New Mocapsuit Motion Controller
Imagine standing in your living room, looking at an ominous rock face on your giant high-def television. Imagine being able to reach out and climb up that rock face in a world of virtual reality. Well, now that's possible with the Mocapsuit and the Vertigo motion capture game. This exciting new technology is the work of an enterprising young development team based in London. Together, they are pushing the boundaries of what video gaming is to heights never before imagined. No pun intended. Motion capture game controllers have been around for the last five years or so, but they've been limited in their capability. One of the things that's been sorely lacking is the ability to grip objects and hold them in your hand. Wii motion capture controllers, for instance, provide no means of hand gripping. Picking up an object in a Wii game simply means moving your arm into the general vicinity. But with the Mocapsuit, the portion of the controller you hold in your hand is grip sensitive. Knowing this, it's easy to visualize climbing the rocks in the Vertigo game. The Mocapsuit is an exoskeletal device that straps to the shoulders and arms and can measure all of the movements from the torso on up. In vertigo, gamers must actually grip the rock and hoist themselves up in order to scale the rock face. It's an amazing interface whose limits seem to be endless. All game controllers have their downsides, and the one thing the Mocapsuit lacks is the ability to capture movement from the waist down; although, an exoskeletal framework is being built for the lower body. Motion capture game controllers are changing the way we play video games, making them more realistic with every passing day. Where the Mocapsuit and Vertigo game go from here is anybody's guess. But we do know that if technology continues to advance at its current rate, the days of playing video games with hand-held game pads may be on their way out. And that's okay with me.