It’s all fancy but there is one downside – Accessability. Have a browser that does not run javascript or just want to send a link to said position? You’re out of luck. Anchor links would solve this issue by not relying on javascript and changing the URL as you clicked the link but they are not sexy. Also, the problem with anchor links is that.. well, they suck at usability as well – When you are warped to a different position in the article you lose the mental context of the page structure; you might as well be on a different page altogether.

So, let’s bring back the sexy to anchor tags!

Enhance Anchors is a simple jQuery plugin, which when loaded, will enhance simple anchor tags (ie. “somesite.com#article2“) with smooth javascript scrolling transitions while retaining the good parts of a anchor link. It even supports back button (where possible)! And it’s as easy as just loading the plugin and you’re done.

Check it out at:
https://github.com/zonear/jquery.enhanceanchors

HTML5 as native language

Native applications for Windows 8 Metro are written in standard HTML5 instead of, for example C# – A language usually heavily endorsed by Microsoft. Why then JavaScript over C#, or anything else for that matter? It turns out that this is actually the most pivotal thing in future of Windows and it just might end up powering the next era of PC. Let me explain.

Personal Computer

PC stands for Personal Computer – A computer that one can tailor for their needs. This was the catalyst that fueled the computer revolution, as it made cheaper computers possible, thus commodificating  the computer itself, which in turn fueled the internet revolution and so forth. While Apple likes to rant about post-PC world, where PC becomes irrelevant, I suspect Microsoft has other ideas.

The very essence of PC are the countless different hardware configurations – Something that was the thorn in Microsoft side for the longest time: It turns out it’s quite hard to make something run rock-steady in 100 gazillion different computers. What this also means is that there are thousands of different display sizes and setups out there. Windows used to work around this problem by having toolbars and, well, application windows. Metro will have none of that – The applications run full screen, end of story. To up the ante, Microsoft even demoed Windows 8 running on 82-inch touch display. How the hell do you work around that?

PC + HTML5 = <3

Turns out this is a problem that is solved every day in the internet, as web developers have been developing solutions for this exact problem for more than a decade now. And with ever faster JavaScript engines and swarm of new features you can actually start doing pretty radical stuff – Applications that can compete with native applications. So, suddenly the marriage between PC and HTML5 doesn’t look so silly anymore, in fact it starts to look more and more like a no-brainer. By going HTML5, Microsoft is tapping into the largest and most important developer community out there – The web developers, and with them, they have all the developers (developers  developers) they will ever need.

When you start to think about it, Windows 8 could not have better timing: The rise of responsive design and HTML5 revolution. It’s almost like it was planned all along…

Gaming prowess

Microsoft certainly takes gaming seriously, so gaming should be on spotlight with Windows 8, and all the devices around it. We already know that Windows 8 will be able to run XBox games. There are also rumors that the next XBox would not have physical drive at all, which just makes sense. So, as Microsoft is doubling down on digital distribution (Microsoft Store, Videos, Music) and Windows 8 already has XBox live, it should be safe bet to say that both of these will run games bought from the same store – Buy a game from your Windows 8 PC and fire it up on your XBox. Coolness.

Now, add in the fact that that both devices can already run XNA games which Windows Phone happens to run as well. So, suddenly you have 3-5 different devices that are all connected to the same ecosystem and can run, either the same exact game, or some version of it. Imagine a game that you can play from your smartphone to your game console to the high-end PC in your bedroom and back to tablet in your lap. Of course the game experience and the controls must be customized to each device, but HTML5 can even help on that. Hell, in the near future, you can run the same games on just HTML5.

Or just shop for new games on your phone as you sit on the bus and when you get home, fire up your XBox or PC and the game is there.

Ecosystem to kill all ecosystems

So, as we have the reasons down for HTML5 as native language, could we possibly make something else out of all this? Well, ecosystems are all the rage now, and for good reason: They offer the consumer more value while making it psychologically harder for consumer to move – Money and effort invested would be lost. Windows 8 will have one in the form of Microsoft Store, which is prominently displayed in the Start Screen. However, Microsoft just happens to have two ecosystems more, both with different size screens: Windows Phone and XBox – Windows Phone with the Microsoft Marketplace and XBox is slowly rolling out “applications” (what a coincidence).

