Over the last several weeks, the biggest Kinect news to hit the Web hasn't been the official Xbox 360 games from Microsoft, but rather the ingenious third-party hacks that have emerged. Now, Sony is trying to cash in on that ingenuity by opening up its motion-controlled Move platform for developers who have interests beyond video games.
The new initiative is called Move.Me, a new development tool "that provides academics and hobbyists access to PlayStation Move%26rsquo;s technology," wrote Sony senior engineer John McCutchan, in aPlayStation Blog post.
Developers will be able to use the Move controller and PlayStation Eye with a PC, opening up the possibilities for "new, revolutionary applications in other fields," according to McCutchan. He did not specify any examples, except to say there might be healthcare applications involved.
Some of the unique Kinect applications that have come outside the realm of Xbox include a "smart" flying quadrocopter that can stop in mid-flight if it senses an obstacle in front of it, and video walls that react to motion and voice commands. Of course, these kinds of applications aren't possible with the Move because there is no voice recognition and it requires a controller to work.
Also, Move.Me still requires a PS3, because everything is powered from the firmware there. What the new application allows is for developers to send the data to a PC.
It sounds limited, probably not as open as the Kinect platform. Nevertheless, says McCutchan, "We hope it will be used to discover new ways of connecting individuals with information, and maybe even discovering a new healthcare application or two. We know that some of you out there are aspiring software developers yourselves and we%26rsquo;re eager to see what kinds of applications Move.Move inspires."
Mar 2, 2011
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