Assiment New Multimedia Technology

Write a 300 - 500 word article that tells the audience about a recent multimedia technology that is being or has been developed in the last six months and explain what you think the impact of this technology will have upon society.

When the Wii Came along in 2005 it was a huge leap forward in immersive gaming. It was such a leap that it was destroying the Xbox 360 & PS3 in sales. However it's not as big a leap forward as you may have thought, as most people who have used a Wii mote will have discover it's not as accurate as you would have liked, as it uses only a 3 axis sensing using an accelerometer and a gyro meter to measure motion and tilt, and likewise utilizes both infrared and Bluetooth technology to interact with a sensor bar to map its location in relation to the TV. This all together is an incredible piece of scientific equipment. But it has a large number of flaws. If your too close to the sensor bar the slightest left or right movement sends the crosshairs from one side of the screen to another with no accuracy. If your too far back or point the Wii mote too far to either side it loses track of its location. Now what would you say if I told you that a company had developed a more powerful motion control for gaming in 2001, but due to market research, the world was not deemed ready for such a leap. Instead the creators of this tool took it back to the drawing board and adapted for sporting uses and it became known as the iclub. The Company in question is MOTUS, and the iclub has become an industry standard in golfing instruction. It detects your motions in real time and relays that information back to the instructors who gets a display all your movements, weight dispersion, swing acceleration and deceleration, body rotation, swing angle, and more throughout each and every swing so they can quickly improve the users abilities much faster than just by simple watching. After the release of the Wii, MOTUS re examined the original ideas and combined them with lessons learnt from the iclub to create the new Darwin Control.

Unlike the Wii mote the Darwin is a multi platform controller and due for release for PC and other consoles in 2009 (date currently to be confirmed) as it has only just been passed on to games developers, that has a 6 axis sensor using the in house 6 (D)egrees (O)f (F)reedom technology that are the motions that represent real world movement broken into rotations and translations, 3DOF represent being able to rotate the controller and have it know what angle it's at, working with the other 3DOF the transitions which will detect its movement gives it true motion mapping in virtual space. Think of it as a GPS system that knows exactly where it is and what position it's in. Another huge advantage over all other motion control devises is that it is completely self contained and does not need external sensors like the Wii mote. The Darwin has a unique gaming feature straight out of the box as well, its best described as two Darwin's in one, it comes in 2 halves that can be used as a combined single unit (2 handed), a multi hand unit (one in each hand) or a basic 2 player unit 1 half for each player, that doesn't mean 2 player control 1 character it has a mode changer to allow for full 2player 2 character action.

The Darwin will revolutionise the idea of immersive gaming across the entire industry not just a single console. This combined with future potential of the product with revolutions many more industries as adaptations are made, already in the works is a medical training aid so that medical student can practice procedures in real space on a virtual patient with a Darwin controller and as a result improve their experience 10fold before they've ever cut some one up.

http://www.motusgames.com/index.html

Rant No.1

Well this blog's now up and running time for you all to be bored out your minds as I rant for hours about all my own work, work I like, work I don’t like, and anything else I need to have a rant at. So for my first none rant we have all been set questions that I am going to answer now;

What do you want to get out of the course, other than passing?

Well id of course likes to learn enough stuff so that when I leave I can land I high paid job so that I can fund my attempts to conquer the world. On a less dominating note I would just like to pick up all the skills I need to set me on the way to become a successful 3d artist and concept designer.

What did I get up to in my first week?

Well after arriving on the Sunday, 2 days after everyone else, and then having to wait 3hours as 2 female refugees from the great Hampden hall fire of 2008 where waiting for there safety visas to re enter the surviving rooms. That night was spent with my girlfriend and other friends that are studying at NU eating and drinking in Weatherspoons. Monday spent bored in talks, librarians can’t half drain all the life out a room. That night was spent in full British army 95 dpms out drinking all my flat mates and then going off to Trent army of which most of the time was spent queuing as all us brits love to do. Tuesday was spent in course inductions, which included making a beer can camera, mine sucked of course, I blame the Stella can, girly larger, not a real drink. Others though had some really good images, who knew that you a beer can, some card and duck tape could give you just as good a photo as a £300 camera. Up yours photography. Wednesday and im currently sat writing this blog. That’s the week so far. So until next time, do something interesting, and stop stalking me.