"We need buttons", says Move's Dr Richard Marks

June 22nd, 2010, 00:20 Posted By: wraggster

Sony's Dr Richard Marks has claimed that the company evaluated technology similar to Microsoft's Kinect controller, but rejected it because of concerns over versatility and latency.

In an interview with sister website Eurogamer.net's Digital Foundry, Marks claimed that Sony evaluated many different types of "z-camera" systems following the development of the PlayStation 2's EyeToy.

"There are some experiences that it can do that are really neat," said Marks in reference to camera-only motion sensors. "But there just weren't enough experiences that made it make enough sense as a platform-level controller".

"Coming back is that sometimes we need buttons to have certain kinds of experiences," he added. "Other times we need more precision than we can get out of those cameras. We need to know exactly what you're doing with your hands, especially in the more hardcore experiences," he added.

"The tactile feedback of knowing you're making a click is such an important thing. When you make these gross movements you know that you're doing them. When you're doing subtle things it's difficult to know that the system 'knew' what you meant, or accepted your input," argued Marks.

Rumours earlier in the year suggested that Nintendo also evaluated similar camera technology to Kinect in 2007, a year after the release of the Wii.

According to still unconfirmed reports Nintendo CEO and president Satoru Iwata turned down a pitch for the same technology that eventually became Kinect, primarily over price and latency concerns.

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/article...-richard-marks

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