When you realize that Microsoft Store is only accepting Metro applications and, both, Windows Phone and XBox are slated to receive major updates in the near future (with Windows Phone 8 and XBox 720), the pieces start to click. If all the applications in the Store are able to run on any screen size, then what if you would combine all of these three ecosystems under the single Microsoft Store umbrella and have developers to be able to sell their application on all three platforms – Buy once, use everywhere. Suddenly the reach and magnitude of the ecosystem would skyrocket – Once you have purchase something on any platform, your are inclined to stay under the same umbrella if possible. And once you realize that 90% of the PC’s on Earth are running Windows, XBox 360 is the gaming console king, you start to get an idea of the reach – It’s an ecosystem to die for. And all this is possible only because of the disruptive technology such as HTML5.

So, expect Windows Phone 8 to introduce HTML5 and start retiring Silverlight. Also, XBox 720 will have Windows Store.

Cloud power for everyone

One of the major features in Windows 8 is the Windows Accounts, which in essence lets you log in with your Windows Account to any Windows 8 PC, and as it stores all your data in the cloud, you’ll have your applications, settings and even files (the ones you chose to sync) right where you left them, like you never switched computers. Now, next logical step would be that this functionality would be extended to all capable devices, namely Windows Phone and XBox. Suddenly, you would have unified experiences across screens: Change your lockscreen in Windows 8 and your phone and TV mirror it instantly. As any application can use this power, the possibilities are be limitless.

Extra: Tech support just got easy

Just think about all the mythical tech support gnomes who, even as you are reading this, are installing billion different applications to billion different computers. Well, with Windows 8, that whole scene will change radically: No longer will you have to remotely install/update/uninstall applications – Just find the application you need, point it to said Windows Accounts and you’re done. Time for beer for job well done.

Conclusion

When Windows arrived, with PC, it changed the world as anyone could have a computer. Computer became a commodity. With Windows 8 and the Microsoft ecosystem, the world could change again – The ecosystems will become commodificated in the sense that everyone, on any device, can start using them. Think of TV’s with Windows 8? Computers. Smart and maybe even featurephones. How many devices you know that could run Windows? Hell, even things like the ATMs usually run on Windows.

Also, when you have an ecosystem like this, how is anyone supposed to compete with it? Apple would be the closest competitor but they don’ t come even close to the reach Microsoft has. The dominance of Microsoft around 90s might be just the first chapter, as there is a decent possibility that it will change computing as we know it, much as Windows did with PC.

As it’s Windows 8, 8 features seems appropriate. So, without further ado – Dissection of Windows 8 Metro UI.

1. Metro UI

The good

One of my personal favorites is how the applications become much more than just the traditional “islands” (*cough-iOS-cough*). In Windows 8 they become part of the OS itself. Install say, Twitter client and it integrates itself at the OS level as a way of sharing things, much like in Android. Or how the People application (or “hub?”) becomes part of every application that does something with your contacts – Sync it with your Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google accounts and BAM, you have all the information from those, syndicated into one pool of knowledge. Click the person in your instant messaging thread and you get instantly their information, latest tweets, email address and even mail address. Want to send him an email? Just click the email address and you’re set. It’s all really fluid, powerful and effortless, and most of all, not driven through “islands” of applications. Now, everything seems connected and speaks the same language, and that just makes you feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

The bad

The nasty thing about Windows 8 is, and there’s no way around it, the fact it inevitably will be the bastard son of the old and the new. The whole industry can’t just simply hop into Metro overnight, so in the foreseeable future there will be some mix’n’match going on, which probably will confuse users. However, Microsoft is already enforcing Metro as de facto Windows UX – The only way you can get your app to to the Windows Store is if you go Metro.

2. Gestures

The good

The main gestures are rather simple and get into your muscle memory quickly: Separate actions for each corner and a drag-down-from-top – either closing an application (drag all the way down) or snapping it for multitasking.

The bad

So far my main frustration with the W8 gestures is that the ones that send your cursor flying across the screen (corners, drag-down) aren’t really that fluent to do with touchpad. Specially as I like to keep the sensitivity and acceleration on lower settings. Luckily pretty much everything has keyboard shortcut.

3. Multitaskin’

The good

Finally, Win+Tab has actual meaning, rather than just the “pretty alt-tab”! In it’s W8 form it will do the same multitasking as top-left corner of the screen – Show (and cycle through) screenshots of all your running applications.

