The lights are on
Impulse Technology says it created the technology first, and the company would like the courts to do something about it.
The Ohio-based firm claims that Microsoft's motion tracking sensor violates seven of its patents, include those that cover 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 the use of a camera."
Other publishers are also named in the suit, including EA, Konami, and Sega, all for making games for the Kinect that also violate the patents.
If the case succeeds, it could affect any number of issues surrounding Microsoft's ability to sell the Kinect and its games, and might also result in significant damages to the software giant.
Like any case, it's likely to be a long time before we hear any final say on how it will turn out. When there is progress on the case, we'll let you know.
[via Patent Arcade]
Email the author Matt Miller, or follow on Twitter, and Game Informer.
Every one wants a piece of the pie!
if they lose the case they will just have to pay the other company for permission to use kinnect, or they will purchase their patents out right. no sweat off of ms brow.
Yada, yada, yada. Nintendo was sued over it's 3DS Tech & Wii Tech, Sony was sued over it's Move Tech. It's funny how people see something they "thought" they came up with 20 years ago and start crying foul.
Vultures. You think they waited long enough?????
WHAT!?! I think Kinect is great! Yes they need more games, but if you looked at E3, they had more games supporting kinect. like Tom Clancy's Future soldier and Mass Effect 3! And isn't the Halo Anniversary supporting it to?>.< Kinect is a work in progress.
When I play Kinect adventures, I ENJOY IT! KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK MICROSOFT! DON'T LET AMERICA DOWN!!!!!!!!
Microsoft needs to make up some dumb patents on all the good stuff they do and then sue the pants off Nintendo and shut 'em down for bein' that stupid!!!! I mean come on.... seriously?!?!?!
I call BS on this too. They'd better have some amazing evidence on their claim to back this up. Microsoft will devour you!
MS has had the can for a long time to me they just made it better. Just some company trying to get money for some thing that they could not get to work.
This could go either way, if they did indeed steal the idea for the technology, then why would they risk it. And if they didn't, then once again, this is another person/company trying to say that they came up with the idea first. Why should a case even be made out of this when Sony can use extremely similar technology as the Wii in order to create Playstation Move. It's the same exact concept, with controller in hand, you move the controller to different points in order to perform a designated task. Why couldn't Nintendo sue Sony?
Naturally, the answer WOULD be to sue someone.