Fact: Nintendo to release HD console + controllers with built-in screen late 2012

It's either total nonsense or a something along the lines of that :



No holographic deck for you yet, Megadrive.

 

In addition, Ubisoft not allowing their games to be upgraded to that extent sounds bizarre.. even for them.

 

If anyone needs a good laugh.

http://geekti.me/wp/2011/04/wii-2-is-80-more-powerful-than-360/

 

Indeed that makes a lot of sense

 

I don't believe it'll be 2 years either, but my argument was based on Tottentranz opinion that MS and Sony will happily wait 2 years before releasing their response to Wii2.

It probably would take them a year to get a user base big enough to make developers think of the system as their target systems, which is why 2 years is too long for MS and Sony to wait IMO if they reach that kind of user base within a year.

 

That's the funny thing. The more cloudy details about the rumor are the hardware specs part and the more juicy stuff its regarding the controller. People should be speculating more about the interface and less about possible specs.

 

http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2011/4/18/

 

One needs only look back at the Wii rumours, with some people running wild with theories about (impossible) new 3D tech based on a Nintendo patent, and the name 'Hollywood' indicating Wii would be powerful, and then believing Wii had a dedicated physics processor based on misinterpretation of a dev quote, to see how rumours can be completely, utterly wrong.

 

I´ll post this one here also:

Ok just saw a compilation of the rumors, was thinking a couple of things.

Like i commented in a previous post lets say Nintendo wants to send output frames to both the TV and the 6´´ screen at the same time. The supposed integrated camera on the screen could have a less obvious use. That camera could be used to track fingers positioning near the screen surface. Set it like this you won´t need to constantly be focusing attention between the TV and touch screen.

So basically this could turn a TV screen of any size in a touch screen. Some games could use the tradional Wii kind of pointing controls, others could use this direct touch method.

Yea, best thing you could do was edit that sh!t out of there

 

That's one obvious use and already suggested by...me.

 

Where did you sugested that? You ment these 2 posts?

Those are the given uses most people suggested when the touch screen part of the rumor was filtered, for example as HUD/Menu dump. Pay close attention to my sugestions. It goes a bit more in detail on how Nintendo might apply the touch screen. Your second post is too much of a general use that doesnt go into detail, for example if you are navigating the game menus via the touch screen then of course you are using it as a "touch input device" man

Edit: Trying to explain myself better and im a lay man in tech so would be interesting to see what more knowledgeable people think. Lets say the camera can detect the heat signature of fingers just close to the screen even when not in direct contact. The developer could project a non intrusive graphical representation of the fingers in the TV screen, so the user instantly knows the finger relative position to the screen space withouth the need to take the eyes of the TV.

Think the heat detecting camera makes sen because that could make operation independent of light conditions.

 

Well as I said "touch games" basically imply you'd be using the screen as a touchpad like on a laptop. What you suggest is exactly the same thing whether or not the small screen "duplicates" what's on the big TV screen, regardless that would be redundant and a complete waste of battery power because you wouldn't even need to look at the small screen...

 

Thanks for replying.

First im asuming the touch screen has its own battery. So it is one screen per system that could be attached to the controller or use it stand alone.

As for the redundancy im aware of that but im looking at it in a per game basis. Let me explain, in say... a slow paced game where the user could focus in both screens having the exact same frame as in the TV for direct input control its very intuitive. I.E. quickly focus on the touch screen taping any object of the game level, now focus on the TV screen and see how the character automatically walks to the object and grabs it. But in the case of a more fast paced game where the user focus should be the TV screen thats when the camera is used to track the fingers to represent them as an on screen icon . Adding to this, even if both frames (tv & touch) are the same there could be a series of overlays that the touch screen might present for gaming aid that wouldnt be present in the tv.

Also im not suggesting the typical uses should be excluded, the developer should use what it thinks it might fit the game.

In regards to your sugestions and mine being the same, they are not realy equal because the specific way the device is being implemented. In retrospective lets say we are speculating about the Wii and its camera inclusion. If i speculate the camera will be used to control the games, thats not really much of an interesting statement because it doesnt go in detail in how that camera control its acomplished. And it ended up being a clever and not so obvious use by Nintendo. Well thats the way i see it in regards to what we have posted.

