More Wiimote-style controllers headed to the PC

Posted at: 1:56pm 29th August 2008 by Mark Mackay

The closest we've ever come to being a real Jedi

Nvision 2008: Ever since the moment enterprising hackers discovered Nintendo's Wiimote made a great Half Life 2 controller, it's been only a matter of time before we saw hardware manufacturers launching their own 3D motion controllers for PC gamers. Asus recently announced the EeeStick, and at Nvision 2008 we went hands on with Sixense Entertainment's own Wii-style gadget.

Clearly inspired by the Wii Remote, the main difference between Sixense's device and its console counterpart is that it can recognise six degrees of movement. Initially seeming like an arbitrary number picked to allow a cool name, Sixense explained to Custom PC that, 'the device recognises six degrees of movement, the traditional three-dimensional axes of X, Y and Z, as well as pitch, roll and positional changes'.

As with the Wiimote, there's a base unit (floor standing in this case) which registers when the handheld controller moves and changes position. When asked what technology the base unit uses to record the positional changes, Sixense stated with a sly grin, 'we're not saying, we're just  showing a little leg at this point to whet people's appetites a little'. Despite Custom PC offering a cheque for several billions of dollars, no more information was gained on this part of the technology.

The precision of the positional input means the implications for first-person shooters are particularly exciting. The chaps from Sixense demonstrated a Time Crysis style game, where players had to shoot at targets and take cover behind walls - but instead of pressing a button to crouch, the Sixense remote meant players could duck themselves. Other demonstrations included a Light Saber with accompanying sound effects which could be used to attack a training drone - the closest we've ever come to being a fully fledged Jedi.

The technology is still in a prototype phase, so the designs shown are purely for demonstrative purposes, and could be incorporated in different-looking cases, such as guns, swords or golf clubs. At this point the company is looking for hardware developers to invest or buy the Sixense technology.