Sony revealed its new PlayStation Eye camera last week and it’s a pretty powerful piece of kit, boasting four times the resolution of the EyeToy, as well as better low-light performance and a microphone for video chatting.
The device will contribute heavily toward the next generation of camera gaming — and make no mistake, the camera is going to be the accessory of the decade. The combination of talent-show TV with the Web 2.0 revolution has instigated a burgeoning era of fame gaming. It’s not the winning that counts, it’s the being seen taking part.
There are some interesting PlayStation Eye titles on the way. The new online version of Sony’s SingStar karaoke game will allow users to record videos of themselves performing, and then post them online for other players to rate.
In the online multiplayer mode of forthcoming racer Burnout 5, the Eye automatically takes shots of your horrified face whenever your car crashes — these are sent to your opponent, allowing players to build large galleries of their victims. Users will also be able to film and edit home videos, and then upload them to YouTube. Grafting photos of ourselves on to avatars, which may then carry our identities into Home, the PS3 massively multiplayer virtual world, is another possibility.
But cameras have a more serious role to play in gaming. The EyeToy camera introduced the concept of motion tracking to a wide audience, a technology that allows players to control games through simple physical gestures. This was just the beginning. GestureTek, the company that provided the motion-reading software for EyeToy and the Xbox camera, has produced a version for phones that uses the built-in camera to track the motion of the user’s hand.
As with the Wii controller, mobile gamers can now play golf and tennis sims by merely wafting their cellphone around. The new D904i phone from Japan’s NTT Docomo has the EyeMobile Engine built in. More will follow.
There are technologies already providing head tracking for PC gamers using USB cameras (NaturalPoint’s TrackIR, for example). But PlayStation Eye could bring this concept to the masses. Beyond that, the holy grail is full real-time 3D tracking. Imagine a game that can translate your every movement into onscreen action.
Experts reckon the technology will be widely available in the next couple of years. The Wii controller has been fundamental in introducing movement controlled games to a huge audience, but it’s still only tracking one hand. The Eye could change all that. — Guardian Unlimited Â