Motion control gaming took a turn for the amusingly complex at CES 2013 thanks to Intellect Motion's suite of motion sensing technology SMotion, comprised of a gun controller, LED sensor belt and — for the adventurous — a wearable harness that suspends players from an array of bungee cords attached to a steel frame.
Intellect Motion's bungee harness set up, for now at least, is named the Game Cube.
While the Game Cube looks complicated, thanks to its tight-fitting harness worn around the torso and very snugly around the crotch, it's not instrumental to the SMotion experience. The SMotion sensor belt and IM Gun are what drive the motion controller, letting the player move, aim and shoot with their hands and body. The harness and heavy duty bungee cords are there simply to provide a stable environment in which to play. Their elasticity offers a sense of weightlessness, letting players make floaty, low gravity jumps.
At CES, Intellect Motion was demonstrating the SMotion technology with the Quake-like open source first-person shooter Xonotic. While I struggled to move and aim with the SMotion set up, Intellect Motion staffers showed that the tech works surprisingly well, detecting precise body and gun movement.
Intellect Motion founder Slava Solonitsyn told Polygon that the elaborate set up is intended for use in arcade, not in homes, and designed to promote active play in kids.
