Sony working on a universal console controller

Sony has applied for a patent on a games console controller which could work on any console, including older machines and those produced by rival firms. The patent was filed in August 2008 but has only just been published by the US Patent Office.

The design appears to be based on the housing of existing PlayStation controllers, complete with shoulder buttons (L1, L2, R1 and R2). However, instead of fixed buttons on the front of the controller, it would have an LCD touchscreen. This would work along the lines of a “universal remote control” and could be set-up to store three different combinations of buttons for different consoles.

It appears from the filing that the designers were still making some decisions about the controller at the time (which isn’t unusual for an idea in development). For example, the filing notes the possibility that the arrow keypad (aka the D-pad) was used so widely on console controllers that it might make more sense to include in physical form.

The patent also notes the controller could not only sport Sony’s dual-shock vibration technology but could also feature speakers and even on-board storage. That would certainly make a good alternative to memory cards for game saves on older consoles and would be a neat way of allowing players to bring their own controller, and thus their own game history, when playing on a friend’s machine.

As well as cutting down on clutter in multi-console homes, it seems the main selling point of the device would be as a replacement controller for old machines no longer in production. The problem with that is that, for major retro consoles at least, controllers are still available second-hand on eBay for as little as a few bucks.

It’s also questionable how appropriate a touchscreen controller is for use with games designed for a physical controller featuring a stick. While touchscreens have worked well on some iPhone games, those games are usually specifically designed for that method of input.


College Professor Makes his Point Clear: No Laptops Allowed in Class

In order to emphasize the point that no laptops were allowed into his class, Kieran Mullen, a physics professor from the University of Oklahoma, dipped a portable in liquid nitrogen right before smashing it on the floor.

If any of you have similar crazy anecdotes about some of your past or present professors, we’d love to hear about them in the comments section below!

StarCraft II Beta Finally Begins

Yes folks, Blizzard has finally announced that the multiplayer beta for StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty has now begun. Unfortunately, this is a closed beta, but if you were lucky enough to get an invite, the downloader is available through Battle.net.

Please note that even though StarCraft II hasn’t been released yet (it is planned for release “in the first half of 2010”), the game is already available for preorder on Amazon.com.

Random cam site offers a revealing look at the Internet user base

There seem to be two main requirements for a social-based internet site to catch on with the online public: it should do one task very simply, and it should attract enough users to reach a critical mass.

Chatroulette.com is not a particularly great site, neither is it a useful one. It will probably never change the world, but in its own way, it may be the site that offers the best microcosm of how the web brings people together.

Before going any further, let me state clearly that Chatroulette.com is not suitable for children. It’s not for us to say how parents should monitor their child’s online activity and whether it’s better to use human supervision or automated filters, but let us simply repeat for your information that Chatroulette.com is not suitable for children.

So what does the site do? It’s simple. You hook up your webcam (or get ready to type if you don’t have one), click one button, and you are connected to another user at random. If either party wants to end the conversation, they hit F9. You can then be reconnected to another person if desired. And, erm, that’s it.

For those with cameras, it appears to work like a particularly harsh form of speed dating: never mind three minutes, most people will be lucky to last three seconds before they race their chat partner to be the first to move on. Something in the region of 10 percent of users are men exposing their genitals, so if that’s going to offend you, steer well clear. The rest are a bizarre mix of drunken mixed-gender student groups in college dorms, and solo men frantically hitting F9 in the hope of finding a woman.

But what makes the site slightly addictive is the occasional surprise: a man wearing the mask from V for Vendetta, people dancing, and users who have unconvincingly rigged their cams to show footage of Homer Simpson sat at a computer. (These are just examples I’ve seen myself; the web is full of outlandish screenshots from the site, though it’s hard to know which, if any, are genuine.)

What is genuinely brilliant about Chatroulette is that, because it is simply a middle-man, it can have 40,000 visitors at once with presumably very little server load, and appears to be based around a comparatively simple piece of code. While the stream of erect penises may well be off-putting to advertisers, it’s still amazing the creators haven’t yet added any ads to the site.

Now if GeeksAreSexy readers with cams want to use the site to talk to strangers, be my guest. If readers think the whole site sounds ridiculous and have better things to do, that’s a sign of good judgment. But for those without cams who might be tempted to kill some time by simply clicking through cams at random, I have an appeal to you.

Let’s use Chatroulette for good. If you type quickly enough (the trick is to use cut and paste the moment you are connected to a user with a cam), the random stranger appearing on your screen may read your message before clicking away. That gives you one shot, so use it wisely. “Hi!” and similarly lame variants are out. Saying something shocking? Forget it, these folks will be numb to the core.

Instead, share some knowledge with them. Hit them with a piece of trivia in the style of the one shown in the picture above (“The piece of plastic at the end of a shoelace is called an aglet.”) I promise you, you will be amazed at the reaction. You’ll get the occasional wannabe gangster who offers a two-digit critique, but in most cases you’ll see a moment of confusion followed by a surprisingly high proportion of smiles, and an equally unlikely ratio of polite “Thank you for telling me.”.

Let’s do it. Let’s spread our geek-fueled knowledge, one cam user at a time.