The thing that is going to upset most of the hardcore people is of course the fact that you can’t really do proper multitasking, aka. have multiple applications open in the same screen in Metro. Well, you can have two, as it’ll let you dock an application to the side of your screen (much like with Aero Snap <3 in Vista/W7), which is handy for instant messaging and the likes. Use two screens, you say? Plug in another screen and it’ll default to desktop, while Metro will be shown on your main screen. Which leads us to Desktop. Powerusers shouldn’t have too much of an issue with W8 as it still packs the full desktop experience for legacy applications.

Of course, the final judgement for Metro can only be passed when my W8 PC clocks enough hours, but so far it seems rather good. Dare I say, better than the old one?

The bad

The bad news here is that much of your mental models for Windows multitasking are obsolete, which probably will confuse people at the beginning. Personally, I’d say – Out with the old, in with the new.

4. Lock screen

The good

Personally, I’m in love with the new lock screen (although, lets face it, It’s not like the lock screens out there are hard to beat..). The ease of personalisation and the glanceable information, like calendar, mail, younameits.

The bad

However, there are few glitches. As I’m using Finnish keyboard, if I’m logging in after a boot the keyboard is in US layout, but if I have logged in already after the boot, the keyboard is Finnish. Which is fun when you try to type your password with special characters…

5. Start screen

The good

Easily my favorite feature in W8 is the new Start screen – The simple, glanceable information about all your stuff is just pure win written all over it. Also, the way I can simply pin stuff (people, webpages, direct links to things within apps) to the start screen is a lifesaver. All this has a bit of same flair that I absolute love in WebOS – Everything is accessible with one and the same action, swipe. Or in this case, the Windows button. The process is the same, no matter where you are and where you are going to, which equals for effortless use. “I’m in Excel and want to check my favorite website. Smash start button. Click the pinned tile. Bam. You’re in squeemyfavsite.com.”

What I would like to see more of is: Just Type(tm) from WebOS. Want to update your Twitter? Hit start. Type “Tweeting from Windows 8”, click Tweet. Done.”. Though, I’d wager Palm/HP has patent or two covering it…

The bad

The big boogieman under the bed of Windows 8 Consumer Preview seems to be the consistency troll. At least in this incarnation. It almost seems like there is no real design guidelines for Metro apps…

In case of start screen it’s not too bad, but it’s still there: When you move your mouse to the edge of the screen, the view scrolls, or pivots automatically. Why is this bad? The problem here is that start screen is the only place where this interaction model works, even though the mental model is exactly the same in any metro app using pivots. And what’s the thing you end up interacting with, and thus learning from, the most? Yup. The start screen.

6. Charms

The good

The only good thing about charms is that the settings, search and share buttons can now always be found from the same place. However, they are the first thing that makes me feel like the non-touchscreen interaction is simply an afterthough in W8 – “Aw poop! I just realized we need mouse and keyboard controls here as well…”. Which, was more or less confirmed in the MWC release event, where the lady from Microsoft was talking how they started designing W8 with a tablet PC mockup.

The bad

This is my actual grief no. 1 with W8. From the first moment, when you start using your brand-spanking-new W9 PC, it’s not really clear that they actually are context sensitive, meaning it’s more like they are system wide actions. The main source for this confusion is perhaps the existence of the start button in here, as it is not context sensitive, rather than system wide. Want more confusion? Alright. The search actually is system wide. Kinda. You can run your searches against any installed application that offers search functionality. Which, by itself is cool, but the context is a bit weird. Then we come to the share button, which is enabled even at the start screen, even though you can’t actually share anything. How about settings? When in start screen, go to charms, click settings – You get buttons that read “Settings” and “More PC settings”, which almost directly implies that even the first two “Settings” actions are for “PC settings”.

In any case, it’s overall bad user experience to mix and match stuff that look like they have the same context, but in real life behave completely different way.

Another thing that I’m not too fond of is the fact that the charms bar acts bit like W7 taskbar or OS X dock (when hidden ofc) in the sense that it slides out from the edge of the screen when mouse is close to the edge. The catch here is that it acts _almost_ the same, meaning that if you have mastered that age old mental model, you might find yourself throwing your mouse towards the edge of the screen, in anticipation of the charms bar to appear, in which case you’d be sorely disappointed. To access it you actually have to hit the top-right corner of the screen, instead of the edge, which by itself is nothing but good – Corners are easy targets to hit and the auto-hiding dock/taskbar is baaaaad UX. The problem here lies within the visual representation of the charms bar: It acts like it’s autohiding taskbar, kind of. Which supports the mental model of edge reveal. If it walks like a duck…

Lastly, now you have application actions in two different places, accessible via two different actions (charms and the commands bar). Which neatly brings us to the next item…

7. Command bar

The good

Again. It’s nice to have one place to look for application commands, but that’s pretty much where it ends.

