( CNN ) -- Move , Sony 's new motion controller for the PlayStation 3 , has been nearly everywhere in the days and weeks leading up to its official release September 19 . Gaming fans and critics alike have seen what the new device can do , how it will behave and even how it will affect their current and future gaming . But as complex and complicated as it seems , the Move had a very basic beginning . To paraphrase Walt Disney , it all began with a ball . At a demo event in Washington , the man behind the Move , Richard Marks , talked about how the motion controller came to be and where he hopes it will take gaming in the future . As the manager of research and development for Sony , Marks said that work on the Move started after they developed the EyeToy camera for the PlayStation 2 and discovered they needed a ball to help it focus . `` Early work with the EyeToy camera got it to recognize specific shapes and colors to help it with tracking , '' Marks said . `` We figured out that lighting is key to tracking . '' Marks and his team found that the EyeToy , which is now a part of the Move system , was able to find and follow items that were sphere- or ball-shaped . It 's not surprising , then , that the hand controllers for the Move , which started showing up in online stores this week , are topped with colored balls that have led some to compare them to ice cream cones . `` The sphere looks the same no matter what angle you hold it , '' he said . `` The camera then tracks the location by the size of the sphere . Bigger sphere means closer to the screen , while smaller means further away . '' The development team used foam spheres with some success until a researcher wanted to make the spheres light up . It turned out that lighting the ball helped the EyeToy track the device even better . `` [ The researcher ] wanted the sphere to change colors to reflect different things in potential gameplay , '' Marks said . `` What we found was that the camera worked better because the colored light in the ball makes it stand out from any background . '' The Move and EyeToy actually examine the surroundings of a player for color pixels and then assign a completely different color to light up the sphere . The result is a smoother tracking of movement in three dimensions , something that a similar controller for another console ca n't do . Once they got the camera to track a lighted , colored sphere reliably , how could they turn that into a game device ? Marks said that for his very first rudimentary Move controller , he took a regular controller for the PS3 and put the ball on one end . `` I cut the ends off because I wanted to make something that would feel good in one hand and had buttons to help with gameplay , '' he said . `` It was n't pretty . '' The research-and-development team began to tweak the look and feel of the proto-Move controller , adding a gyroscope and accelerometer to assist with game movement . Marks insisted that the new device keep the buttons from the PS3 controller because he said they are needed to do specific , in-game movements . `` You want to know you are having an effect in the game . Buttons give you instant feedback instead of just waving a hand to get something done , '' Marks said . `` Not only can you quickly change from item to item using buttons , the T-button [ an analog button located where your fingers wrap around the device ] allows you to control how much of something you want to do . It gives the players more feedback and more freedom . '' Marks envisions the Move controller as a device that will allow players the opportunity to explore 3-D environments and games in ways that previously were seen in science fiction movies . He said the Move can pinpoint the position and angle of the player 's hand in a way that 's perfect for point-of-view games . Although his team had a good controller in hand , it was too expensive in the beginning . Eventually , pricing of the components , specifically the gyro and accelerometer , came down . Marks said sensor technology also got better over time . `` We could have done something early , but it would n't have been as good , '' he explained . And if one Move is good , two are better . `` Two Move controllers allow for more detail , '' Marks explained . `` It opens up so many more possibilities for game developers to really put players in the middle of the action . There are a lot of things you can do as long as the platform is good . '' He said first-person shooter games like `` SOCOM '' and individual sports games such as tennis , golf and archery will be the early success stories for the Move . But he 's not counting out any game genre because , he said , developers are testing out the Move to find out what it can and ca n't do . `` I want new ways to show up to do things we have n't even thought of , '' Marks said . `` The Move is n't going away any time soon . ''
The Move system grew out of the EyeToy camera for PlayStation 2 . Researchers found the EyeToy tracked sphere shapes the best . Using two Move controllers instead of one allows for more detail . Score: 6