Interactive Gaming, HDMI Laptops on Display at DigitalLife

At this year's DigitalLife, we saw a mix of interactive gaming accessories, 3-D products and new computer technologies.

DigitalLife, held at the Jacob Javitts Convention Center every September in New York, is always one of my favorite shows.

It mixes together gaming-specific hardware and software with an increasing amount of cool new consumer electronics products.

Gaming Accessories Galore

This year's show had an unusually higher number of gaming controllers, peripherals and accessories, which can be partly explained by the popularity of Guitar Hero and other games that utilize non-standard controllers.

Activision, the publisher of the Guitar Hero series, has partnered with Gibson guitar on wireless models for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Wii. These aren't toy-like first generation models, but really look and feel like a real electric guitar.

Logitech showed new accessory products for the PS3, including a Wireless Precision Controller that operates at the 2.4 GHz frequency using a tiny USB dongle, a Bluetooth-enabled MediaBoard Keyboard with touchpad and mouse buttons, the Vantage Bluetooth wireless communicator and a USB microphone.

At the show, I asked Logitech's Matthew Bennion about the difficulty custom installers are having with the PS3's lack of discrete on or off IR codes. He explained that the real problem is the fact that the PS3's USB ports are not active when the unit is in standby, so even if an IR code existed it would not be able to turn the PS3 on.

There may be some hope for remotely turning on the PS3, says Bennion, because Sony's PSP can turn on the PS3 via WiFi, which means there is a serial IP code out there.

Novint Falcon Interactive Controller

Although there have been attempts to re-create the realism of driving and flying games with specific controllers, there has not been a way to truly interact with a game until now.

Enter the Novint Falcon, a new type of controller that allows for true "Haptic" feedback response from games. It "allows users to feel weight, shape, texture, dimension, dynamics, 3D motion and force effects when playing enabled games."

To use the Novint (which looks like a little robot), you grasp the removable and interchangeable controller ball at the end of the arms. It ships with a number of applications, but the baseball demonstration was the most effective. Not only do you feel the sensation of catching a ball, but you also get the feeling of a ball glancing off your virtual mitt if you miss a catch.

The sensing and feedback technologies are based on a license from Sandia Laboratories. The Falcon attaches to your gaming PC, and Novint is working a console version.

Eye of Judgment Utilizes PS3 Eye Toy

By far the coolest interface device was the Eye of Judgment package from Hasbro and Wizards of the Coast for the PS3. This game pack includes the new Sony PS3 Eye Toy camera and the Eye of Judgment game mat, camera holder, and playing cards.

The Sony Eye Toy camera is set on a special stand that holds the camera so that it can see the playing field map. The game provides an alignment pattern so the user can align and calibrate the camera.

Once set up, the screen shows the playing field, which resembles a chess board, and players place specially-encoded playing cards down on the grid squares. The PS3's Eye Toy camera recognizes the character on the card and brings it to life on the screen.

As the next player places down their card, it comes to life and the two characters have a battle on screen.

The game was developed by Sony SCEI in Japan, and Hasbro and Wizards of the Coast adapted it for the U.S. market. One unique feature allows a character card to be placed down on the mat and the player can interact with the character on the screen while seeing their hand on the screen at the same time. (Click here to see the video of this feature.)

This is a very interesting first application that takes advantage of the high-resolution and 120Hz response time capability of the new PS3 Eye camera. It will be exciting to see what future applications this camera allows, especially in the area of exercise/sports sensing games.