The non-standard game interfaces discussion thread (move, voice, vitality, etc.)

Exactly. As I said, there is no official reports of stock out. It's just individual gamers reporting their own findings. It'd be your words against mine. If you read the GAF thread, you'd see that some see stock outs in their areas, while others can find abundant supply.

If sufficient units are being shipped to the channels as we speak, the inventory situation will improve. They have to prepare for the shopping season.

Your amazon link seems to indicate they have Move controller in stock again.

EDIT: Heh heh, from 13 units down to 2 within minutes.
 
patsu said:
Yeah, but has Sony or any retailers openly warn/b*tch about stock out ? e.g., There may be sufficient units, but not allocated properly by the retail chains internally. The situation may not last long (As in more are en route to destinations, and Sony can make more easily).

Who's selling at a premium ?
Click to expand...

Not Sony, but then we didn;t hear anything official during the Feb/Mar stock out of the ps3 either. 4 major retailers posting 2-4 week stock outs isn't a warning? Tough crowd.

I don't think it'll last long either, that doesn't mean they didn't underestimate demand though.

The Amazon link I had posted goes to the all sellers page where 12 other sellers are at a premium (some of those don't actually have it in stock though) and double checking the link I see that some have raised their price since I posted before with one selling at 79.99 or $30 over retail.
 
patsu said:
http://www.pushsquare.com/11224/sony-playstation-3-stock-to-be-tight-over-the-next-few-months/



We need to know the supply side story to know if it's an issue.

2-4 weeks is just the retailers' standard operating policies.

Amazon's Move inventory went up to 3 now.
Click to expand...

I guess we'll see.

Mine still says out of stock.

Edit: That link reminded me that the ps3 stock out actually started in January, Sony didn't say anything until just before NPD came out when they'd have to say something.
 
They may need to understand the demand before concluding that their supply can't catch up. If the Move demand grows and sustains beyond their expectation for too long, and they can't do anything to the supply or allocation, then they are in "trouble".
 
In finland it looks like at least the net stores have sold out standalone move controllers. There is fresh and good supply of starter packs though :)
 
I'm somewhat confused, for if Move is selling that well, why haven't we heard a triumphant announcement from Sony, "Move sells xxx devices in its first week," sort of thing? The number can't be that impressive overall.
 
Shifty Geezer said:
I'm somewhat confused, for if Move is selling that well, why haven't we heard a triumphant announcement from Sony, "Move sells xxx devices in its first week," sort of thing? The number can't be that impressive overall.
Click to expand...

I think you have the situation where a number of users want to find out of stocks for some perverse reason, but that the case isn't so clear cut. For example, upnorthsox posted links showing out of stocks on the single Move controllers, while ignoring the fact that those same sites had the bundle in stock. So Move is far from out of stock.

However, Sony may have either, (a) misunderstood the product mix needed between bundles and those already with a PSEye, (b) underestimated how many users would pick up a 2nd, 3rd and 4th Move controller or (c) limited the amount of Move controllers going into the marketplace in an attempt to sell the more profitable bundles.

I suspect it's a mixture of all 3, but heavily weighted toward c.

It's kinda similar to when there were "out of stocks" on the PS3 Slim earlier in the year, and the fact Sony didn't trumpet the fact until much later. Well, the reason was that there was generally plenty of PS3 Slim, but only of the $50 premium 250GB versions. And if Sony came out them and talked about out of stocks, people would have pointed to the fact that it was only of a specific sku. The same now. It would be difficult to hail stock issues with the Move, only to have it pointed out that the Move bundle is in plentiful supply.
 
Shifty Geezer said:
Nothing in NavNucST3's example was particularly complex or prone to failure. Voice recognition between two known words is easy enough. The end result would be pretty compelling in a store, I think! Would be a great way to attract attention.
Click to expand...

Just as likely to lose potential sales if it doesn't work properly due to lighting/background noise/other issues (etc).

I dare say eyetoy could do something similar - it doesn't sound overly difficult but like I said, without it being 100% fool proof it isn't going to happen IMHO.

Can't wait to hear "real life" feedback about Kinect...hope it's as positive as Move has been.
 
They will need to stock up for the shopping season. The bundles may do just fine. Sony will likely ship more standalone Move controllers based on demand.

PS3 Slim situation was due to unexpectedly high demand. They only made so much for the rest of fiscal year. I think there was yet another revision that Sony shipped this fiscal year.
 
http://www.andriasang.com/e/blog/2010/10/07/wiimote_plus_date/

Wiimote Plus, fully "Wii Remocon Plus" combines a Wiimote with the Wii Motion Plus attachment. The resulting controller is the same size as a standard Wiimote.

Nintendo will release Wiimote Plus on November 11, priced at ¥3,800. This is the same price as the current Wiimote on its own.

The device will be available in Shiro (white), Kuro (black), Ao (blue), Pink (pink) and Aka (red) variations.

Also starting on 11/11, Nintendo will be replacing the Wii pack-in controller with Wiimote Plus.

Nintendo will also release a red colored Nunchuck controller on 11/11. This will be priced ¥1,800, the same as the black and white Nunchuck devices.
Click to expand...
 