The bad

And this is actual grief no. 2. Lets start with consistency (arguably one of the most important parts in any UI). Every app seems to have things in different order, in different places and even the command bar itself can be either at the top or the bottom of the screen. What’s more confusing is that even though you have the settings gear icon in charms bar, apps like IE bring their on wrench icon to the bottom commands bar (IE has two commands bar, both, at the top and the bottom). Which, again hints to the lack of clear(ly thought?) design guidelines, as there are things like the “three dots” button used in WP7 and in W8 just for extra commands, which aren’t really used properly in W8. Also, some applications have command buttons in their main UI, while others have all their commands in the bar below. Design guidelines, anyone?

Personally, I’d rather see settings, share etc. grouped into the application commands bar. So that all the application commands/actions would always be in the same place. Which would even give us nice scalability depending on the screen size: Designer would group the commands in the order of importance, which would then be aligned to the left. On the right, there would be persistent share, search and settings buttons, while the command buttons would show all the buttons that would fit into the command bar, and hide rest of them behind “three dots” button.

Also, the same problem applies for the commands bar: It looks and acts much like auto-hiding taskbar, so you might find yourself hitting the bottom border of the screen (preferably with the mouse cursor) for the commands bar.

However, easily the worst part about commands bar is the way you invoke it: By right clicking. Which, again, by itself sounds just fine and dandy, but when you combine it with screen full of elements that have context menus themselves… You end up searching for place where you can invoke the commands bar. In some cases (Google Docs in IE), smashing the right-button twice seems to help, and in some it doesn’t.

8. Persistent PC settings

The good

Think of these guys as the notification area on your W7 taskbar. Fast access to the important things in your PC: Networking, audio, brightness, notifications, power and language. Nice and neat, and now even accessible with chubby fingers alike.

The bad

Only thing that I miss in here is the functionality of Notifications. In the current incarnation, it only toggles the notifications on and off. What I would like to see is sort of notification list, for those cases when I miss a notification, or want to check it again.

9. Feedback

As a extra treat, I had to throw in the Feedback feature in W8 Consumer Preview.

The good

Of course the reason for feedback in this Windows 8 incarnation is that it’s actually just a preview (although it’s pretty much set to stone), which they use to get feedback from would-be consumers, but… When W8 really comes out, I would love to see the feedback button in every application. Hell, It should even be defined in the design guidelines; where and how it should be accessed, because this is a great tool for developers to get feedback from their applications by lowering the barrier. “I’m having a problem with this application.. Well, might as well tell them as it’s right there and it’s only few clicks.”.

The bad

However, again, the problem here is consistency. The feedback button changes it’s icon and location all the time from app to app, even between Microsoft’s apps! Sometimes it’s not even in the pop-up menu, rather than behind the settings menu.

Conclusion

All in all, Windows 8 with Metro feels fantastically fresh and fluid UI plagued by consistency problems and some touchscreen driven “features”. They are bit rough but not much of a dealbreaker, however they do crate slight not-completely-thought-through feel to it.. Although, I’m quite sure these are just the things that the polishing phase is for, in which W8 is about to enter.

In the end, I would definitely recommend the Metro UI – It’s fresh, fluid and fun! If you’re heavy poweruser it might not be for you (yet), however I would still suggest throwing the caution to the wind and trying it out, if only for few weeks.

Decided to release them all, unedited and raw… (thus, there is “slight” possibility for typos and the likes)

Anyways, Symbolistic is a simple shape matching game, where you have to match the shape with two separate symbols, that when joined, create the shape in question.  There is a catch though, as the clock is running down and only way to turn it back for few seconds is to match another set of shapes, which in turn brings more symbols to the table. So be quick, survive and proceed to brag your scores to your friends! Tech-wise, Symbolistic does not use any external libraries, goes well under 10k even when unpacked and is even fully offline capable.

The game can be found from http://mintusability.com/symbolistic

More pictures after the break.

Well, what would every self-respecting geek do when they miss a bunch of dailies and have to click them all through? Build their own reader, of course! Thus, I present: Sinstream!

