Sixense - pros and cons

[ShadowLawless]

Hi i'm quite a techy and im really into this new motion control stuff and i've been trying to figure out the specific pros and cons of this magnetic field tracking.

ok so i've figured to get this best conversation (opinions) and angle on this i need to compare it to its closest competitor using "line of sight" motion, accelerometers, gyros etc, and no I dont want to start any sort console war but from what i know this seems to be the playstation move, not only is it also boasting precision like sixense it also uses the most obvious "line of sight" type device a camera.

ok so let me start with playstation move control scheme.

this is essentially a playstation controller which has exchanged its analogue stick for 1:1 motion control. it still has all buttons including L2 and L1 which are now "Trigger" and "Move" button. Sixense uses from what i can tell a similar system but instead includes an analogue as well as 1:1 motion control.

Sony believe that combining motion control with navigational analogue control (e.g. swing arm left to block while moving analogue right to roll to the right) may have been confusing for some and somewhat un-intuitive and created a navigational controller. this uses the standard left side of a DS3 controller as a base. It has all the buttons you would expect to see on a pc/ps3/xbox controller e.g. shoulder buttons directional pad and analogue as well an accept button (enter/X/A) and a decline button (Esc/B/O). this to me makes logical sense as most games fit this sort of configuration, the left hand is used to either strafe/move you character about on screen and control extra functions like weapon selecting or command selecting, where as the right hand is used for actions and turning your character ( which would be the playstation motion controller).

Although this makes "logical" sense in terms of fitting existing games, do think this configuration could take away from a motion control experience from by well, decreasing the amount of motion control you use by only allowing either full motion control with two hands but a less traditional navigational control (since it doesn't have an analogue but it could be possible to use the action buttons + motion control for navigation) or a one handed motion control experience with a very traditional navigation scheme using and an analogue and D-pad.

What do you guys think?

Secondly is actual tracking method and probably the more important category.

The playstation move motion tracking system uses a camera (playstation eye) to detect the actual position of the controller giving it XY and Z values based on where it can actually see it. to better explain this and differentiate it from sixense, if you can imagine the playstation eye's field of vision is a grid, when the controller is in its top left field of vision next to the user, the playstation will assign those exact co-ordinates. it can also incorporate head tracking into the control scheme to tell exactly where the user is. This means it can accurately map the controller to a users hand, and for games like table tennis it would make it very easy for a user to imagine a table in front of their tv and actually swing towards where the ball is in virtual space. (calibrating the game so the table end is at users waist height just in-front of his controllers actual position giving by the webcam. this is how you calibrate in sports champions table tennis)
Now this all good and gravy until someone walks in front of the screen interrupting play (just to clear this up, it does not need re-calibrating as all it needs is to see the controller again, original calibration was to set distance to table and table height, also the controller uses earths magnetic field to keep accelerometers and gyros in check ensuring controller is always putting out the right angle).

But just to be fair, the same could be said if you wasn't using a motion controller. If you was using a control pad and someone walked in-front of your television it would still disrupt your gameplay.

other possible downsides of this are distance or actually obstructing the controller yourself while playing, e.g. could u play lying down with your controller underneath your warm blanket :) ) or bad lighting could restrict head tracking.

Sixense uses a magnetic field as a reference point and can tell where the controller is depending on its position relative to that magnetic field. The system gives the controller similar XYZ values but all relevant to where the magnetic field is. this actually turns out to be almost the same as using a camera in the way that if your move the camera or magnetic field closer the console or pc will think you the user have moved closer, the only real difference is maybe how it is calibrated. where an eye simply "looks" at where you are and places the controller exactly in your hand, where the sixense system thinks the controller is may not be actually where your holding it or where you are. is this a problem? maybe all depends on how the developer uses it but head tracking is definitely a plus for the move. the obvious positives for the sixense controller are the fact it does not have to be in the line of site as the magnetic field, this means (I'm guessing) no adjusting your camera/detecting device when you want to move around the room or play from a different angle. a downside to sixense though is that it does ot offer the augmented reality which can be offered by move control system another possible downsides could be distance

so to summarize, move system sees exactly where the "user" is in real space to deliver immersive motion control, where as sixense can tell exactly where motion controller is in virtual space. the move suffers from the fact that it can be obstructed and decent lighting is needed for head tracking and body tracking, where as sixense suffers from not having augmented reality possibilities.

what do you guys reckon its a bit of a brain burner ??

[Mechadendrites]

I'm not sure how magnetic fields work exactly, but it seems the move could have a big disadvantage with its reliance on the camera, particularly for moving the controller forwards and backwards. It seems to work out how far away you are from the camera just from the size of the glowing lollipop. That would mean unless you're really close to the screen, a single step or unit of movement would be a lot bigger (and less accurate) in the forward or backward axis than it would be in any other, because the camera would have a lot less change in pixels to observe. The camera's also a bigger restriction on comfort than you might imagine- what if I want to plug the move into my computer and use it as a mouse, for example? It's kind of hard to find an appropriate place to put the camera. Even in the living room there'd be an optimum distance at which you can use the largest portion of the camera's field of view and thus the highest degree of accuracy, which has a good chance of not being where you want to slouch.
Compared to this, my only real concern with the sixense (apart from the name) is interference and the cost of all those magnetometers.

[ShadowLawless]

i actually have a playstation move now, and i've noticed that when using the control as a pointer it doesnt actually use the eye. the eye is used mainly for augmented reality and realistic 3d movements. as in large swings or moving forward to hit a ball with your racket.

I'm sure you could probably play some games just using pointer like motions (wrist movements) sitting quite close to your screen, but i'm pretty sure others like gladiator dual or table tennis would require you to stand up and fair distance from your screen if you want a realistic feel (being able to step forwards, backwards and side to side) without taking out your monitor.

but i guess that another "down to the programmer" things. but i do agree that having to have to position your camera correctly can be somewhat annoying if you dont have the space. as for the pixels thing, im not sure how it works but while playing i cant notice any difference in its ability to tell exactly where the controller is when moving forward and back, when using the augmented reality the virtual item on screen always sits perfectly in my hand whether i'm close or far way, maybe it uses really good average type programing where even if it is a pixel or few out it can still work out its distance out, or maybe they have tested it all all distances and actually have some code that takes into account that when its close pixels make a difference, who knows?

I was also wondering about the magnetic field the sixense creates. would it be powerful enough to damage phones or bank cards? we use semi powerful magnets at work and usually (unless your vry lucky) if your phone or bank card gets close or and for long periods enough it messes them up.

[Dan]

The magnetic field of the Hydra is less than that of the Earth's magnetic field, or that generated by a hair dryer and poses no risk to your electrical equipment.