El cheapo "Vitality Sensor" ?
http://www.switched.com/2010/10/06/mit-student-rigs-webcam-to-check-pulse-rate/

An MIT graduate student has discovered a way to check a person's pulse with a plain-old, low-res webcam. According to MIT, Ming-Zher Poh has used open-source face-tracking software, and measured the variations in brightness resulting from blood vessels pumping blood in the face. Poh's method, which doesn't involve any sensors, produced pulse readings that were within three beats per minute of the readings performed by an FDA-approved pulse-monitoring device. The toughest part, for Poh, was accounting for changes in ambient lighting and the person's movements while the webcam did its job. Poh believes that he can eventually tweak the system to read respiration, blood-oxygen and blood-pressure levels.
Click to expand...

 
Nothing in NavNucST3's example was particularly complex or prone to failure.
Click to expand...
In a department store where theres ppl (including shop assistants) moving around the whole time!!
wheres theres ppl talking/noise/music in the background!!

And you dont think its prone to failure, youve been watching too many sci-fi films :)

OK heres a scenario.

-motion is detected from a group of ppl wlaking by
-kinect "do you want to play a game" (sounds like a line out of one of the saw films)
-person "no"
-kinect "say dance or adventure"
-person "piss off"
-kinect "youve selected dance"
-person "fuck you I selected nothing, do you understand english?"
music starts up
-kinect "shake that booty"
-person goes up and puts his fist through the kinect machine
 
zed said:
In a department store where theres ppl (including shop assistants) moving around the whole time!!
wheres theres ppl talking/noise/music in the background!!

And you dont think its prone to failure, youve been watching too many sci-fi films
Click to expand...
you speak as if Kinect doesn't work at all!

One assumes a degree of space is made available for demonstration purposes, and you don't have other shoppers pushing past. At a reasonable distance, filtering out background motion is a doddle and we've seen it in effect. The only time skeleton tracking gets lost is when near objects break the depth silhouette. I expect Kinect to handle the environment well. Lighting could be an issue, but again, if your setting one up you'd pick a spot where there aren't lots of mirrors in the background of flourescent spotlights in the ceiling!

OK heres a scenario.
Click to expand...
That's a worst-case scenario that assume the voice recognition can't even differentiate between the words 'No' and any 'Yes'.

Now as you say, background noise can interfere with things, but the mic array is supposed to filter all that out enough to get a good fix on the speaker as recognised with the depth sensor. So basically, your issues are only issuse if Kinect is fundamentally broken and cannot do the things it's supposed to do, like LIPS. If that's the case, yes, it's a stupid idea to advertise a broken platform, but then it's also a stupid idea to make and release such a broken platform, and the very best way MS could prevent negative response to Kinect is not to release it so word of mnouth doesn't get out about how broken it is and what a waste of money it was. Going by user feedback of people who have tried it, in shopping centres and the like, it isn't that broken and your extremely negative expectations aren't tallying with the final product.
 
goonergaz said:
Just as likely to lose potential sales if it doesn't work properly due to lighting/background noise/other issues (etc).
Click to expand...
See my reply to zed above.

I dare say eyetoy could do something similar.
Click to expand...
It'd be damned hard. You'd need to identify a person walking in the space. Actaully that could be done with facial recognition. You'd need to identify the speaker and what they say in a noisy environment. That's very hard without some sound isolation system such as a microphone array. Then you'd have the games where every bit of movement in the background registers as user input, basically ruining the game experience.

I think a lot of people just don't really appreciate what Kinect is doing!
 
Finally...

http://www.siliconera.com/2010/10/07/nintendo-patent-shows-wii-vitality-sensor-game-example/

After announcing the Wii Vitality Sensor, Nintendo hasn’t said much about the accessory other than its still in development. A Nintendo filed patent application we found shines some light on what kind of games we may see for it.

...
Click to expand...

Nintendo’s patent application mentions a stretch game where players tilt the remote up and down to move a character. While you’re moving flying character players have to adjust their breathing to match the ceiling’s dips and drops.

...

Awhile ago we also discovered a Nintendo filed trademark for Wii Relax. Could this stretch game be part of Wii Relax?
Click to expand...

If they are tracking breathing, then it would also be possible to do Tai Chi and other Kung Fu games. :p
[size=-2]May be swimming/diving too.[/size]
 
http://www.popsci.com/gadgets/article/2010-10/nano-gyroscopes-can-navigate-indoors-underground

Israeli researchers have created the tiniest-ever optical gyroscopes, as small as a grain of sand, but still maintaining the keen accuracy of their counterparts hundreds of times larger. Optical gyroscopes are generally used for navigation in airplanes, ships and satellites, in which they track movement without reference to external navigation points, by measuring the vehicle’s rotation rate and linear acceleration. This is called inertial navigation. It’s extremely accurate but, up until now, only possible in gyroscopes and weighing two to three pounds.

Made possible by semi-conductor lasers measured in micrometers, these nanogyros are a different animal than the gyroscopes in the current generation of cell phones. They can continuously calculate the exact position of the object they’re installed in without needing to refer to external references the way GPS relies on satellites. Developer Koby Scheuer, a professor at Tel Aviv University, says the nanogyros “have compact enough dimensions to be integrated in small electronic devices.” That means if you’re in a tunnel and your GPS device isn’t working, this little guy will still know your precise location. Sounds a lot simpler than tracking lightning pulses to navigate underground.
Click to expand...

I wonder what's the accuracy level.
 
Pre-orders for the $150 Kinect add-on are sold out at GameStop & NewEgg. There are still other online sites with pre-orders though(like Amazon, Buy.com & Walmart). I'm sure Microsoft are are really limiting the add-on bundles. They really want people to buy the system bundles instead.

Tommy McClain
 
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