Eric McCann, a student at the University of Massachusetts Lowell Robotics Lab, has adapted an existing touch control system, called DREAM (Dynamically Resizing Ergonomic and Multi-touch) to work with Portal on Microsoft’s Surface platform. The Surface platform is an all touch-based/gesture recognition platform that is, for the most part, only used commercially (each unit costing upwards of $10,000). If you’ve seen the movie Minority Report, the touch-screen interface of Surface works in much the same way as the futuristic technology depicted in that film. The demo doesn’t work perfectly, but gives us an exciting look at how gaming could work on large-scale touch-based systems.
In the demo, found here, Portal (seen in the last half of the clip) is controlled by two virtual joysticks and a few virtual buttons placed near the joysticks. The virtual joysticks are used like their physical counterparts: the left controls movement and the right controls where the character looks. As the clip states, the video is playing at x2 playback, so the end result by itself isn’t overwhelmingly impressive. However, though the controls might be slow, they seem to at least be accurate and effective enough to make the game playable, which is still noteworthy given that this is a very hastily made creation.
The advantage of adapting the DREAM control system is that the controls adjust to the size and shape of the individual user’s hands. Any user can feel comfortable using these controls. Comfort might not be enough to pique the interest of gamers, in this case. Touch controls on a large-scale are going to be a tough sell to those accustomed to the accuracy and corporeal presence afforded by joysticks. For certain genres of games, though, I think a control scheme like this one could be a major hit.
Imagine if StarCraft II had touch-based controls similar to those in Minority Report. Instead of hotkeys, there could be a few virtual buttons that could be used to hotkey production buildings. During a battle, one hand could micro individual units while the other hand could be working on producing more units or purchasing upgrades. Mass unit selection could be done with the drag of a finger, and attack and move orders could be issued with a point. A different control scheme than DREAM would be needed, as joysticks and a fixed hand position would not mesh will with StarCraft II, but if this initial technology is already up and running, it wouldn’t come as a huge surprise if an appropriate control scheme for a real-time strategy game popped up soon.
Right now, none of this is official technology in the gaming realm. This is just a fun student project that happens to be really, really intriguing. All we can hope for now is that major players in the gaming scene will share in that intrigue, and start the discussion of how touch-based gaming can make existing genres of games like RTS not only novel, but better than their controller or mouse-and-keyboard counterparts. In time, I think the speed that will be gained by free-form movements unrestricted by physical controllers and the unique precision with which we use our own bodies will end up being more desirable to gamers than many realize right now.
