Joystick Emulation using the DREAM Controller on the Microsoft Surface

[wintonwintonwinton]

lol, Apple is so far behind everything. Im sick of there shiny junk they make. They will be gone soon, especially because steve is dead and is like the only brains behind anything good that apple makes. Ms is the best.

[mileshoffman]

Dumb

[BLaCkEdOutSWIPZ]

Dear Santa..............

[TheChanclasVerdes]

mY FIngertips, they feel kinda toasty...

[Oldenheimer1913]

Yeah, FPS games would be a little iffy for something like this. But an RTS, hell, that'd be sweet with this touch screen thing. Just imagine that: StarCraft 2 (or whatever, I don't even have that game) with this giant touchscreen "controller." It'd be less like a game and more like you're actually sitting in some control room somewhere looking at a camera feed of the battlefield and controlling your forces with your bare hands. That'd be badass, right there.

Hell, even iPads could do it (sorta).

[UMLrobotics]

@Oldenheimer1913 See our latest video, please. :)

[reesealdrich]

the only time to touch a computer screen should be to block it from a child's view. we have gesture recognition technology, this is all just a hype, the DREAM controller is obsolete considering i could flip my hand and flip something on a computer given the right equipment

you know this is just a gimmick, Another desperate attempt for Microsoft to be relevant

[reesealdrich]

the only time to touch a computer screen should be to block it from a child's view. we have gesture recognition technology, this is all just a hype, the DREAM controller is obsolete considering i could flip my hand and flip something on a computer given the right equipment

you know this is just a gimmick, Another desperate attempt for Microsoft to be relevant

[sharp93]

any one think interactive porn.. or is it just me

[sygnus5]

Screw FPS games, I wanna see an RTS game use multitouch controls. Be like Minority Report, but with fewer double-crosses

[meman887]

Nice concept idea, could also be used for other things besides games.

[WNxAtlas]

It looks extremley uncomfortable in the longrun.

[slipperywhenwet5]

Flight looks cool with this, and Im guessing Racing might be good too, Ill stick with KB/M for everything else.

[weinerschnitzelboy]

I'm positive Portal will be 100 times harder since there' s a level that teaches you about flinging yourself with 3 portals (1 Blue, and 2 Orange, or the other way around). Good luck doing that level.

[Slientwolf]

Oh god, that portal performance was painfully slow and award to watch, even at 2 times speed. The flight simulator was nicely fluid, but at the same time...the major thing this touch screen seems have to the ability to fine-tune and/or quickly turn with the ability a mouse or joystick could provide.

If this is going to compete in the FPS realm, they really need to work out allowing the player to quickly spin around and snap their look/aim to a particular direction. Still a cool idea though

[stormsirens2]

MUST....GET....

[TheWayToTheDawnVIII]

Portal was way to slow. There are some chambers where you just can't go that slow. Seems like an awesome concept though.

[Tyfighter152]

@TheWayToTheDawnVIII yah that's exactly what I thought too. and if you look at when they do the portal part, it says 2x real time, which means he was moving at a snails pase. turrets would shoot the fuck out of you before you could find the right controls.

[DonkeyManda432]

awesome...

[mesaoneCCK]

still looks a bit clumsy though. No matter how advanced and ergonomic the button orientation might be, for some people (myself included) it still can't beat a real controller or kb/m setup. Still pretty amazing for a proof-of-concept! My hat is off to these folks.

[imaketwinks]

@mesaoneCCK Indeed. In theory it's really awesome, but when you actually saw him play portal, that's way too slow to succeed on some of the higher levels.

[XAndroid1]

is this like the computer screen is up and down like a normal computer or it like flat on the table/floor?

[Tyfighter152]

@XAndroid1 it's supposed to be flat like a table but there are probably going to be people using them like computers so they don't have to go to the cyropracter everyday.

[holyhandgrenade999]

The flight simulator was cool, but Portal looked pretty awkward.

[swift17]

That's kinda cool but damn was that song annoying.

[2000callum]

cool can i buy this ? please give me a link so i can buy this please

[YTBYlover]

Flight sim worked great but portal looked a little slow.

[ChriseyBoy007]

Thats cool man

[kmet28]

First good concept for video game controls that I've seen for a pure touch input. Obviously it's not yet up to par with keyboard/mouse or a gamepad but It's still just a concept. Fantastic work.

If my 2 cents are worth anything: it seems like it would be a little easier if the buttons were arranged to let your hand lay a little more flat and relaxed on the screen.

Very interested to see where this is going, keep up the good work!

[thesavagedonkey]

Im sorry to everone who says this is pointless just shut up. This is just showing the possibilities of things to come! this is the first time something like this has been done so just wait until touchscreen monitors like this become the norm and then lets see what we can do with tech like this. Its projects like these the show us what the future could hold! And personally it looks pretty damm cool, no matter if it is slower than conventional methods! Great Jobs robotics team! I applaud you!

