New Type of 3D Game Controller Harnesses MEMS Gyro

An anonymous reader writes "A new category of 3-D motion controller for gamers uses a novel type of micro-electro-mechanical system (MEMS) gyroscope to track hand motions with unparalleled accuracy. By detecting the natural motions made by remote control users — as opposed to the unnatural motions that gamers must learn to control today — the MEMS chip is sure to be incorporated in both game consoles and other consumer electronics like TV remote controls. Nintendo has already incorporated a similar MEMS gyro into its forthcoming MotionPlus controller for the Wii, but this newer type of gyroscopic motion sensor will enable even more intuitive and agile control."

Re:Gee

[wisty]

So slashdot should wait for the Tech sections in the newspaper to reprint the article, and then link to the credible news source?

Spot On

[dreamchaser]

That's exactly what it reads like. Not sure why you were modded 'Off Topic' other than the ravening horde of mods on crack.

Please don't reprint company press releases.

[YesIAmAScript]

Come on slashdot.

This company reprints this press release periodically.

Mmmm....MEMS Gyro...

[byronne]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but that's a Meat Everything Minus Sauce, right?

Re:

[x2A]

No, it's Many Enemas Mean Something... the guy who came up with the design really liked his coffee... like... more than just as a friend. Anyway, legand has it, he needed something that would hold steady.

Re:

[Midnight Thunder]

Hint, hint ... ah ok, then it is Micro Electronic Mechanical System (see: MEMS [wikipedia.org])

As long as...

[tyroney]

...a tap against a thigh hits farther than an enthusiastic swing, motion will continue to be overrated.

Re:

[fractoid]

Pretty sure that with a real accelerometer, it'll be much harder to find that tiny flick motion that will be seen by the console as a massive smash. With sufficient accuracy you just integrate the forces that the controller experiences and you can get a pretty accurate path (over short periods of time, at least, there'll still be noticable drift after a second or two).

That's why I hate the current Wii motion-control games; not because of the concept but because the controls tend to suck ass in practice.

Never heard of it

[oljanx]

But I do like greek food.

MEMS Mass production can only be good

[GordonCopestake]

I have no issues with a company moving MEMS devices into mass production. This gives us better technologies and experience when it comes to manufacturing other MEMS devices. Whilst MEMS devices are (a few?) orders of magnitude away from nanotechnology, I believe that MEMS devices will be a bridge technology to a post-scarcity society. How can that be a bad thing? The more work we do at this scale the better.

but is it steady?

[rastoboy29]

The biggest issue I've had with a lot of novel game controllers (and I've tried many of them) is that while they may technically work very well, they just aren't practical.  For example, I remember trying out a gyroscopic mouse several years ago, and it worked fine--except I had to hold the mouse up in the air...somewhere.  Not only was it very tiring, but I found that without a nice steady table to slide it around on, it was impossibly to hold *steady* in the air.  In the end it was useless.

So I wonder if they've solved that.

Re:

[baka_toroi]

The mouse you are refering to is the Logitech MX Air. You can check it out at http://www.logitech.com/index.cfm/mice_pointers/mice/devices/3443&cl=US,EN [logitech.com]

Not news

[PhasmatisApparatus]

So, they can now make a MEMS device which can detect two axes at once. How is this different from simply using two MEMS gyroscopes, one for each axis?

Technology is expensive at first, but after a few years it's cheap enough to make it's way into consumer electronics. News at 11.

Re:

[LordVader717]

That's actually an accelerometer.
This device is the first to implement multiple gyros on one chip.

Re:

[jkua]

There have been earlier dual axis gyros. In fact, Invensense released some years ago. What's new here is that this measures pitch and yaw (X/Z rotation) rather than the pitch and roll (X/Y rotation) that earlier dual axis gyros measured.

Re:

[fractoid]

What's new here is that this measures pitch and yaw (X/Z rotation) rather than the pitch and roll (X/Y rotation) that earlier dual axis gyros measured.

Wow, and they never thought to, you know, mount the chip at 90 degrees? Reminds me of the joke about changing light bulbs...

Re:

[jkua]

It's all about build cost. Mounting the chip at 90 degrees means a separate PCB, mounting connectors, and physical space. All things that drive up the cost of the device.

Re:

[LordVader717]

Not with integrated evaluation. That makes the difference of having one chip instead of at least two.
Your facts are also wrong about the axis. As another poster pointed out, it's merely a matter of mounting them differently. And the dual-axis chip in the Wii senses the x-y axes, not x-z.

http://www.invensense.com/applications/gaming/gaming.html [invensense.com]

Re:

[LordVader717]

Cost, power and size. Having two axes and signal evaluation on one chip will effectively cut the cost by about a third and drastically simplify the design.

Microcontrollers don't offer anything that can't be done with destinct components, but they what they can much better.

Yeah, but...

[Knoeki]

the question is, will this actually work better than the Wiimote, which randomly decides that you've pointed in the opposite direction for no reason?

Bad summary

[LordVader717]

This product is the one that the Wii Motion+ uses. They actually unveiled it a year ago when Nintendo showed off the device at the E3.

Re:

[Midnight Thunder]

This product is the one that the Wii Motion+ uses. They actually unveiled it a year ago when Nintendo showed off the device at the E3.

Yup. A quick search confirms this: http://wii.ign.com/articles/893/893192p1.html [ign.com]

I guess this deserves an appology....

[SIR_Taco]

So when I used to laugh at my sister for moving the NES controller around like a steering wheel in Mario Kart or moving it up in the air when jumping in Super Mario Brothers...
I guess she just had much more foresight in the future of technology that I had.
I wonder if Hallmark has an "I'm sorry I laughed at your stupid hand/eye coordination" section?

Power Glove vs. MEMS gyroscope

[kbrasee]

"I love the MEMS gyroscope... it's so bad."

Nope, not as good as a Power Glove.

This is a 2006 part

[Animats]

This 2-axis rate gyro part came out in 2006. [sun.com] Analog Devices and Motorola have had comparable parts for years, but at a higher price.

It's only 2-axis. If they could do all 3 axes on a flat chip, that would be something. Usually, you need a second chip mounted vertically to the first one to get all three axes.

An elegant design is to use four MEMS gyros oriented along the axes of a tetrahedron. With that redundancy, you can detect faults. The Segway does that, for safety reasons.

No, it's not

[jkua]

Actually, no. This is the IXZ-500/650 that they are talking about, which measures pitch and yaw (rotations about the X and Z axes). The IDG-600 which you link to is the older gyro which measures pitch and roll (rotations about the X/Z) axes.

And as far as getting 3-axes goes, pairing one of Invensense's X/Y dual axis gyros with their single axis Z gyro would give you that in a single plane.

For those saying this is the part in the MotionPlus, it's not. That's using the IDG-600 which the parent talks about.

As

Microsoft body detection

[Jope7478]

Microsoft is allegedly working on a system that detects the users body movement, no control required. If they get that to work well I'm thinking its going to trump the shit out of any controller based system. http://kotaku.com/5236404/microsofts-full-body-motion-controller-revealed [kotaku.com]