Well, um, hmmm. This is awkward because I dont really have anything to say. Oh well I guess I'm just not fit out for this whole commenting thing.

Maybe I'm reading this wrong, but are you suggesting that you don't need to be black to dance?

Tron + DDR = Extra lame

So much cooler if they were 12 Mega watt lasers

I expect this to have issues with repeated presses.

i guess this is just a prototype, but i'd be worried about tripping over the frame or accidentally stepping on it. maybe the edges can/will be smoothed a little, though.

also, it'd be cool if they had a special version with an extra beam going through the center. so you could play pump it up style, too.

Sounds like an idea that wasn't thought out too well. One of the techniques in DDR or any game like it is not lifting your foot but shifting your weight. This just looks like it's going to make you stomp.

so the lasers don't cut off your legs?

C'mon. Let's give it up for deadhouseplants comment: possibly the best I've ever red on Giz and an honorable mention to giyad. Slouch not this sunday.

So it can't do two opposing diagonals at the same time?

cool! so someone can buy 10 of these and make a high tech laser-secured alarm and no one can come close to bedroom...

Then all you need is a fog machine and some Gary Numan and it's a party.

That prototype as it stands will be unable to distinguish a single foot in a corner and one at the NSEW non-corner positions.

It will need another laser across the center horizontal and vertical.

[)amien

This is all fun and games until your X360 becomes self-aware and perceives your lame dancing as a threat to it's continued existence - then this'll turn into that horror scene in Resident Evil when the SpecOps guys walk into the hallway leading to that f***ing scary little girl hologram!! Yikes!!

I foresee 2 issues because of the way DDR is played.

quick, consecutive notes: you leave your foot on the pad and "nudge" to register these notes--where your foot doesn't even come off the pad. I don't think a laser would be able to pick that up.

foot placement: when you get crazy, you don't always step in the middle of the direction squares--you often only hit corners during doubles. since it's a single beam of light--your foot would probably have to interupt the line right to register a step.

it's a cool idea though--maybe if the entire square was a plane of light right down against the ground--then maybe it'd be the coolest, end-all solution for home-use DDR pads.

I foresee one more problem when you smash the living crap out of a diode with a misplaced foot (shoes required.)