I’ve held on to this for a little while now because I didn’t want it to get lost in everything that came out of E3. I was surprised that I didn’t really hear anybody talking about it at the show. That up there is the Peregrine and, while it looks like a sleeker version of the Power Glove, this thing appears to actually do what it claims.
Peregrine is a USB input device for mapping keyboard commands. Three contacts are found on the tip of the thumb, the meat of the thumb and along the palm. Running all along the fingers are conductive leads — up to four per finger — that, when touched to one of the contact points, issues the mapped command for that combination of lead and contact. There are over thirty combinations (far more are possible but impractical from an accuracy standpoint).
And see that little pad thing on the back of the glove? That’s the heart of the device. It attaches magnetically so that users won’t have to remove the glove to make a fridge or bathroom run. It also stores all of the configuration settings in flash memory so that the Peregrine can be taken to any computer that uses a keyboard and work right away.
Originally designed for the purpose of data entry using two gloves, it was determined that the learning curve was too great when trying to represent the entire keyboard but the possibilities for RTS and even MMO gamers are very intriguing. I, for one, can’t wait to try one out when it releases in fall of this year. It’s currently planned to retail at $129.99.
What do you guys think? Big pimpin’ or big waste of time?
