VIDEO GAME DUO SCORE WITH DEVICE\Body movements control action on screen.

Byline: Laurence Darmiento Daily News Staff Writer

While many parents find their children's absorption in video games a source of irritation, two founders of a local start-up company have found it a source of inspiration that could make them very rich.

After watching their young children play "Mortal Kombat" and other popular games, Jack Norton and Bela Brozsek have developed a gesture-based video game controller they hope will revolutionize the industry.

Out of bedroom offices in their respective homes, they have created a controller that transforms hand and body movements into commands that can race a car, fight a knight, make a runner jump or do anything else required by a video game.

"We were watching our kids play and noticed they were acting the motion of the character while pushing the buttons," said Norton, 37, whose Saugus home serves as headquarters of their company, Perception Systems Inc.

"We just said if you can put a camera on that and figure out what they are doing, you could throw away the button box and joystick."

Taking advantage of technical backgrounds and experience with video imaging, the pair did just that after leaving jobs most would covet.

Norton quit as an engineering vice president at a Culver City post-production color effects house, and Brozsek left his post as a creative director at a Venice special effects company.

And just six months after receiving $500,000 from a group of overseas investors, Perception Systems debuted its ZON controller at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas to thousands of curious onlookers.

"It was amazing," said Brozsek, 37, a Topanga Canyon resident. "We have pictures of people with these (wide-eyed) looks on their faces."

The controller uses an inexpensive digital eye that captures human movements, which are then turned into computer commands using patented programming and hardware.

Depending on the game and how close the player is to the controller, game figures can be controlled with the movement of a hand or with full body movements.

Plans call for the controller, which is just 7 inches high and not much wider, to be priced under $99 and be on the market by summer. It will have exact settings for about 50 popular games and a "default" mode for others.

Andy Eddy, a producer for an on-line version of GamePro, a leading consumer video game magazine, said the technology sounds intriguing, but the industry is littered with past efforts to improve upon button controllers.

"There have been attempts like that before, and they have been sort of gimmicky," Eddy said. "It is a novelty unless it's an improvement. Players want function, and button controllers are precise."

Among past attempts that have failed in the marketplace are a ball-based controller that allowed players to move in multiple dimensions and a virtual reality glove control that had sensors, he said.

Norton and Brozsek say, however, they are well aware of all the past attempts. They claim their controller truly is an improvement that players will be willing to spend a little extra for.

"It's completely intuitive," said Brozsek, a Hungarian who escaped his native country in 1979 while it was still Communist. "There was a kid who came to the booth. I was trying to explain it, and before I could, he was using it."