Of Horse Bags and Emotion Engines

[blkmage]

I'm surprised that there hasn't been much talk around here about any of this:


Remember the craziness of E3, where Sony unveiled their bulbous purple wand, Microsoft revealed Natal, Peter Molyneux revealed Milo, and Nintendo surprised us with the Vitality Sensor? Well, we get to relive those halcyon days thanks to some folks who look up patents once in a while.

First up, we have Nintendo's inflatable horse-riding peripheral, colloquially known as the Horse Bag. As it turns out, is not restricted to simulating horses:

But, wait the seat isn’t limited to horesback riding! Nintendo says their inflatable seat can be used to simulate riding other animals. The patent lists “bulls, camels, elephants, burros, dolphins, whales” and imaginary creatures such as “dragons, griffons, unicorns, giant eagles” as possible mounts. Nintendo also suggests the seat can be used for vehicles too like “hang gliders or other aircraft, a magic carpet, a motorcycle, a jet-ski, a land or sea exploration vehicles.”

Not content to be left behind in the arms race of weird controllers, Sony has a patent for a way to detect emotion for input (an "emotion engine" if you will HUR HUR HUR). We also learn that Sony's patent artist is really weird, because the guy is laughing at a game in which there is a man pulling on a machine that endlessly kicks his butt. The above picture is a Photoshop, in which the man laughs at the guy using the Nintendo Horse Bag.

So, what do you have to say after you have peered into the future of gaming?

[Bobtheduck]

Meh... We'll see. This is going to be a rush to say "What new inputs can we patent" and all 3 are going to forget other types of games and other aspects of gaming... Exactly what worried me about the Wii winning this gen...

[shade of dae]

Not content to be left behind in the arms race of weird controllers, Sony has a patent for a way to detect emotion for input (an "emotion engine" if you will HUR HUR HUR). We also learn that Sony's patent artist is really weird, because the guy is laughing at a game in which there is a man pulling on a machine that endlessly kicks his butt. The above picture is a Photoshop, in which the man laughs at the guy using the Nintendo Horse Bag.

So, what do you have to say after you have peered into the future of gaming?

This could be useful for the dozens of main characters in shoujo manga who spend dozens of pages debating what they feel towards the male(s) in their life. "Do I love him? Do I like him? Do I think of him as just a friend?" All they have to do is turn to their PS3, and voila! Problem is solved and it spares the reader good 10 volumes of her indecision.
As far as real world application goes, I am with the writer of the article who suggests that it be used on a RPG. It coud affect the storyline in interesting ways.

For the new Nintendo controller, I'm not too terribly impressed. Perhaps they could do something cool with it, but I can't imagine spending the large amounts of money I am sure it will cost so I can ride a simulated unicorn.

[CrimsonRyu17]

This could be useful for the dozens of main characters in shoujo manga who spend dozens of pages debating what they feel towards the male(s) in their life. "Do I love him? Do I like him? Do I think of him as just a friend?" All they have to do is turn to their PS3, and voila! Problem is solved and it spares the reader good 10 volumes of her indecision.

Won't Shoujo manga cease to exist after that though?

[Whitefang]

I never laugh out loud while playing video games, nor do I make many other verbal sounds. Perhaps if it had a camera and facial recognition technology, it would be able to see me lick my lips, or take a drink, or perhaps my usual squinted expression would translate to a stoic hero who is treated poorly and is always kicked out of shops...

As for the horse bag? Well, I'd rather go outside. And ride a horse. The one that's outside in my barn. The one that I never ride...

[Zyborg22]

I don't see either of these being used for much. Even with all of the things that people can ride, the horse bag seems rather limited in scope. The "emotion engine", while a cool idea, seems a lot like all of those camera peripherals that also aren't used for much. I could be wrong, though.

Even if the horse bag is used more often than I think it will, the games that use it will probably also have other methods of control (such as the normal Wii Remote & Nunchuk or the Wii Wheel).

[CrimsonRyu17]

As for the horse bag? Well, I'd rather go outside. And ride a horse. The one that's outside in my barn. The one that I never ride...

B| ... *envy.*

[Fish and Chips]

In the night someone will have stolen Whitefang's horses and replaced them with Wii Horse Peripherals.

[Bobtheduck]

I just noticed this patent shows him watching a TV show, not playing PS3... The PS3 is only used to watch the laughing, and I guess... report it for statistical purposes?

Those purposes would be something like "What makes PS3 owners who run their PS3s while watching TV laugh?"

Or something...

Unless Nielsen is going to start using PS3s for their rating services.