Back in late September, I told you about Movi.Kanti.Revo, a client-side-rendered, HTML5- and web browser-based, and gesture interface-implemented application co-developed by Cirque du Soleil and Google. For the moment, at least, Movi.Kanti.Revo is only supported on conventional computers (along with a limited set of browsers, at that). However, the following portion of a recent writeup in VentureBeat particularly caught my eye (the bolded emphasis is mine):
On desktop, however, there are limited sensors to access — primarily the webcam. Lepage [Google Developer Advocate Pete LePage, to be precise] sees more possibilities in mobile and is excited about what the native web can do in mobile.
“I think this is one of those things that is really going to take off on the web in a year or so,” he said. “And not just for casual games but for the big games too. Imagine playing Halo and having the webcam going automatically to chat with your friends.”
On mobile, there’s more sensor availability: orientation, movement, and, in newer phones, a front-facing camera. That promises to give developers abilities in the future that can only be imagined on an Xbox 360 Kinect-like environment today.
“That what’s exciting,” Lepage told me, “giving users access to things they previously had to buy special hardware for.”
And it does take some hardware: Movi Kanti Revo got the fan on my MacBook Air going after just a few minutes. Lepage says that’s probably the GPU, as everything on the site is hardware accelerated. But they had tested on Nexus 7 tablets and Chromebooks — not particularly beefy machines — and had seen “pretty good performance,” he said.
But hardware, including mobile hardware, is getting better every few months. And with it grow the possibilities for developers to create new experiences for their audiences.
None of this is necessarily a surprise to those of you who have been following the accomplishments and aspirations of companies such as Embedded Vision Alliance members eyeSight Mobile Technologies and PointGrab, along with the initial implementations of their smartphone and tablet partners. Still, it's gratifying to see these ideas begin to receive mainstream technology press attention!
