High-Tech Vest Lets Gamers Take a Hit 117
mytrip passed on a link to a PC World post about a unique accessory for FPS gamers. Called the 3rdSpace Gaming Vest, its goal is to translate in-game impacts into physical sensations. "Designed by a surgeon, the vest was originally created for use in the medical field to poke and prod patients in order to get a sense for what they were feeling. Since then, the vest has been adapted for the game industry, capable of delivering hits and shots exactly where you would feel them. Utilizing air pouches — four on front, four in back — the vest nudges and jabs gamers at eight different contact points."
Re:Market for this? (Score:3, Interesting)
http://www.akihabaranews.com/en/news-14983-Akihabara+News+test+Senjo+No+Kizuna%2C+the+ultimate+Mecha+Simulator+Arcade+Game..html [akihabaranews.com] has a video of it, but the guy has no clue what he's talking about nor really doing IMO.
Ever heard of a niche market? (Score:3, Interesting)
Quickly get on the phone to Ferrari, they are about to go bust, they make a niche product and Paul Hindt claims that means there is no market.
Believe it or not everything has to be mass market to be a success. In fact the only requirement for a product to be successfull is for it to sell for more then it costs to produce. IF this company can produce say a thousand devices and sell them at a profit, they have made a... can you guess it, thats right, a profit.
If they are not, well then they will join a long line of companies that failed, this includes companies with a niche product and companies with a mass-market product.
Just dive into the world of add-ons for MS FLight Simulator. Talk about a niche market, flight sims ain't all that popular, you specialize in a specific product and then produce add-ons that cost a fortune. Yet some companies have been around for ages, selling special hardware designed for ONE game.
If you want to be even more niche, try MS Train Simulator. Even less appeal then a flight simulator, and it too has companies selling special control units.
Since these companies been around for ages now, somehow they must have made that niche market work for them.
As for coding for it, considering that the most popular first person shooters can be heavily modded already, it ain't all that hard to translate impacts in the game that otherwise might be used to alter the HUD to send a message to a usb device.
Feels weird (Score:2, Interesting)
I'm not much of a shooter player, so I felt pretty confused wearing it. Whenever I got hit in the back I kept physically turning around and looking over my shoulder as if someone had tapped me on the back to say, "You suck, let someone else try" ^_-
Since I'm not used to the conventions of shooter games, it was kind of helpful in telling me when I was being attacked by an off-screen enemy, and (roughly) which way I should turn to look for this thing. Takes a lot of getting used-to to associate the physical sensations with your game presence, though, instead of your actual one.