HardcoreModz
Ever since its launch last year, it’s been a relatively smooth ride for
Microsoft’s Kinect except for a few bumps on the road such as [very
cool] hackings, which were ultimately condoned by the software giant…
more or less. But as of a few days ago, the very first real snag hit
when Impulse Technology claimed Microsoft had allegedly intruded on
several of its patents.
“The Xbox Kinect game console infringed on seven of Impulse’s patents
for technology that tracks users’ movements and lets them play video
games without a controller,” reads the official statement, which
furthermore says that Microsoft had been informed of these patents
before the suit, which covered “a wide variety of games where the
movement of a player is tracked in three dimensions… and certain
exercise games where the motion of the player is tracked to effect
movement of a virtual avatar, and the exertion of the user is monitored,
including where the tracking of the player is done by use of a camera.”
In addition to Microsoft, eight other developers/publishers were
included in the suit, including EA, Sega and Konami for creating or
publishing games for Kinect. “Impulse alleges that like Microsoft, these
companies are guilty of making, selling and importing into the U.S.,
games that infringe several of their patents.”
Although the momentum of Kinect sales — and software — has dropped since
its introduction, this case, if successful, sure as heck won’t be of
any help, denting Microsoft and damaging the company quite a bit.
Although, we don’t expect to hear again from this for a while, so don’t
hold your breath; keep flinging, flapping and waving those body parts of
yours like there is no tomorrow.
http://www.thatvideogameblog.com/2011/07/25/microsoft-sued-over-its-motion-sensing-tech/
