What the hell is this guy talking about?

irstupid said: darklich13 said: Words Of Wisdom said: Huh. It's painted white... like the wiimote. It has a d-pad up at the top... like the wiimote. It has a matching white wrist strap... like the wiimote. It has 4 lights presumably to show battery life... like the wiimote. Who's copying who I wonder. ^_~   I would say that the 4 lights are to show which player you are, 1 through 4, just like the 360 controllers.   yea but words of wisdom was wrong as well. On the Wiimote the four lights are to show which player you are as well. It doesn't mean battery life.

 

 

When you turn the controller on, the lights shows battery life.

After that the lights shoe wich controller you are.

What kind of name is darwin?
Isn't Darwins theory evolution?

The remote is more de-evolution.

I'm still curious as to how the Darwin figures out its position in space with no external point of reference. I'm fairly sure they've got to violate several major laws of physics in order to do that.

Doesn't look like it has a spot to attache a nunchuk type adapter which would make this thing pretty limited.

RolStoppable said: kitler53 said: darklich13 said: Words Of Wisdom said: Huh. It's painted white... like the wiimote. It has a d-pad up at the top... like the wiimote. It has a matching white wrist strap... like the wiimote. It has 4 lights presumably to show battery life... like the wiimote. Who's copying who I wonder. ^_~ I would say that the 4 lights are to show which player you are, 1 through 4, just like the 360 controllers. those 4 lights on the wiimote are to show you what player you are too actually.  to see battery life hit the menu button and the battery life will be shown in on screen. The best way to see the battery life is to play Metroid Prime 3: Corruption.

Ah yes, you are correct.  Thanks for pointing it out.  ^_^

 

http://www.indusbusinessjournal.com/ME2/dirmod.asp?sid=&nm=&type=Publishing&mod=Publications%3A%3AArticle&mid=8F3A7027421841978F18BE895F87F791&tier=4&id=2C37CF20A8B944468B86E405C9700750

 

Motus wireless controller set to follow Wii’s success

‘Darwin’ device nears end of long road to game use


BY CHRIS NELSON

	Satayan Mahajan, founder and chairman of Motus Corp., first came up with the idea for a motion-based wireless video game controller while a student at MIT. The original prototype was fashioned after the fictional Star Wars “lightsaber.” The Cambridge, Mass.-based company is eyeing a market charged by the Wii. Photo courtesy of Motus Corp.

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – American educator Thomas H. Palmer coined the famous proverb “If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again …” more than a century-and-a-half ago to encourage schoolchildren to do their homework. But he might as well have been writing about the entrepreneurial efforts of Satayan Mahajan, whose Boston-area technology company, Motus Corp., is preparing to unveil a new, motion-based wireless video game controller for use on all of the major gaming consoles – seven years after the video game industry told him the concept would never work.

In 2001, Mahajan, who graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with a degree in materials engineering and a focus on semiconductors, and several of his MIT colleagues developed a new type of motion-based video game controller. The team built a prototype of the device from a “lightsaber” (the fictional weapon that plays a key role in the movies, games and novels that comprise the Star Wars universe) and presented it to a handful of video game publishers. The response wasn’t exactly what Mahajan and his colleagues were looking for.

“We started out by creating a prototype of a lightsaber,” Mahajan, Motus’ founder and current chairman, said. “We went to KB Toys, scooped a bunch of them up and turned them into this prototype. We knew we were on to something – I thought, ‘Oh my God, nirvana!’ – but when we presented our idea to these people, they said, ‘No one is going to get off the couch to play video games.’”

Rather than let this setback derail his vision, Mahajan waited until the video game market was ready for his invention, which he christened “Darwin.” That happened in late 2007, when Kyoto, Japan-based Nintendo Co. Ltd. introduced its Wii video game console to the market. The Wii system, which features the wireless, motion-based Wiimote controller, was an immediate hit: it sold more than 1 million units last December, according to the NPD Group Inc., a Port Washington, N.Y.-based market-research firm.

The success of the Wii convinced Mahajan – and the very companies that once rejected the Darwin as a fantasy – that the market was ready for it. “There was a huge market validation with the Wii that, yes, people will get of their couches to play video games, and yes, they are involved in motion,” Mahajan said. “So, about a year ago, a large video game publisher came to us and said, ‘We have a problem: We’re building [motion-based] games for the Wii, however, the games we’re developing for the Wii don’t always play as well on other consoles. So we need a motion-based controller for the other consoles – we need Motus to build this for us.’ We told them, ‘OK, we’ll build a video game controller for you based on our prototype.”