[Gearz909]

I want to play SC2 on the surface

[bv90andy]

Seems cool, but I like my screen to be vertical, otherwise I get headaches. And I would not play keeping my hands up in the air.

[harth13]

i don't like it. sounds too hard. maybe for simulation games

[935514595]

hi i am a mac and i recently can play portal, but i still sucks

[ENDORPHINSAM]

@935514595 Your a Mac?! No way, You must cost like $3,000 for shit specs, I'll say man, you picked the short straw on wich OS you wanted

[skull1kid1]

Neat! looks like a cool thing to play portal on once you get used to the controls and stuff.

[aaricus]

This is not an ideal control for gaming. You need physical buttons with greater flexibility. Or games DESIGNED to use it.

[RafaelSValerio]

Some UI tweaks would come in handy

Still, great achievement, love the tech behind this

[ian3415]

I hate these controls on an iPhone. Making them bigger wont help the feel of it. Not the same as having a pad/keyboard/joystick in your hand a never will be.

[yomilo]

sucks.... steals a lot of screen space...

Still, congratulations for achieving that,it is hard work...i know it.

[GETINTHECARITSALION]

Ugh... this thing looks like a pain to play games on. Sore thumbs anyone?

[1991MRjesse]

@GETINTHECARITSALION it looks like fun in short doses. no binge gaming unless you have a pain fetish.

[slicedintwo]

this thing is pretty awesome. also does anyone know what the song is called that is playing

[42f87d89]

kind of useless, but then again, why to we need to calculate pi higher than 3 trillion digits?

[1AoM0]

portal with virtual pad fail/ why not just drag your f*ckin finger to look around?:/

[Maach37]

try to fling your self in portal on this

[tomol6]

lol portal is totally unplayable on it, they had to speed up the video 2x and still it was too slow.

[hajkie]

@tomol6 Doesnt look like the controls are any different then dual analog controls that they have ps3/xbox360 tho and fps's works awesome (still not as good as keyboard / mouse). I would wager they hadn't had much practice, if at all with that. :P

[Gryzorz]

lol it look everything but convenient

[MrAncientCulture]

This looks really great! And seams to fit perfectly for Flightsimulation. But for action games, I think a bit more work is do to. The movement looks a bit to static, and the turns to slow. But this is for sure just a question of fine tuning ;)

I'm looking forwaord to see the futher development of this controll overlay. Do you plan to Port the driver of regular Touchscreen's also?

[biggpapa666]

Thanks for the props, those who gave them.

Haters, go make something cool instead of trolling youtube. KTHX

[terae77]

Amazing, absolutely; Congratulations; I admire your work.

[Psychlist1972]

people saying this is pointless: look at how subsets of this have been applied to mobile devices. A few years ago, most would have said virtual joysticks/keyboards etc. on phones was "pointless"

[Cloymax]

pointless. maximum pointless.

[Emfir]

hi instant Carpal tunnel syndrome.

[JoeyRavnTV]

It looks awesome for RTSes, TBSes like Civ, board games and... that's about it for gaming. Anything that requires a fast reaction time can't benefit from 100% touch controls. Obviously, it should be incredibly useful image and video manipulation, but gaming... not so much.

[TheJontslayer]

That's Portal at TWICE the normal speed?? No thanks.......

[TheJontslayer]

I mean it's pretty bad ass that someone was able to put this together, but for simplicities sake, what's the point besides showing off it's possible?

[Keks3318]

Hes so slow while playing Portal. Looks futuristic but its TOTALLY needless.

He needs 10 sec, where I need with Keyboard and mouse 2.

[Kar4dura]

Sorry but sucks, stop with touch control style in games, havent future in certain games.

[dmpsodapop]

Thumbs up for carpel tunnel.

[mmicire]

@dmpsodapop The design is specifically designed to help with things like RSI and carpel. Since you can relax your fingers in their most relaxed position, you can avoid the problems created by physical joysticks and keyboards. The controllers can also bend out of the 90-degree configuration much like the ergonomic keyboard that you see in the stores.

[gguuss]

This is really cool!

[Manzana1C]

"This sucks on ice"

[alex911019]

haha that really sucks

[pilchtastic]

how pointless

[mmicire]

@pilchtastic Thanks. We worked hard on this for robots. We also play hard. This is just us goofing off with some games that we like.

[mikamapo]

bueno ya con esto me kede d boca abierta, pero asi ya tienen k ir las cosas juju

[pcorantin]

How to make fastly yours alturl . com /zfefv

[Amiltonupc]

NAAA, I CAN´T SEE THE SCREEN, BECAUSE THE HANDS IS IN FRONT OF SCREEN, AND IS INCONFORTABLE.... IS BETTER A NORMAL JOYSTIK...