Sinstream is a reader webapp for Sinstream, which bundles all the daily comics as one handy stream. No more clicking though to the next day, rather than just scrolling down. <3

You can find Sinsteam from here: http://mintusability.com/sinstream

Why touch-technology has lost already

The statement that simple touch technology is going to be replacing the mouse is just simply dimwitted. Why? Simply because they are used in two completely different context: Whereas touch-screen rock the handheld world, computer mouse reigns as the sole emperor of the desktop computing. Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely love touchscreens and even multi-touch, however, neither of them have the power or the ergonomics of even the simplest 5€ mouse, when it comes to desktop computing. Just think of the time you use your computer daily; 2 hours? 4 hours? For me it would be something like 8-10 hours. Now, keep your hand pointed to the screen, as you would be clicking a button on it, and see how long you can go. Now, do the same test with the mouse. See the difference? On continuous use, mouse wins hands down. Sure, touchscreens are intuitive but when it comes to desktop use, they just suck. Unless. And this is big if, unless the whole paradigm of desktop computing changes to something drastically different.

Then what?

If not touchscreens, then what?

Well, here’s my take: Eyetracking. Eyetracking, in most basic form means that there is basically a camera tracking your eyes, software figuring out where at the screen you are actually looking at and a cursor moving on the screen, following your gaze. Nowadays this technology is becoming more mundane and easy to obtain, meaning that it’s becoming cheaper as the software advances every day. There are even couple of projects dedicated for complete “OS” for disabled people that can be used with just eyetracking (gaze: move the cursor, stare: click). Once you have it you’ll notice the problem for everyday use: With mouse, just when you are about to click something, your eyes already dart to other direction, looking for the next target. With eyetracking only you have to stop on the button and stare to produce a click, and meanwhile your brain is going “next target! next target!”. Of course, this behaviour will be eliminated over time when you get used to using the new UI, but this is also the reason why such UI won’t be capable of taking over the computer mouse; the learning curve is too steep. (not to mention, it’s slower than the things we are used to) But there is something we can do.

The eyetracking is natural pointing device for us, just because the way eyes work: the peripheral vision is good at spotting targets (it’s good at recognizing movement, sees at lower light etc) whereas actual focusing is needed to see the details of the target. Thus, we use peripheral vision when scanning our environments quickly but once we find something interesting we focus on it. However, the fact that we focus on something is only a sign that we might find the thing interesting/dangerous, not that we want to interact with it anyways. So, we need a way to sign the computer when we actually are interested of interacting with the target. This is the area where physical, real life, buttons are on top of the food-chain; their tactile feedback is just unbeatable (we feel the button go down, feel the actual click of the switch and hear the audible ‘click’ sound), not to mention you can rest your finger on it and it won’t activate it (like touch-driven devices). Here’s my solution in full: Use eyetracking for cursor control* and add physical button(s) for the clicking (and throw in physical scroll wheel, just for good measure). Now, the learning curve somewhat disappears, you could just work like you have always done and happily keep clicking away, with the obvious exception that you don’t actually have to follow your gaze with your mouse.

* With cursor I’m talking about the actual code realization of the gaze coordinates, not necessarily visible cursor on the screen. You could even toggle the cursor visiblity whether or not you are touching the button(s).

Three years ago I happened to stumble upon interesting project called ReactOS; a “free version” of Microsoft Windows – open source (blackboxing Windows components) and able to run Windows applications out of the box. Sounds sweet BUT… There’s always a catch. The thing that struck my eyes was the user interface, not because it just was so sweet, far from it. It struck my eyes because it was far from attractive, which in my eyes, was doing good job of destroying the appeal of the whole software. Hence, I decided I wanted to pitch in.

Now, years later I stumbled upon the same project and I even found mockups I made for the project from my harddrive. This provoked some thougths.

It’s quite a shame how open source projects still regards user interface as boring chore that will be done (mayhaps?) when someone finds a way to summon the energy for it. Which in turn will make the UI.. well, crappy, since the fact is that good UI and usability needs work. Since open source lives and dies by the number of developers donating their free time for it, I recon it actually should be very important for open source project to have appealing sweetness-dripping user interface and in-action screenshots. I’d even go so far as claim that 90-95% of people who bump into new software project, as their first thing, glance through the screenshots, rather than thumb through the features list. Since you only get one chance for first impression, the user interface should be taken care of from the very beginning. The guy/girl who just saw your screenshots of software that actually looks professional, functional and promising, might not magically be mind controlled by the project, contributing 10 hours per day, but 9 times out of 10 he/she will mention/link your screenshots to his/her friends. This in turn generates buzz, which is something that keeps the gears turning in open source projects, as the chain eventually finds new people who want to contribute.

