Intel wants to do hands-free consoles?

Author: Joe Martin
Published: 15th December 2007

Intel reckons the future of consoles lies in motion-sensitive cameras, but we aren't so sure...

Intel is a company with an eye on the horizon and, having been burned by the current generation of consoles as Microsoft, Nintendo and Sony all decided to use IBM chips in their consoles, Intel is hoping to grow next generation.

Intel has reportedly approached some console makers to tout its new technology and chips. Most interesting of all though is where exactly Intel sees the market growing.

"We imagine some future generation of [Nintendo's] Wii won't have hand controllers. You just set up the cameras around the room and wave your hand like you're playing tennis." Said Justin Rattner, Intel's Chief Technology Officer.

Intel reckons that the new range of chips it has developed, which are capable of around 1 trillion calculations a second, would be ideally suited to use with motion-sensing cameras.

Personally, I'm not sure that motion-sensitive cameras would be a reliable or enjoyable input as the amount of interactions detectable by the camera may be somewhat limited.

I just can't see myself playing an FPS via a motion-sensitive camera basically - but what do I know, right? If you think differently then let us know in the forums.