Jun 4, 2007 1:56 PM

Bill Gates: One Day, Video Games Will Let You Swing a Tennis Racket

From Bill Gates’ and Steve Jobs’ joint presentation at the D5 conference, some ruminations from the Microsoft big cheese about the future of motion-sensing video games: Gates: Software is doing vision and so, you know, imagine a game machine where you’re just going to pick up the bat and swing it or the tennis racket […]

From Bill Gates' and Steve Jobs' joint presentation at the D5 conference, some ruminations from the Microsoft big cheese about the future of motion-sensing video games:

Gates: Software is doing vision and so, you know, imagine a game machine where you’re just going to pick up the bat and swing it or the tennis racket and swing it.
[the moderators say he's describing the Wii]
Gates: No, that’s not it. You can’t pick up your tennis racket. And swing it.

He went on to explain that he's talking about video recognition -- a camera that watches you swing an actual tennis racket, then translates that imagery into game data. Then again, what's the difference, really, besides the fact that one of those technologies already works and the other one doesn't?
Gates/Jobs Interview [D]

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Chris Kohler started writing for WIRED in 2002, and founded WIRED.com's Game|Life channel in 2005. He is the author of the books Power-Up and Retro Gaming Hacks, and co-hosts the Stitcher Award-winning podcast Good Job, Brain! ... Read More

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