Logo

Now we are big fans of gaming and while futuristic hand  gloves aren't going to hit us anytime soon,motion tracking is anice thing to have in games-You can move your character around by using your hands for example.Project Natal seemsto be shaping up well,but it still isn't here.With just web camera,you can now have a motion tracking device for free.Use software called Free Track (HTTP://www.free-track.net) and you can soon control your game views using your head.The plot is simple-the web camera detects a set number of points on your head.one of the things that greatly improve the tracking performance is use of LEDs.These are things you can easily buy off the market and build yourself.A few PDFs are available with guides on how to build your own head gear.

The "free" future of gaming is fast approaching. I don't mean free, as it relates to your wallet, but free as it relates to what goes into the game system and what goes in your hands. This means more downloadable games, and less discs, cartridges, and controllers. Will this future also be make gaming get at least a little closer to monetarily free? In the short term, no. In the long-term, possibly.

From a disc/cartridge-free perspective, Sony is currently the farthest along among the three major console developers. Their recently released "PSP Go" system does not take UMDs that the prior versions of the hand-held system ran games off of. Instead games can only be purchased via an online store and then downloaded onto the system. The PSP Go comes with built-in memory of 16 GB and can have more memory if an additional memory stick is purchased. Like any "first" in technology, the PSP Go is not actually the future of gaming. For one thing, it offers no tangible benefit over the preexisting PSP units other than being smaller.

The older PSP systems are also capable of downloading games off of the store AND can use discs.Furthermore the PSP Go is more expensive and, importantly, the PSP itself is one of the least sold consoles to begin with. It only narrowly outsells the PS2 on a monthly basis, which was released several years earlier.

For there to be success with a download-only system it must either be an entirely new console with unique games and features, or be cheaper than the alternative. Realistically, the cheaper idea is not going to work.

Microsoft has no incentive to sell a new version of the X box 360 that could only run downloadable games for less than the console they are already selling. So, as I said it won't be helping out your wallets in the near future. There has already been some success in adding downloadable games to consoles as one option though. Hits such as Braid and Geometry Wars 2 have been only available for download. As a result of games like this I would not be shocked to see at least 1 of the successors to a current platform (360, PS3, Wii, DS, or PSP) be fully disc-free from the get-go. Just don't expect it be any cheaper for it.

Next is the controller-free concept. Nintendo really made hitting the "non-gamer" market its priority. To do this they made each of their newer consoles have less traditional video game controllers. Each has buttons, but the DS also as an interactive touchscreen and the Wii uses a controller that has motion-sensing controls.

It has so far worked out beyond anyone's beliefs for them with the Wii and DS easily outselling the competition, after Nintendo's more traditional approach, the Gamecube was outsold by the Xbox and PS2.Clearly, Sony and Microsoft heard this news just like the rest of this. At an important video game trade show, E3, this year Sony showed off a motion sensor controller and Microsoft unveiled a totally hands-free way of controlling a game through a camera, complete with voice-activation.

Now camera based gaming is nothing new. Microsoft even has a "vision camera" for the Xbox 360. The Play station 2 had something similar called the Eye Toy. These have always been gimmicky pieces of hardware with limited support and usually poor functionality. With Microsoft's new camera feature codenamed "Natal," they seem to be hoping to make it more mainstream and usable. Whether this iteration of the hands-free gaming will be the one to finally take-off has yet to be seen. Certainly, it has more buzz around it than the Eye Toy or vision camera and major developers have been reported to be looking into its practicality and application in games. Regardless, it is clear that the concept of a controller-free gaming universe is one that is not dying off and I believe it is becoming evident that it will become more and more widespread as the years go by.