Game Input Devices, etc!

[danielwang]

I was at a mall yesterday talking to associates at Electronic Boutique Games about a few of my theoretical game products… I would like your opinion.

An input device I have been working on is a (up to) 17-dimension joystick system that captures information like a glove. I have the touch pad algorithms worked out, but I’m still trying to figure out the thumb pad. It works like this: a thin sheet of polymer material is printed with infrared readable grids and symbols and mounted to a contour. The user’s thumb contours around the sheet and a motion capture camera reads the grid.
The associate’s opinion? “Expensive, there are easier ways to do it. Not as good, but cheaper. Can it get to market?”

A possible application would be arcades. An arcade kiosk, with video motion capture and voice. Input devices that are like a cross between “Mazan: Flash of the Blade: and “Virtual On”. Each kiosk with broadband, connected to other kiosks around the globe. Roaming profiles off a global server. Continuously renewed content, like an RPG kiosk.
The associate’s opinion? “Great concept, but expensive”
How about a contract like ‘I will install this for 3 months if 50 other guys sign up’.
“That said, people are going to be spending a lot of time at these kiosks.”

How about on-demand content generation? I’m writing algorithms to analyze player input patterns and generate soundtrack scores based on the game experience. Because it has been shown that people will often reference frame their actions (such as eating) based on the speed of certain properties of music, it may be useful to have a multiple layer soundtrack generation system that actually increased tempo in certain modes.
The associate’s opinion? “Someone probably already considered this, but it’s probably very hard. In that (star wars?) game, input is more complex for walking than in battle, but walking is frankly very boring”