The Cambridge-based company hopes to introduce the Darwin to consumers sometime by the end of 2008. The controller, which is shaped like a Samurai sword but is larger than the Wiimote, will be compatible with existing video games, personal computers and popular gaming consoles like Microsoft Corp.’s Xbox 360 and Sony Computer Entertainment Inc.’s PlayStation 3. It is expected to retail in the range of $80 to $100 – about $40 to $50 more than the Wiimote.

Mahajan said the Darwin’s unique design should appeal to both casual and serious gamers, and that the controller features a sturdier construction than the Wiimote.

“The Darwin’s shape was created by our head of design, who is a martial artist. He was studying sword forms when we were approached by the video game publisher to make this controller for them,” Mahajan said. “He produced a design that not only looks attractive, but it can also take heavier use than the Wii, which looks like a remote control.

“The Wiimote is a nice device, but if you want something that’s suitable for heavy action, then you need a different design,” Mahajan added. At the same time, you want it to appeal to casual and serious gamers alike. That’s what the Darwin does.”

According to Mahajan, the Darwin provides the most realistic playing experience of any wireless, motion-based controller on the market – better than even the Wiimote. “The Wii really is a good system, but the Darwin is better,” he said. “We’ve been focusing on our sports base and in the  medical area, which allows us to understand the minute details involved in human motion.”

Indeed, after the Darwin prototype failed to generate enthusiasm among the video game publishers that Mahajan pitched it to back in 2001, he steered Motus in a different direction to help pay the bills. The company, which he co-founded in 2000 and now employs about 45 people, developed the iClub, a specialized piece of equipment designed to help hardcore golfers improve their swings by sensing and analyzing minute details of the motion. It has been on the market for two years and has drawn rave reviews from golf publications like Golf Digest.

In January 2007, Motus announced a new version of the iClub Body Motion System, which enables the golfer to control his or her swing motion consistently. The updated Body Motion System offers a new, customizable audio-visual interface that provides immediate feedback to the golfer the swing motion. The golfer can set swing parameter targets such as hip rotation or shoulder rotation, and determine immediately whether they are reaching their targets. The golfer can also work on one aspect of their swing, or target several parameters to be monitored at the same time.

Motus has also forayed into developing motion sensors for physical therapy uses and other medical applications. This, along with the success of the iClub, prompted the company to divide its medical, golf and video game products into three divisions: Motus Medical, iClub and Motus Games. “That was an easy decision,” Mahajan said. “Dividing the company into three divisions made it easier for us to focus on what we do.”

 The Motus Darwin differs from the Wiimote in how it functions. Whereas the Wiimote calculates its position with an infrared sensor, the Darwin uses gyroscopes and accelerometers to track its position with respect to the Earth itself. It orients itself to the magnetic north and then determines the position that it is pointing.

Motus isn’t the first company to develop a motion-based video game controller to compete with the Wii; Sony Computer Entertainment offered the Sixaxis controller for sale as an accessory to the PlayStation 3 when it introduced the system to the U.S. market in November 2006. But the Sixaxis, which takes its name from the words “six” and “axis,” for the directional movements, didn’t last long – Sony announced in early April that it was discontinuing it.

*************************************************************************

They aren't new to the motion controller scene.

http://www.gamespot.com/hardware/blogs/hardware-insider/909185655/26562803/motus-ceo-talks-darwin-motion-control.html?page=3

The success of the Wii has brought a lot of attention to motion-based game controls. Sony and Microsoft are undoubtedly working on their own motion-control systems right at this moment, but Motus, a company started by a team of MIT grads out in Cambridge, Massachusetts, has already demonstrated a new controller that has the potential to bring motion control to any gaming platform.

The engineers at Motus were able to develop its Darwin controller relatively quickly because they spent years learning about motion-sensing technology while developing their first product, the iClub, a hardware and software package designed for golf instruction. The Darwin controller shares the familiar wandlike shape of the vanilla Wii Remote, but has more internal sensors that promise superior performance.

We had a chance to speak with Motus CEO Satayan Mahajan to find out more about the Darwin controller and the company's plans to bring it to market.

GameSpot: What exactly is the Darwin?

Satayan Mahajan: The Darwin controller is basically a motion-based controller that is competitive to the Wii, designed for the platforms other than the Wii--Xbox, PlayStation, and PC.

GS: What kind of hardware does the controller feature? Accelerometers, gyroscopes?

SM: It's both accelerometers and gyroscopes, and magnetometers. All three of those combined in very clever ways give us what we believe are better capabilities than the Wiimote.

GS: Nintendo recently announced the Wii MotionPlus accessory, which reportedly has three internal gyroscopes. Will the new add-on bring the Wii Remote closer to the Darwin?

SM: I think it should be a lot closer to the Darwin. It's still missing the magnetometers, so it's still a system that needs that IR strip to figure out where it is, whereas the Darwin is completely self-contained. If I'm not mistaken, there were a number of postings and blogs, and we've been hearing through our friends and family, so to speak, that the Wii MotionPlus was a response to the Darwin.

