![]() "It really is proportional control, it's almost like having a bunch of joysticks on your keyboard," Dietz points out. About four minutes into the demo, Microsoft Senior Researcher Paul Dietz shows how the standard WASD and space bar controls in a first-person game could be modified to allow for different walking and running speeds, as well as jump heights, based on how hard each key is depressed. A demonstration video for the prototype shows that the company had begun tinkering with gaming applications for the technology three years ago. Can similar analog control schemes work on a keyboard? Microsoft already answered that question, to an extent, when it unveiled a prototype for a pressure-sensitive keyboard back in 2009. Developers have been more eager to use the analog shoulder buttons on the Xbox 360 and PS3 to support variable throttle and braking in racing games, or precise turning in flight simulators, for example.īut those are handheld console controllers, with spring-loaded buttons designed to be gently squeezed by crooked index fingers. Most developers ignored the analog face buttons built in to the controllers for the PlayStation 2 and original Xbox, though Metal Gear Solid 2 notably let players holster an aimed weapon by slowly easing up the force on the X button. A brief history of pressure-sensitive buttons But a generation of gamers that made the transition from digital directional pads to analog joysticks knows well that measuring fine gradations of input can lead to more precise, sensitive control for a wide variety of games. In the presentation, this pressure-sensitivity is sold mainly as a way to improve the accuracy and speed of touch-typing when using the cover, as compared to pecking away at a touchscreen keyboard. Microsoft's Panos Patay points out this feature about 41 minutes into the video of the tablet announcement, highlighting how the Touch Cover is "actually measuring every gram of force coming off my fingertips." The key to the Touch Cover's hidden potential as a new form of game control comes in its keyboard's little-noticed ability to differentiate between various levels of pressure being placed on each key. But for gamers, the Touch Cover in particular could open up some interesting new control options for PC games, if Microsoft and developers are savvy enough to capitalize on its potential. When Microsoft first unveiled a pair of smartcovers with integrated keyboards as a key part of its Windows 8 tablet strategy last week, most commentators saw the move as an attempt to position the tablet computers more directly against standard laptops.
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