wiimote gets intelligent

[darkblu]

i know it's a two-day-old news and many of you may have already seen it, but i find this quite significant - nintendo plant to release gestures-learning wiimote libraries:

http://wii.ign.com/articles/738/738645p1.html

what this means is that instead of you having to match hardcoded gestures, you can let the machine learn your style. just imagine the '2nd generation' wii games ; )

edit: ok, i got carried away a bit - apparently it's intended to be used in development to greatly simplify programming gesture recognition - but still such tech has serious potential to be used in-game by the end user too.

ps: thanks for the original press release, hupfinsgack.

 

[StefanS]

Original press release:

...
Instead of complicated programming, developers need only take a few minutes to train the Wii Remote by examples. LiveMove lets developers focus directly on creative work without the burden of onerous coding requirements, helping them quickly unleash the potential of Wiiâ„¢. The only limitation is the game creator's imagination.

"The Wii coupled with AiLive LiveMove will usher in a new era of natural game control," commented AiLive Chairman Dr. Wei Yen." Powered by AiLive's patented Context Learning, LiveMove will allow the game industry to move away from indirect digital control to more natural analog control for the first time."

"In early 2006, I challenged Dr. Wei Yen and his AI scientists to develop AIware for the Wii Remote. When Nintendo's development teams saw LiveMove, we instantly recognized how it would greatly increase our ability to explore and experiment with new concepts and make our lives easier," says Genyo Takeda, Senior Managing Director/General Manager of Integrated Research & Development Division, Nintendo Co., Ltd. "This revolutionary tool liberates the imaginations of game creators. We are more than happy to share this collaborative LiveMove tool with independent Wii software developers all over the world. From a cowboy's lasso to a samurai's sword or a chef's cooking utensils, we just can't wait to play the developers' new, 'unexpected' applications." LiveMove is currently available exclusively to Wii developers and priced at a mass-adoption license fee of $2,500 per seat. Tutorials and demos will be offered by AiLive. For detailed information about LiveMove, visit AiLive's website at www.AiLive.net.

press release @PGC

 

[darkblu]

a new IGN popular-style article on this tech. also a generally good wii-development read, raising good points.

 

[darkblu]

in case somebody missed it, there's a short demo reel of gestures teaching through the wiimote on the AiLive site - link

and here's a mirror on gametrailers.com

looks spot on. still, i'm wondering what length & complexing gestures would be feasible with this tool.

 

[rabidrabbit]

Ow, this would be good for my dream of a gesturable avatar in a mmorpg game.
Not limited to pre-canned gestures brought up by some button presses would be a huge boon on any online multiplayer game, that would make the online games feel so much more like really playing with other personalities, instead of bots.