Why hasn't Nintendo hired this guy?

For my review I have chosen the excellent work of this man here:


This is Johnny Chung Lee. He is a graduate PhD student in the Human-Computer Interaction Institute at Carnegie Mellon University. Yes, this man here is a genius.

Why?

Because he has given a swift kick to the ass of innovation in gaming. Specifically the Nintendo Wii gaming console. Aside from using the Wiimote to show how human fingers can be tracked (ala Minority Report) and developing an application that allows for multi-point interactive whiteboards with the Wiimote; he has also developed a head tracking method for desktop virtual reality displays.

It is this virtual reality display that has every gamer including myself salivating at the prospect.

A normal display is like a picture frame, that is, images on a screen will be flat and unresponsive to where a player is in relation to the screen. The image only moves when the player manipulates some form of controls.

A virtual reality display is a essentially a window into another virtual world and as such a person can see different things depending on where they are in relation to the window they are looking through.

Using the infra red camera of the Wiimote, Johnny Lee has developed a virtual reality platform in which people can now see a virtual 3D space inside their TV. This is huge for gaming as the possibilities are endless now that players can see beneath, between and beyond their screen. Imagine a First Person Shooter where you yourself have to move around your living room to hide behind cover and look around corners.

The possibilities are not limited to gaming however, it opens up a new realm of ideas for multimedia and 3D based applications. The only drawback at this time is the infra red head tracking can only be used by one person at a time, the perspective shift is lost if you are not the one being tracked. Still, it makes you think why haven't Nintendo hired this man, or at least erected a golden statue in his honour.



The future looks fun with technology like this being developed. Thanks Johnny Lee.

Review by Jarrad Webber 41209141 for IENV3000. University of Queensland 2008.