makomk's Journal: The Revolution controller and 3D desktops

Everyone's opinion of the Revolution controller seems to be either "that's really clever - Nintendo really did it this time" or "surely it'll never work?" Me - I thought "this is exactly the input device I need for that 3D desktop environment I was thinking about a while back".

Allow me to explain. A while back, I was thinking about 3D desktops/window managers - specifically, the practicality of creating one in which the windows are arranged around the user in a rough sphere at varying distances. I decided it'd be a cool idea, but interacting with it using a mouse would require way too many non-intuitive modifiers - especially if you wanted to be able to (say) tilt windows out of the way.

After considering further, I decided it would need a fully-3D six-axis input device. (Imagine if you could move and tilt windows in 3D using simple, intuitive gestures with your input device. Want to pull one closer? Push a button and pull the input device towards you. Tilt one? - just twist it in the direction you want.) Realising that there was no way I was going to be able to build one (and that I was too lazy to try), I abandoned the idea.

Then the Revolution came - with a fully-3D, six-axis controller that was almost exactly what I was looking for (except apparently better than I thought was possible). It was even wireless and one-handed. Is this the controller fully-3D window managers have been waiting for? Any comments?

hmmmm

[ImTheDarkcyde]

sphereXP with revolution controller? that'd be kinda neat but i'd much rather have something like they had in minority report

Wait 20 years

[tepples]

There probably won't be a PC-compatible version of the Revolution controller for 20 years, given that the device is probably thoroughly patented.

Re:Wait 20 years

[makomk]

There probably won't be a PC-compatible version of the Revolution controller for 20 years, given that the device is probably thoroughly patented.

Yeah, I know :-(

I wonder how hard it'd be to hack together some sort of PC interface for the controller once it comes out? Probably very, unfortunately.

Re:6 Axis?

[makomk]

You may be right, but everyone seems to refer to this sort of controller as 6-axis (as opposed to a 3-axis controller/3D joystick, which is a normal joystick with a "twist" axis added). I think controller manufacturers might use a different definition of "axis" to the rest of the world.