[Yishai08]

Don't have enough money to buy a controller? It's alright! We've made the screen the controller!  -Microsoft

[timg455]

Is it just me or does that look horribly uncomfortable. Who could play that thing for more than a few minutes? It's nothing against Microsoft, but every company and their shitty physically static interfaces. Sure it can change to any form, but if it doesn't fit your hand what is the point! Not only is it hard on your hands, but instead of looking straight ahead you get to stare down at the ground in an unnatural position. Best of all your hands interfere with the size reducing your screen.

[kerith666]

@timg455 I thinks it looks uncomfortable for first person games, but imagine yourself playing a RTS game with that board.

Of corse, this is just an opinion opinion

[mmicire]

@timg455 Actually, we designed it with ergonomics in mind. We have used it for hours with many people controlling robots. The controller morphs to conform to your hand, so you can put it down in whatever configuration you find comfortable.

Also, remember that this is just us playing around. Right now a mouse and keyboard is definitely better for FPS, but we wanted to try. The fun part about science is that you can work toward a solution without getting the "right" answer the first time.

[TERRY10191]

waoooo cool men jajajja esta super ese emulador =D

[nesuke]

i still think portal is pointless

[yeah568]

@nesuke boo.......

[Monaco92]

@nesuke I respect your opinion. However, it is very apparent that you've never actually played through Portal.

[bobafett52885]

@nesuke and so is ur existence. DIAF

[nesuke]

@bobafett52885 talking of pointliess thing...ur coment is the nº1

[soulcalibur22]

cool controls good job prolly some work to go and a couple redesigns and more solid code but looks kewl.

[fishcomputer33]

yay portal

[machins123]

pretty good job guys!!!!!! amazing

[youvathebest]

i want this to play counter strike with it :)

[mmicire]

@youvathebest Me too. We would love to have a tap-to-the-headshot feature. Can you say "click to smite". ;)

[youvathebest]

@mmicire haha

[moreSmartLessStupid]

pretty awesome. How are you able to put a gui on top of a directx app?

[mmicire]

@moreSmartLessStupid Ah, that would be the trick, now wouldn't it! Thank you for noticing something other than our horrible game play. ;)

Eric figured out how to make the games think they have focus while a transparent WPF window actually had focus and was on top of the game in full screen window mode. That hack took almost as long as the joystick HID hack itself.

[ninyu15]

fuck video.. fuck keyboard lols

[Makron5]

You have a battle to sell this to me after having a hard time with the ipod for control.

[TheRealBoxman]

It's called a concept people, and it actually works really well for only a weeks worth.

I hope that Surface becomes affordable at some point.

[mmicire]

@TheRealBoxman Thanks for the supportive comments. This is all Eric McCann's genius and crazy hacking. It is just a proof of concept since everyone commented on our robot video that we should do it on a video game. I am disappointed (but not surprised) about all of the negative comments. It is no biggie. We are still having fun over here. ;)

You should google some of the 3M multitouch screens. We are evaluating some of the 22" displays that are around $1500 and can do the same thing.

[CAMOXA1]

it looks stupid to me nothing futuristic here!!!!

[BOOGY110011]

you can do the same thing whit a muse and keybord. useless!!!!

[hotpocket104]

THIS IS AMAZING

[dachshund103]

ya this looks lame good luck winning any game with those controlls

[MrFinnJohnson]

if portal was sped up how slow ere they going originally? :P

[spyfoxguy]

Hahah "shown at 2x realtime." Yeah, someday "Surfaces" will be everywhere. But that's after a bunch of upgrades and power-ups. Oh, and after upgrades to the glitchy firmware.

[biggpapa666]

Five stahhzz

[biggpapa666]

The name of the song is shown as the video fades to black.

Watch it again!

[Evilshindo]

song???

[jaquesfabi]

What is the name the song?

[acenumbah1]

wow :D cool :D

[happywozere]

Looks like it would make your hands hurt after a bit of hardcore gaming.

[BiOHAZ92]

Gordon Freeman is playing this!

[Slip819]

Looks like a clumsy pain in the ass.

[Nathanderdethdealer1]

the flight sim looked nice, but, i'm not too sure on portal...i think it controls better on the keyboard and mouse...

[omaraty009]

id talk an Xbox 360 Controller over this any day.

[drummerkid88]

@omaraty009 funny thing about touch surfaces you touch them not talk to them...

[omaraty009]

@drummerkid88 LOL! typo. i meant Take..haha

[ThePaperweight]

A controller is you! looks nice.

[biggpapa666]

Firsties! Wooooooo!