When a few people told us that, we thought, "How realistic is that? Here we are, this little company with 15 to 20 guys in Cambridge, Massachusetts." Oddly enough, blogs and little postings started popping up everywhere, and we thought, "Well, maybe there's some truth to it." Though it doesn't really affect us.

GS: We already know about accelerometers and gyroscopes, but what's a magnetometer?

SM: A magnetometer decides on its orientation and tells you its position relative to the Earth's magnetic field.

GS: How sensitive is it? Can it sense the movement of an inch?

SM: Sure. Yeah, it's very precise.

GS: How's the latency for the Darwin? On the Wii, there's a small but noticeable delay between moving the Wii Remote and seeing the onscreen response.

SM: Gamers that have been playing with [the Darwin] have had no visible latency. We have minimal latency because we come from a very different space where we were originally a sports product and technology company. In that space, where you're doing real-time athletic measurements, you really can't have any latency.

If you look at Motus' company, we were born out of this very high-end, scientific tool, and we brought it down the slope to gaming where the application isn't as, I don't want to say brutal, but I'm probably going to find out that it is, but just not as tough. At the high end you're taking tour athletes in golf and other sports and you really have to worry about their minute concerns, and it's a little less so in games, let's just say that.

GS: Would you say that the Darwin hardware would be less powerful or precise than your golf peripheral?

SM: No, believe it or not, it's the exact same stuff--it's very similar to what we've done in our golf technology applications. We've added buttons and created a new set of software, but it's based on similar technology.

GS: You must have a high polling rate on the controller to be able to accurately detect a golf swing.

SM: That's correct, the resolution is exceptionally high. Everything occurs in a second and a half.

GS: Could you bring that over to the consoles?

SM: It would be overkill for consoles, but, yes, you could. I don't know if people would want that granular level of data, but it's available to them if they want it.

GS: But wouldn't it be nice to play a game of, say, Top Spin tennis where the game can actually detect your grip and model your swing perfectly?

SM: I think so. One of the nice things that we like about the Wii is that it's really paved the way for us to do this. We started in this space years ago, back in 2000-2001. We thought of a game controller, of a Star Wars lightsaber, but people didn't believe in it. Wii has done a fantastic job for us. Thirty million Wiis later and they've created a market, and now you're seeing some real response to what we're doing.

GS: One of the biggest challenges for any third-party peripheral manufacturer is generating software support. How do you guys plan on getting games to support the Darwin?

SM: Believe it or not, when we came into this space, it wasn't Satayan and his group of guys saying, "Hey, guys. The Wii has done really well. Let's start making game controllers." It was actually a phone call that we got from a publisher. They needed to convert their successful Wii titles over to other platforms, and they felt that the only way to do that was through motion. Almost a year ago to the day, they came to us and asked, "Can you build this for us?" And so, we will be launching a few titles with them over the next few years.

GS: Will you be announcing this partnership soon?

SM: I hope so. Everyone's chomping at the bit, and I feel really bad when I get these phone calls where I can't say anything. Obviously, everyone asks, "Are you working with Microsoft, are you working with Sony, are you working with this company, are you working with that company?" And I'm like, guys, I can't tell you because if I was working with them I'd be under a nondisclosure agreement. You know, we're just really happy to be in this space, and we're honored that people in the gaming industry would ask us to join and create something that I think everyone is going to be happy about.

GS: Many of the people who have played with the Wii have likely noticed that the controller tracking could stand to be crisper and more accurate. The Wii Remote was a good start, but it seems as though we'll need a more powerful controller to get the motion-control games we want to play.

SM: I'm honored that you feel that way. Everyone we talk to expects us to bash the Wii, and all I can say are good things about them. I think they've done so many wonderful things on so many wonderful levels. There are kids, American kids like myself, that now have a way to not be fat anymore, and that's fantastic. It's fantastic that you can get kids off the couch and get them moving. I think they've done a wonderful job. We're just ready to take it to the next level.

GS: You're not ready to talk about software partnerships yet, but can you talk about availability and pricing?

SM: We think that the target price will be between $79 and $100, and that will range a little based on what it's bundled with, and our launch goal will be this spring--again, it's going to be partner-dependent, where they see their games coming out, that sort of thing, but that's our goal here at Motus.

GS: Thanks, Satayan!

Mahajan said the Darwin’s unique design should appeal to both casual and serious gamers, and that the controller features a sturdier construction than the Wiimote.

thats a scary thought considering the wiimote is already built like a tank and can travel thru wals and still work fine

I'm still not getting the use of the magnetometers. You can tell the thing's orientation through those, but not its position, and certainly not its position relative to anything that would be useful for gaming (like, say, the screen).