CROSSING swords with a Viking warrior and a tennis clash with Pete Sampras could soon be a virtual reality due to the major breakthrough in computer technology being made by a Harrogate company,

A tracking device being developed by Tracklink Systems Ltd with help from Business Link North Yorkshire, is set to revolutionise the way we interact with computer games by detecting real-time physical movements and reproducing them on screen.

And the company is also applying the technology to a type of "virtual" pen that will allow you to write or draw on paper and have the wording or graphics simultaneously beamed directly into your laptop or mobile phone.

The computer gaming advance means tennis fans will be able to hold a real tennis racket with a device built into it and play actual shots against a computer version of Sampras or another famous player.

Similarly, by fastening the device to a sword, players will be able to have "real" sword fights against computerised Vikings or other warriors. And fixing it to arms and legs will enable players to throw real punches and kicks in martial arts and other action games.

This means that the days of parents bemoaning their children for being hunched over computer games for hours on end may soon be over.

The company, of Springfield Avenue, Harrogate, has won a SMART Micro Project award from the DTI to help it develop the device and received assistance and guidance in securing the award from Business Link North Yorkshire innovation and technology adviser Roger Benson.

The device, a kind of interface, uses advanced microwave technology and is the brainchild of managing director Nigel Stevens, who founded the company in 1997 and secured an initial DTI SMART award in 1998 to fund a feasibility study into his invention.

Mr Stevens, who was joint managing director of a Yorkshire-based computer gaming company between 1982 and 1989, says: "At the moment there is technology around which allows replication of a limited amount of movement but my interface, if all goes to plan, will allow full real-time motion detection, without any cumbersome equipment or wires.

"So people, for example, will be able to play a game of tennis with an actual racket in their hands instead of having to push buttons and levers on a gamepad, making the experience about as natural as is feasibly possible.

"Just one of the advantages of this is that children can be getting exercise instead of spending hours slouched over joystick equipment which is unhealthy and leads to RSI."

Mr Stevens adds: "We are developing a range of products using the technology with potentially global market opportunities. Another application we are currently working on is a security tag for monitoring babies and toddlers that we think will be more effective than anything currently on the market.

"I am very grateful to Roger Benson at Business Link North Yorkshire for his help in winning the SMART award. He guided us through all the various stages of our application and I'm not sure if we would have managed to secure it without him."