Johnny Chung Lee Interview

AT: Can you give us a few hints about your next Wii-mote Project?

JCL: Well, one obvious extension of the finger tracking work is to use two cameras to give full 3D tracking. I have a number of other ideas, but I'd like to keep those under wraps for now. I don't want to get too far ahead of myself.

AT: Do you see this type of technology on other platforms (360, PS3, etc.)?

JCL: Hopefully. I think the pixel-pushing race between Microsoft and Sony is becoming less and less effective. The gaming experience will only be marginally better even if the graphics are 100 times more powerful. I personally feel the future of gaming will be in new forms of interaction and immersion. That's where the bottle neck is. The successful products will be the ones that provide something exciting and new rather than a slightly better version of what was done before.

AT: Do you have any ambitions to work as a game designer?

JCL: Not really, actually. I like doing interaction research and only some of my work is relevant to gaming. The skills needed to make a good game are good writers, animators, artists, 3D programmers, etc. None of those are my particular strengths. I would rather be involved in helping design the next 2-3 generations of computing platforms, rather than designing a particular game.

AT: So, when are you applying for a job at Nintendo?

JCL: Hehe. I'm actually not. Though, I wouldn't mind chatting with them about what they hope to do with the next console. I love Nintendo products and I think they are doing a great job. But, I'm not sure I want to make games my career.

AT: Thanks for taking the time to answer our questions. We wish you all the best in your future endeavors.

JCL: No problem, it's been a pleasure.

You can learn more about Johnny's projects on his web site.

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Reader Comments

	burnart	[mail] Sep 03 2009, 12:00 am EDT
	Reply Finally a real feature. More of these please. and although I have a intense hate for everyone smarter than me, this was pretty clever from Mr.Phd

	warrenEBB	[mail] Sep 03 2009, 12:00 am EDT
	Reply While Johnny is doing cool impressive things, people should note that the head tracking aspect has already been available to PC users for 5 years or more with the TrackIR device. Which is an optical head tracker with more precision than the wiimote, but it has no accelerometers, and only works in 80 or so PC games (mostly flgiht and racing sims). Seriously, this already exists. check out www.trackir.com PC dudes already have fully 3D joysticks with Novint's Falcon, and DS-style stylus screens with the wacom Cintiq. 3DV is bring back depth vision cameras. All this tech's been kicking around for over 10 years, but nobody seems to know - until the wiimote is hacked. Consoles are where all the money is, so i can whine about PCs having all this already with little effect. But I'd love to hear/read more about how all these things can actually get through the maze of patents and beaurocrats, so the "other two" giant console companies can dumb them down for console gamin'. It's bewildering how long it takes for old tech to actually reach public conciousness.

	Hitman	[mail] Sep 03 2009, 12:00 am EDT
	Reply I agree with Burn, we need more interviews around here. Can you please interview Jade next, I love good looking nerdy sluts, I have a few questions for her. 1) I heard that you are good with your tongue but I doubt the rumors, care to prove me wrong? 2)If I pulled you over and pretended to be a cop, would you try and suck your way out of the situation.. if yes that Chevy following you home tonight is not me, it's a cop, you should pull over. Yeah so ask her question like that, goooooo Interviews.