By Andrea Nicholl
A Lloydminster entrepreneur has taken the global market of virtual reality by the hand.
Brent Baier, CEO and president of Iron Will Creations and creator of the PEREGRINE, has developed a wearable interface that empowers game players and allows them to take control of their games, with the touch of a finger.
“Instead of them having to hit keyboard keys now all they’ll have to do is tap their fingers, and the nice thing is they’ll never have to look down to find a key again because the game is in their hands, literally,” said Baier, adding the glove increases player reaction time by nearly 20 per cent.
The PEREGRINE game glove allows gamers to react more quickly to “intense gaming situations” by allowing players to perform over 30 unique actions by touching finger to thumb. The glove essentially transforms the player’s hand into a keyboard, triggering a variety of commandments through three Activator Pads (on the thumb tip, thumb middle and palm) and 18 TouchPoints (located on the fingers).
When the Pads make contact with a TouchPoint a ‘keystroke’ is instantly sent to the game, commanding character action.
“The genesis behind the idea was to make something so simple that you could just put it on and within a few minutes you would understand how to use it,” said Baier. “This is just a quick, natural way for people to interact with technology and information.”
The “divinely inspired” concept for the PEREGRINE came about in summer 2004, though Baier didn’t begin real work and development until summer 2005. He says his humble beginnings and undeniable passion helped him take the ideas and prototypes from his Lloydminster apartment to the international market.
“When I started with this I said to myself, ‘if I don’t step out and do this I’m going to regret it the rest of my life.’
“I’ve always believed work hard, dream big and trust God,” he said, adding the realization of PEREGRINE was the result of dedication and reckless courage.
“I don’t think it happened by chance, I think there’s a reason things happen - you have to see a bigger purpose in it all and seize the opportunity.”
The Macklin farm boy says he never imagined his idea would spawn such a promising future and source for endless opportunity.
The initial idea was to use the product for typing, but Baier and a team of advisors decided the entertainment route was the best introduction, but only the beginning. Plans are in place to move toward consoles with the development of a motion and gesture sensing glove, and into the future the product will expand into the engineering and drafting sectors, military applications and possibly aid people with disabilities.
“We announced the product eight months ago, and the response has just been tremendous,” said Baier.
“It’s been 4.5 years of hard work for six months of explosive growth.”
The PEREGRINE was first publicly revealed in June 2009 at the E3 expo in Los Angeles, but garnered much of its attention and respect from the 2010 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, last month.
The gaming glove will not be released to the public until March, though consumers in 21 different countries have already pre-ordered the high-tech gaming glove.
“I hope local people will be inspired, excited and proud of what we’ve done here in Lloydminster.”
The current version of PEREGRINE is appropriate for real time strategy and Massively-Multiplayer Online games more so than first-person shooter games. PEREGRINE is compatible with RTS titles like Heroes of Newerth, StarCraft, WarCraft III, Defense of the Ancients, World of WarCraft and FPS titles such as Counter-Strike and Call of Duty.
PEREGRINE is only available online, but will be available in big box retailers by the end of this year.
For more information, or to pre-order the PEREGRINE at a discounted price, visit www.thePEREGRINE.com.