Impulse Technology drops patent infringement suit against Nintendo

by Jessica Conditt on Oct 22nd 2012 9:00PM

Impulse Technology Ltd. voluntarily dropped a lawsuit against Nintendo alleging the Wii, Wiimote, Balance Board and Wii Fit Plus infringed on Impulse's patent for the Trazer Interactive Fitness machine. An "unfavorable decision from Judge James Gwin of the U.S. District Court in Cleveland" undermined Impulse's legal arguments.

Richard Medway, Nintendo of America's deputy general counsel, was "very pleased with the court's ruling, which forced Impulse to walk away from this lawsuit," he said. "Nintendo vigorously defends patent lawsuits when we firmly believe that we have not infringed another party's patent. We will continue our tradition of developing unique and innovative products while respecting the intellectual property rights of others."

Impulse similarly sued Microsoft under the same allegations, but relating to its Kinect technology.

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Impulse Technology suing Nintendo for patent infringement

by Griffin McElroy on Nov 25th 2011 6:45PM

Tech developer Impulse Technology -- that name sound familiar? -- has filed a lawsuit against Nintendo and a score of third-party studios, accusing them of violating a 1996 patent for an "interactive system for measuring physiological exertion." The suit is largely based on the weight-tracking Wii Balance Board (and the games which use it, like Wii Fit Plus, Zumba Fitness 2 and UFC Personal Trainer), which Impulse claims too closely resemble its own Trazer Interactive Fitness machine.

Normally, we'd scoff at such a lawsuit, especially since Impulse leveraged almost the exact same claims against Microsoft for its Kinect hardware this past July. Still, take a look at the Trazer Interactive Fitness machine, seen above. The resemblance truly is uncanny, right?

Right?

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Fruit Ninja becomes life-size using CAVE technology

by Griffin McElroy on Mar 29th 2011 11:30PM

The same encapsulating virtual reality display that led to the memorable Kinect hack from last week now has an altogether new and exciting purpose. A group of students from FH-Wedel Germany have turned the CAVE hardware and a Wiimote into a gigantic, all-encompassing version of Fruit Ninja.

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