in itself, it has generally
been too expensive for consumers and too large for manufacturers to embed in their products.
Eye Tribe was more than happy to upend these notions at CES 2013, demoing its external and embedded
retina-tracking solutions running on Windows 8 tablets. In the video above, CNET's Bridget Carey takes on Fruit Ninja,
deftly slicing citrus and berry alike. Retina tracking may not be suitable for every type of game, but once the tech
establishes itself as a must-have bullet point for hardware manufacturers, it's only a matter of time before we start
to see new game types and mechanics designed around its unusual functionality.
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