If you thought Microsoft’s Natal and Sony’s motion-sensing camera were completely new to the field, you might want to take another look, as Virtual Air Guitar Company Ltd, announced today that it will be exhibiting at the Gadget Show Live in Birmingham, England and showing its patented FreeMotion technology that replaces the traditional game controller for consoles and PC.
Virtual Air Guitar Company designs and develops camera games where the player literally gets to be the hero of the game, playing not as an avatar but instead appearing in-game as himself, boosted with new skills and capabilities. Using the camera, FreeMotion tracks the player’s full-body image and allows them to perform unrestricted natural movements that are reflected in-game. The FreeMotion technology will be demoed at Gadget Show as part of the company’s latest game-in-development project, Kung Fu Live, where the player is literally immersed into the game as its lead character.
Having worked on camera games for nearly a decade, the core Virtual Air Guitar team members have acquired a wealth of experience in applying computer vision technology to games.
“Technology should be the enabler in designing exciting new games, not a gimmick or end in itself,” says Teemu Maki-Patola, CEO of Virtual Air Guitar Company Ltd. “The design rules for camera games do not comply with industry traditions. We’re working to redefine the genre by taking a completely fresh approach, making the experience more in-depth and personalized to each player.”
Virtual Air Guitar Company sees an opportunity to attract new gamers with the intuitive and interactive user interfaces inherent in their camera games. With no need to memorize complicated button sequences the threshold to experimenting is lowered significantly. Games played in a social setting amongst family and friends bridge the gap between casual gamers and the hard-core audience.