There’s been a lot of interest lately in my Controller Monitor. So I thought I’d reiterate some things about it for interested parties:
- Currently Xbox 360 only. I’ve been thinking about a PS3 version, it would require a different approach, but more importantly, would companies want it? Please let me know.
- Size of display is 8″ x 8″ x 1.5″. It connects via a 6′ cable to a wireless Xbox 360 controller. (Granted, it’s no longer “free of wires” but you know what I mean) There are screw holes in the four corners for mounting as you choose.
- The connector for the cable replaces the headphone / keyboard jack on the bottom of the controller. Charge & Play kits still fit.
- Display indicates the following: D-pad, A B X Y, left and right bumpers, left and right triggers, both analog sticks. Currently L3 / R3 (depressing the thumbsticks) is not represented.
- For the analog indicators there are 3 LED’s per direction. These indicate “any motion at all”, “halfway there” and “all the way over”.
- Cost is $650 US, includes controller. Shipping is extra.
If this sounds like something that would be useful for your company please drop me a line to discuss. I’m setting up a batch within the next few weeks.
could you enlighten us and tell us what its used for? or useful for?
thanks
gus, these are used for developers to observe how people are playing their games, among other things. Also, to observe how fast and “tight” controls are between pushing a button and the corresponding action happening on the screen, etc. Basically, it’s used for observation purposes in general.
Huh. I read what Kyosho said… and I still don’t quite get it. I realize they aren’t for consumer consumption… but I don’t quite see how having a little light lit up on a panel tells you anything.
If Ben is able to sell them, that’s totally awesome… but even when he first showed these months ago… I never “got it” (and I’m on the internet, so obviously I know everything about everything).
These are used to measure the input lag. what you do is record with a high speed camera with both the game on the screen and the display. measure the number of frames or milliseconds it takes the screen to respond to the controls.
its probably also used to analyze and observe play testing.
The only thing I could think these would be truely usefull for are shops that do repair work. They can quickly determine exactly what the problem is by seeing what buttons light up during testing, and what possible button combinations create errors.
Although chances are they could hook it up to a computer and get very similar results out of windows…
Oh and as far as determining “lag” I would imagine that the developers have their own -in house- kit that records every button push in sequence to avoid having to pack around this contraption…
Cool idea, but like others have said, not a consumable for consumers.
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-lag-factor-article
Explains what its used for by developers. This is the -in house- kit.