What made this possible was there in 2002, because the basic concept of this is that a
camera sees a
colored point, the end. That is this motion controller's technology. The entire technology is the Wii's IR sensor turned backwards.
YouTube - Head Tracking for Desktop VR Displays using the WiiRemote
Remember this? Johnny Lee became famous because he did with the Wiimote what people didn't think to do: use the
Wiimote as the stationary point and the
person what it tracks, not the other way. So, he thought to take the Wii's IR camera and then allow the tracking to be points on the body, ie, shiny pieces and LEDs that it could see on your fingertips or head. This is the same exact technology.
I'm not blind to see, Sony hasn't been
working on this otherwise there would have been patents. When a company comes up with an idea, they
need it patented even if they aren't going to use it so they can sit on it to avoid legal issues later down the road, otherwise similar ideas can be introduced by other companies and they won't be able to do anything about it.
Sony did not patent this technology or even the
concept of it until 2008 as a response to the need to develop a motion controller for their console. Now, of course companies will say that they were "already working on this forever ago" because you
need to say that, and in this case it's immensely easy to say that the Eyetoy was the baby-steps towards the technology, because it was, all this technology is is the Eyetoy + a way to track a wand, however that doesn't make this "being worked on" since the Eyetoy, it makes it them working with previously developed technology.
Sony said that the PS2's ethernet port wasn't a response to Xbox Live, Microsoft said the Xbox Live Vision Camera wasn't a response to the Eyetoy, Microsoft said that the HD-DVD drive wasn't a response to Blu-Ray, Sony said that the XMB and the Playstation Home button weren't a response to the Dashboard and X button. They
all are, but no one will
say they are because that's not how companies
work.
It's not really hard to see, look at the comments in the article you posted:
"Wow, strange enough Sony, Nintendo and Microsoft all somehow developed their motion control years before the others. Fascinating! Its a like...freaky
coincidence"
"Yep, they've all been developing motion controls at the same time they've been ridiculing Nintendo for announcing one"
"Funny how it's been in development so long, yet they hardly had tangible tech demo ready for the largest Video Game conference of the year, nor the proper presentators to demonstrate it."
Everyone is lying about everything. That's called "Public Relations".
