It’s time to drop the old TV channel clicker and start waving a magic wand.
LG’s Magic Motion controller replaces the standard remote control with a
motion-sensitive rod inspired by the Nintendo Wii’s wireless “wiimote”.
If you have ever used the Nintendo console, you’ll feel an instant familiarity
with the Magic Motion.
A slender, tapering length of glossy black plastic, roughly an inch thick at
its widest point, it incorporates just a handful of buttons — far fewer than
the huge array found on most modern remotes. When pointed at a television
equipped with a suitable receiver, however, it will duplicate all the
functions of a normal remote and more, because it steers an onscreen cursor.
This allows you to click items to select them from a menu, much as you would
do with a computer mouse.
The most common actions for which you use a remote control — changing channel
or adjusting the volume — can be performed by waving or rotating the wand up
or down, left or right.
What’s more, Magic Motion works with an electronic programme guide that gives
you a live thumbnail view of the programme showing on each available
channel. See something you like? Just point, click and go. If you would
rather not be bothered with irrelevant channels, you can easily narrow the
selection down to a line-up of favourites.
LG plans to start selling the Magic Motion next year, probably bundled with
its more expensive TVs. Much the same technology can already be found in
motion-sensitive devices such as Logitech’s MX Air, designed to be used with
computers, but LG will be the first manufacturer to bring it to a normal TV
set.
Last week Philips said that it also planned to release a remote control able
to recognise movement rather than button-presses. Unlike LG’s controller,
the Philips gadget, which will be called the uWand, will come with an
infrared receiver that can be plugged into any device with a suitable
screen. It remains to be seen whether it will be as effective and versatile
as the LG device.
It was the success of the Wii that inspired LG to make it “easier for the
consumer” to use its TVs, according to its product manager George Mead. “As
well as giving them these fantastic technologies,” he said, “we wanted to
make it easier for them to access them, but do it in a fun and interactive
way.”
As an example, Magic Motion TVs will come with 15 simple mind and memory games
built in. They are pretty basic — in Whack-a-Mole, you could only point to
the moles, not actually whack them — but they are easy to pick up and
entertaining, at least in short bursts.
The Magic Motion is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to new ways of
using our TVs. This time next year wireless networking and the ability to
play downloaded high-definition video files via USB or broadband should be
standard features on many high-end sets, while the first TVs able to play
3-D footage or grab photos and music from the internet are set to debut. Even
rival makers, such as Samsung, that don’t yet have a gesture-based
controller have redesigned their TV menus to look more like computer desktop
screens.
The TV remote as we know it is hopelessly equipped for finding your way around
all this new content. With Magic Motion, LG might just have found a way to
make it accessible to all.
HOW THE MAGIC MOTION WORKS
Much like the Nintendo Wii game controller, LG’s new remote control uses a
combination of gyroscopic and accelerometer sensors to track any movements
of the device in your hand.
The sensors can detect where the LG remote is pointing and track its
movements, whether rotational or side to side.
The information is sent to a receiver built into the compatible LG television
and allows you to move an on-screen pointer (it uses the standard 2.4GHz
radio frequency used by many wireless devices). Thus, with a flick of the
wrist, you can adjust the TV set, browse photos or play games.
LG’s Magic Motion is not quite as sophisticated as the standard Nintendo Wii
system, let alone the even more accurate Wii MotionPlus accessory that went
on sale this summer. Even the normal “wiimote” adds an infrared sensor to
the mix so as to more accurately track its exact position. Then again, Magic
Motion isn’t designed to control a virtual tennis racket.
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