Smart ball lets you play video games intuitively

Douglas Heaven, reporter

It looks more like a magic ball than a video-game controller. But this strange new gaming interface could prove almost as empowering for anyone who finds typical controllers frustratingly unintuitive.

The wireless device, called Palla, can be held in the hand or rolled along a surface and tracks the user's movements exactly, providing a one-to-one relationship between the physical device and its virtual on-screen counterpart.

Palla's plastic shell contains an accelerometer, a gyroscope and a magnetometer that work together to sense yaw, pitch and roll movements using an algorithm originally developed for UAVs. An internal barometer also senses Palla's variations in altitude to within around 10 centimetres.

Fabio Varesano and Fabiana Vernero at the University of Turin, Italy, designed the device to be as intuitive as possible: unlike even the motion-sensitive controllers for the Nintendo Wii or Sony PS3, Palla has no buttons. Instead, pressure and proximity sensors allow a user to interact with the ball by tapping or moving their hand over its surface. It also provides feedback via pulsing LEDs and vibration. The researchers presented the device at the International Conference on Fun and Games earlier this month.

Its versatility means that it can be adapted for use as a generic computer input device, replacing a mouse, or as a remote control. But the pair have primarily developed Palla as an easy-to-use video-game controller that they hope will be easy to use by both very young children and the elderly.

For example, suppose you are playing a football video game, he says, and you need to take a penalty kick. "You are not given a controller, but simply stand in front of a projector or TV. Then, I would place in front of you a Palla device, properly camouflaged to look like a soccer ball, and then I'd ask you to take the kick." In this type of scenario, the device would be even more intuitive than hands-free input, such as Microsoft's Kinect, claims Veresano.

"I'm pretty sure you would immediately know what to do," he says. "That's because you already have the necessary skills to 'operate' a soccer ball. You'd just kick it as hard as possible and you wouldn't need any training."

Source: http://feeds.newscientist.com/c/749/f/10897/s/23ea1481/l/0L0Snewscientist0N0Cblogs0Conepercent0C20A120C0A90Csmart0Eball0Elets0Eyou0Eplay0Evideo0Bhtml0DDCMP0FOTC0Erss0Gnsref0Fonline0Enews/story01.htm

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