GameKeyboard Promises To Revolutionize Game Biz
We get our fair share of 'interesting' people calling in to the Gamasutra/Game Developer offices, mainly because we have our phone numbers listed in public. And the latest of these would be the inventor who's started GameKeyboard.com, and is looking to license his patented (or patent pending, not quite sure) use of directional keys to: "Play any PC Video Game or Control any Object in 3 Dimensions using only 4 keys on the Game Keyboard."
You may be a greater man than I if you fully understand how this differs from the controls used in normal games, so let's extract a random part of his rather text-worthy (Brandon says it looks like today's Penny Arcade cartoon) explanation: "Activating the cursor up [▲] key followed by the cursor down [▼] key accelerates forward, followed by the cursor left [◄] key accelerates forward and leftward, and deactivating the cursor left [◄] key continues forward acceleration."
And here's one of his earlier patents, for those interested in having their brains warped a little bit more. It's for, uhm: "Multiple methods of using only two sensors to control the state of an object in a one dimensional environment, a two dimensional environment or a three dimensional environment. A method of using only two sensors to control the state of an object in a secondary mode and edit data in a third mode. A method of using only two sensors to edit changes. A method of using only two sensors to control the state of an object in graphic arts programs. A method of using only two sensors to control the state of an object in two states, three states, four states, eight states, ten states or fourteen states. A method of using only two sensors to increase or decrease control of an object." C'mon, someone, tell me what this all means!
Comments
The patent turns up in a patent search, and is actually issued not just pending.
It makes me wonder, though... perhaps this amazingly stupid patent is actually a form of protest - an attempt to bring things to light regarding our broken patent system.
That said, I'd be inclined to think that there would be better ways to go about it - most of us that are going to read about a video game related patent probably already know the issue.
Or the guy's just really screwed in the head and thinks he just got himself a license to print money.
Posted by: cliff | June 11, 2007 9:54 PM
Hm, yeah. I know he has at least one patent issued, but I wondered if there was a game-specific one coming. It's always interesting to see what the patent office will grant if the language is dense enough.
Posted by: simonc | June 11, 2007 10:01 PM
Well, you can already do some of the maneuvers in games using those key combinations. Is he going to sue id or Valve?
Posted by: CaRteR | June 11, 2007 11:05 PM
This reminds me of the 4D mouse that was marketed in Europe about five years ago. It was a mouse you could move up and down and turn on its central axes. It was rubbish.
Posted by: Rossignol | June 12, 2007 12:44 AM
You're all being kind of negative on this guy. There is growing talk about accessibility in games, and this man has offered a (slighty complicated) way to control things with only two forms of input.
Posted by: DeeMer | June 12, 2007 11:29 AM