Nintendo Patents a 3D Eye Tracking Device

[Lady Lilith]

http://www.gameranx.com/updates/id/22968/article/nintendo-patents-a-3d-eye-tracking-device/

Both Oculus Rift and Sony's Project Morpheus aim to change gaming by presenting players a full 360-degree virtual reality environment. And what about Nintendo? In an interviewwith Time last month, Shigeru Miyamoto expressed that such VR implementations are not ideal for Nintendo, but that that doesn't mean the company isn't interested in experimenting with tech to enhance player immersion. Sure enough, it seems as though Nintendo filed a patent on March 5, 2014, for a device that enables eye tracking on standard 2D displays.

According to the patent, you would wear glasses, a headband, or some other wearable mount while a camera by the TV followed your movements (or the camera would be on your head and some other marker would be placed on the TV). As you move around, the camera determines your position and changes the view on the TV as though the environment inside were in 3D space. Anyone who remembers Johnny Lee's head tracking experiment using the Wii Remote should be familiar with this concept. Actually, Nintendo released as DSi Ware game in 2010 called Looksley's Line Up that uses the DSi (or 3DS) camera to create the effect.

The patent goes a step beyond the visual to stimulate other senses. For instance, the device could produce aromas or blow air to simulate wind or temperature changes. There could also be an additional device that measures your heart rate or mental state -- the return of the Wii Vitality Sensor, perhaps?

Like many other patents, this one could ultimately lead to nothing at all. But the fact that Nintendo is exploring such options means that we're bound to get some kind of immersion-ehancing tech from the Kyoto giant in the future.

 

 

Didn't they already try something like this?

 

Also, could this mean Smellovision is making a comeback?