While Sega has long since been out of the business of building video game consoles, it was recently announced the Japanese video game company has launched a new arcade machine that is controlled by shapes the user makes in a box full of special sand.
The device, referred to as “Edel Sand,” allows users to mold landscapes, troughs, and rivers with the nonsticky, no-water-needed, totally synthetic sand. As they are doing this, 3D motion capture detects the shapes in the hand as well as hand movements, and projects images below as appropriate.
Most of the projected imagery includes water, shrubbery, and wildlife.
A similar technology was created in 2011 by university students in the Czech Republic. They used a sandbox that worked with an Xbox console and Kinect motion sensor.
Sega said the company will not release the sandbox game outside Japan.
To see the company’s sandbox arcade in action, check out the clip below. For those who don’t have the 4 minutes to spare, highlight points can be seen at the :24 mark when a plane flies through the sand, 1:00 mark where you can see how quick the projection technology reacts to detecting a trough dug out in the sand (it projects fish in it), the 1:15 mark to see the incredible definition of the images being projected, the 1:40 mark to see what looks like a very real ant hill, and the 2:10 mark to see some other artistic capabilities it has.
Story via BBC
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