I am both the original and the reincarnated power glove...Combine the hottest video game with a $10,000 computer peripheral, shape it into an inexpensive yet futuristic 'glove', and you've got this year's smash toy.
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Throw away your joysticks, kids. Punching out the heavy-weights and zapping alien spaceships on your home video screen has evolved from two-dimensional wrist-wringing to 3-D arm-swinging. The Mattel Power Glove has elevated the level of video interaction by an order of magnitude -- the difference between a toggle switch and a ray gun.
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In design terms, a versatile, $75 commercial product--replete with sensors, programmable keypad, and microprocessor--was quickly gleaned from a $10,000 computer peripheral used by NASA robots in space. Teams of engineers on both coasts bridged the price and application gaps so quickly that even the Japanese decided it would take too long to develop their own.
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Ever since Japan's Nintendo Entertainment System and video game cartridges invaded the minds of America's youth a few years ago, toy designers and inventors have been scrambling to devise the next generation of electronic games. Abrams Gentile Entertainment Inc. (AGE), New York, staked its claim on a 3-D peripheral that puts the player through the actual motions of the game. Rather than beat Nintendo, AGE and Mattel engineers joined them by relying on the Nintendo system, but adding a better link between kid and machine.