Finally i don´t think this will end up in the console necesarily, but im taking the rumor as base, so trying to figure out what interesting and not so obvious use a 6'' screen might have.

Edit (another) This typical site ambiguos and criptic rumors piss me off so usually stay clear of them. But this one got reported by multiple sources and with matching info. So something definitly poped in the radar.

 

Technically not possible, unless by 'near' you mean a foot or so away. A camera's field of view won't be able to see all fingers near the screen. As a cone projecting from the camera, the FOV range may, perhaps, see fingers 1 cm from the screen nearby, but at the far side of the screen would need those fingers to be maybe 10cm from the screen to appear in its range of vision.

If you are thinking of having the remote work like EyeToy for the big screen, calibrating would be a nightmare - you'd be better off by far with high resolution 3D camera tech by the TV.

 

For information and to provide some example to the idea, here's a software solution using any webcam to turn a screen (physical or projected) into a "touch" screen:

http://kde-apps.org/content/show.php/kmando?content=47105

And this solution uses a Wii remote (well its IR camera principally) and an IR pen (An IR LED on top of a pen):

 

Very interesting answer, would love a fallow up with maybe more indepth explanation.

No, the concept im thinking about is different from eyetoy. The idea comes from Nintendo suposedly trying to integrate a touch screen to a home console and coming with a direct input method for a TV like you have with DS.

Let´s say you are holding that touch screen (with a thubstick and buttons/whatever) in your left hand. The game you are interacting with is such that requires your atention so is not optimal to split focus between both screens, like a on rail shooter for example, where ever you touch the screen a shot is send there. So you are watching your tv with a finger from your right hand close to the small screen, the camera tracks the finger location relative to the touch screen surface and represents it as a cursor in the tv. So this allow the user to know where the shot will land when touching withouth taking focus away from the tv.

Why do this when you have IR pointing? If this worked, its even faster pointing method and less depended of line of sight. And because i don't know of another f*cking really interesting use for a screen like that

The other use was proyecting wireless the same frame in the TV to the small screen for touch control in a game less demanding that allows the user to focus attention alternativly to both screens.

 

Sure, but that's with the camera looking at the screen. Refreshment was talking about (as I understood it anyhow) a front-facing camera, as on a mobile phone, seeing a finger pointing at the screen. Any camera of that wide-enough an angle would have seriously distorted perspective and ruin accuracy! Perhaps if the camera was extended and could be rotated to look at the screen, that'd work, but I'm sure they'd just go with a vanilla touch-screen. Any game that wants direct aiming on the screen would surely have a direct pointing controller available. I can't believe Nintendo are dropping Wiimote next gen and going with a Dualshock controller with a touch-screen in the middle! They'd alienate all their customer base. Chances are they'll have some tracking system for direct pointing, in addition to the touch-screen devices for extra goodness.

 

No that's not what i was saying in regards of the camera. They absolutly need a camera facing the player for other uses. The camera i was thinking was close to the screen. Anyway i did a light research but will continue to do so. Anyway i came across this on the net:

http://www.nextwindow.com/optical/

This is similar in aplication to what i was thinking. Hope to hear some comments.

Also regarding pointing with the Wiiremote. Not sugesting they abandon that. There are ways they could bring both options to the user in a practical way. Like i said, just trying to figure out an interesting use to the information in the rumor.

 

Yes, that's what I was saying. You'd have a player-facing camera on the controller for looking at the player, and you want this to look at where the finger is pointing on the screen.

Those cameras are facing along the screen, and couldn't be used to look at the player.

Or basically, looking at this controller as an iPod Touch in the player's hand, with front facing camera which is what I understand of the rumours of a touch screen and integrated camera, with whatever additional buttons and sticks - that camera cannot do finger tracking for where the user is pressing on/pointing at the local screen.

 

Bingo! The use of the camera/sensor/whatever i propose is not to see the palyer face. Is to detect the positioning of the finger in relation to the touch screen. That postion is then represented in the actual TV screen as an unintrusive cursor so the player knows in what part of the screen the interaction will happen when he presses the touch screen withouth the need to take his eyes away of the TV.

Then there are other uses like the menu/HUD dump. Or having the same video frames outputed to both screens to control the game directly with the touch. In the case the game is relaxed enough to let the player switch focus from one screen to the other.

In essence you have 60'' plasma screen in your hands for example, if it were possible to execute the idea.