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[Gahiggidy]

Six year's ago I got a mouse from Logitech which had something called "iFeel", which used Immersion Corporation's TouchWare technology. What the iFeel mouse did was give a series of very subtle force-feedback vibrations through the casing of the mouse. Not as powerful as the rumble you get with N64 or GameCube controllers, but it had the ability to create various tactile sensations. For example, "Squeaky-Clean" felt like dragging your finger across plate-glass, mimicking the slippage in friction. There was "Electric" which vaguely reminded you of a light electric shock. Then there was "Rocky Road" which felt like crunching something. These sensations were mapped to the Windows interface and common applications. Every time you scrolled the cursor over a window's border, menu area, or hyperlink in IE, you got a little tactile response. It was pretty neat to try out, but not very useful for operating your computer.

I believe there is a good chance similar force-feedback technology will be that secret Nintendo as alluded about the Wii controller. The direct-pointing-device seems a little small to house traditional rumble motors. The iFeel motor is about the size of a quarter in diameter and a dime in thickness. And what better way to add the interactivity of the Wii controller than letting players "feel" objects in the environment? You could send a "pluck" vibration when Link let's go of an arrow. As you move the Wii controller from side to side to make Mario wall jump, you could feel the thud of each kick. The there is more practical uses like giving a little pulsating feedback when the controller's position moves near the boundary of the play area.

Or, it could be a microphone.

 

[fresquito]

Seeing how slow Neogaf is working, people should refrain from speculating. Even talking about old games or making late to the party/apreciation threads.

 

[GDGF]

I think Miyamoto once said that the final secret (or one of the secrets) to the controller would be something that would make people want to pick it up and use it. Something fun.
It could be the speaker, or it could be what you mentioned, or maybe a little bit of both?

Speaker built in would be awesome, though.

 

[jj984jj]

I doubt it, I bet it's the built-in sound EGM reported will be used in TP on Wii.

 

[Gahiggidy]

GAF's gonna make me a mod if I guess this one right.

 

[acidviper]

I'm sure they did the vibrator research

 

[Dr_Cogent]

GAF's gonna make me a mod if I guess this one right.

:lol

 

[Warm Machine]

My guess is that it'll be a microphone on the controller so you can do karoke and shit. May as well combine the feature into the thing as Nintendo has been using it for Mario Party and the Odama or whatever.

 

[TheGreatDave]

It won't happen

 

[Danthrax]

You should change the threat title to denote that this is speculation. =\

 

[acoustic_douche]

Please tell me you aren't claiming this to be an original idea? People have been speculating this same thing for over a year...

 

[Guzim]

I hope Gahiggidy gets this right so he's mod :lol

 

[Christoff Yurievich]

Spoiler

speaker not rumble.

haven't you seen the EGM thread?

though there could still be some form of "new" rumble, I think the above is it.

 

[antispin]

What's this about the controller having its own speakers? True that? :lol