AiLive

AiLive Inc.
Private
Founded April 13, 2000
Headquarters Mountain View, California
Slogan Natural Engagement
Website Official website

AiLive Inc. (formerly iKuni) is a software company based in Mountain View, California. The company was founded in 2000 by software programmer and developer Wei Yen. The company has worked closely with Nintendo on the development of motion-sensing hardware, tools and software for the Wii video game console.

AiLive is responsible for the LiveMove series of products.[1][2] The system was introduced in 2006, using machine learning technology to facilitate the development of motion recognition packages for individual games. Developers are able to use the software to build classifiers from provided examples of specific motions to be included in each game. The LiveMove system is used for development of games for the Wii.[3] Though initially released for professional developers of Wii games, the software was designed for use by independent developers as well, with a goal of expanding the possibilities of the new console and Wii Remote interface.[1] For the year 2011, AiLive's technology was used in 5 out of the top 11 best selling Wii games, with the Wii Sports Resort, Just Dance 2 and Just Dance 3 titles reaching #1 bestselling status over all platforms.

Wii MotionPlus

AiLive developed the Wii MotionPlus.[4] The device added short term 3D position tracking and long-term 3D orientation tracking to the Wii Remote motion controller. Initially provided as a dongle, the technology has since been integrated into all new Wii Remote controllers carrying the logo Wii MotionPlus Inside.[5] The Wii MotionPlus was initially shipped in a bundle with the Wii Sport Resort game. Nintendo shipped more than 29 million units globally, making it the sixth best selling game of all time. In addition to the Wii MotionPlus device concept, AiLive developed and patented the motion tracking algorithms for the device and made them available to developers through the LiveMove 2 software.[6][7]

LiveMove 2

A new version of the software, LiveMove 2, was announced on July 7, 2008.[8] Similar to the previous version, LiveMove 2 was developed specifically to work with Nintendo hardware. In this case, the software is a development tool for use with the Wii MotionPlus attachment that AiLive had codeveloped.[8] On June 2, 2009, following the unveiling of PlayStation Move at Electronic Entertainment Expo 2009, AiLive announced the release of LiveMove 2 for PlayStation 3. Through a partnership between AiLive and Sony, the LiveMove 2 software was made available to all registered PlayStation 3 developers.

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 Brandon Boyer (2006-11-20). "AiLive's LiveMove Brings AI Brains To Wii Developers". Gamasutra.com. Retrieved 2008-07-30.
  2. AiLive Inc., LiveMove White Paper, 2006
  3. "Nintendo and AiLive Announce New Tool For Creative and Easy Wii Development". AiLive. Retrieved 2006-10-12.
  4. "AiLive Shows Off WiiMotionPlus". July 30, 2008.
  5. "Report: There Is A New Wii-Remote". kotaku.com. Sep 24, 2010.
  6. "Self-Contained Inertial Navigation System for Interactive Control Using Movable Controllers". United States Patent and Trademark Office. Jan 25, 2008.
  7. "LiveMove 2: Motion recognition and tracking". AiLive Inc. 2008.
  8. 8.0 8.1 "AILive Reveals LiveMove2 For Wii MotionPlus". Gamasutra.com. 2008-07-15. Archived from the original on 30 July 2008. Retrieved 2008-07-30.