How is it free then, you might ask, as it still needs work? Yes, it does require work but it’s a work you would need to work at some point anyways. And the sweetness doesn’t end there, you start getting more user experiences your new user interface, so the user interface actually starts to take shape at the same time you code the things that make the whole thing work.

However, user suggestions is something that you really need to be careful of, as subjective perception is not a measurement of usability. You need to figure out why they feel like button A should be replaced with button B. Is it because it’s used by some random software uses the same convention or is it because they like B more than A or is it because they actually use action B more than A? And why is that?

This method of generating buzz isn’t of course the only one or might not even be the best one, who knows?  It is, however, a real way to create positive first impression and as such positive buzz to your project. Now, you just have to keep your end of the bargain and actually develop the project further as people, in the time of fast paced internet, will grow tired of waiting for things to happen. I’d recommend small, fast and steady stream of changes and improvements; be agile!

It should also be noted that the website of the project has it’s say on the first impressions. Simple and elegant is better than complicated and cluttered.

First impressions. User interface. Tell your friends.

More after the jump

Posture guided gaming, you ask. Well, let me explain. You know how “high-end” (as in reality) FPS games tend to have these lean -buttons (lean left, lean right)? If youre a gamer, you do. Anyways, they are used to change the characters posture so that he still remains standing at the same place, only his torso is twisted to either side, enabling him peek around corners. I personally tend to hate those buttons since they are tad hard to handle and are usually in the way of more important buttons, like reload. Next logical step was, of course, to think something to replace such buttons, and if possible, to think outside the box.

This is what I came up with.

Again, if you’re gamer you know how, when the going gets intensive, you tend to physically try to dodge the rocket that’s coming to your screen by jumping sideways on your chair? Or you’re creeping along the enemy base and coming closer to an edge under which supposedly are enemies. As you inch closer you instinctly physically rise from your chair, trying to look over the edge. This is natural behaviour, based on instincts, and as such should definately taken advantage of.

So, how in the hell could we achieve such things? First, I was thinking along the old IR-led trick where you shine couple of IR-leds to persons eyes and catch the reflections from retina with, say, web-camera without IR-filter. All nice and tired-and-true but not practical for the common gamer since it would need completely new set of devices and interfaces built, and as we all know, that takes time. So, have to think something different. Blank stare and few blinks later, facial recognition! Such sofware should easily (as easily as things get in face recognition world) detect the posture of the gamer; if he’s sitting straight, peeking over something or around something and change view according.

Here’s the basis how it would work

These movements would be translated to the player characters torso/head movements (camera nailed to his head, of course), so as the player would jump on his chair dodge the rocket, the character would dodge the rocket in the game world. Now, imagine playing FPS and standing behind a tree; you would lean right and your character in the game would do the same thing, revealing the view to the right of the tree, lean left and the character would react likewise, he could even change his weapon to reflect the stature so that he could shoot from the left side (him being right-handed originally). Next, imagine you’re laying prone on rooftops, sniping people (on the game, of course); as you would be on the neutral/normal stance you would look through the scope, then you could say, lean right and the character would lean right, ever so gently, looking past the scope (from the right side, scope and the gun filling the left side of the screen), letting you to point the gun at the rough direction of your target, then move to normal stance and do the rest through your scope. You could even peek over the scope, seeing the whole landscape at one glimpse, and of course revealing your precious skull to the counter sniper.

Now, imagine this on internet based game, let’s take Enemy Territory: Quake Wars for example and try to imagine the impact it would have for the immersion of the game. You would feel like you’re actually in the game, doing your thing as the view and perspective would reflect your movements. Now, imagine looking through this looking glass to Quake Wars scenery where people are peeking around the corners, over the edges and under the fallen trees. Natural posture changes are far more natural than computer generated/tweened animations, hence other player characters would act much more realistically, with practically limitess variations.

Now, if you could set the software to recognize your face, figure out your posture and to use simple web-camera for all of this, practically every gamer could just start using the posture input in their games. Providing the games would support such animation/input system.

So, what do you think?