Sony Reintroduces PlayStation Motion Controller at GDC with More Tech Demos - The UpStream

Sony Reintroduces PlayStation Motion Controller at GDC with More Tech Demos

posted Sunday Mar 14, 2010 by Josh Henry

Sony Reintroduces PlayStation Motion Controller at GDC with More Tech Demos

Sony's GDC panel "Introducing the PlayStation Motion Controller" (E3, Part 2) was exactly what you would think it is: An introduction to the newly named Move peripheral. David Coombes, Kirk Bender and Anton Mikhailov showcased impressive tech demos, tech demos, and more tech demos - many of which demonstrated the Move's incredible precision along with its low latency. One of the more eye-capturing demos showcased full body tracking using an on-screen body puppet, similar to one of Project Natal's tech demos.

Thanks to the panel we learned that body tracking is made possible by combining the Move and PS3's head tracking capability. According to the presentation, the PS3 can also detect faces, going so far as to identify individuals through face contour and feature recognition. The software will be able to recognize gender, age, smiles and when eyes open and close.

Coombes explained that all the calculations necessary to handle image processing are done by the Cell CPU, which apparently excels at the doing floating point calculations. The raw data can be processed incredibly quickly by the PS3, taking "under a frame" to translate to a game experience. And while Mikhailov didn't reveal how much of the CPU's overall power the Move controller requires, he did reveal that the memory demands are truly "insignificant," 1-2 MB of system memory. That's pretty insignificant, especially with that 70MB Sony has freed up, so needless to say the consumer won't need to worry about upgrading their memory if they plan on buying the PlayStation Motion Controller.

After seeing pictures of the controller itself and its counter-part it just seems to me that this is a Wii-mote (for your butt) taken to the next level. My next question is will Sony and possibly Microsoft try and dip their hands into the causal gamer cookie jar that Nintendo seems to have a hold on? Or will they continue making the same types of games they've grown accustomed to, leaving an entire demographic untapped. In my opinion, this could spell death for the Nintendo Wii especially if the Wii fans are given the option to get the same types of games the Wii utilizes, but with better graphics, like Ghostbusters. Making Nintendo cry Wii Wii Wii all the way home.

Advertisement

Login to CommentWhat You're Saying

Be the first to comment!

We're live now - Join us!
PLUGHITZ Keyz

Email

Password

Forgot password? Recover here.
Not a member? Register now.
Blog Meets Brand Stats