Gizmodo: playstation eye

Sony's Crazy Interactive TV Patent Lets You Throw Tomatoes at Actors

Danny Allen — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 14:35:00 EST

Somehow we missed Sony Computer Entertainment America's fourth wall-breaking patent application earlier this month, but here's how the concept would work: Using a PS3, you'd control an on-screen avatar to throw tomatoes at actors, and even kick their ass…literally.

"Avatars displayed to a user, in response to user gestures in the real world, e.g. in response to manipulation of a game controller or other such expedient [PlayStation Eye or wand-based motion control?—Ed], may toss tomatoes that stick to the actor's face or bounce off the actor's face and roll along a table that appears in the movie or television show."

The virtual avatars would be overlaid just like Joel Robinson's silhouette in Mystery Science Theater 3000. In fact, the patent application actually mentions the cult U.S comedy series.

"The avatar of the audience member 39a is now out of its seat, has rushed up to the actor in the scene, and has kicked the actor in the behind while the target is still displayed. The first participant to accomplish this may be awarded points…The kicked individual may be displaced or the portion of the body that is kicked may respond. Key to this aspect of the invention is modeling the physics and the interaction of the impacting object, e.g. the duck and the underlying object, e.g. the water, in a way that is realistic. Known game technology techniques can be used to accomplish this modeling."

Sony's patent also mentions the possibility of overlaying advertising like Nike and Coke logos. Come to think of it, being able to throw tomatoes at ads might actually get me to stop skipping them. At least until the novelty wears off. Either way, crazy stuff, no? [USPTO via Silicon Era via Kotaku]

PlayStation Eye Research Paves the Way for Auto Generated Avatars, Augmented-Reality Porn

Danny Allen — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 07:45:00 EDT

Sony Labs has demoed some advanced facial recognition that it's researching for the PlayStation Eye. The system figures-out gender, knows where you're facing, and even tracks mouth movement. And eventually, the tech will make its way into new PS3 games.

Sony Labs has been researching this technology for a while. I think most people are familiar with it from Smile Shutter in the Sony CyberShot, and autofocus with face detection. But now, we've migrated this technology to PS3, and made it available as an SDK.

Through its various points of detection, the system can recognize individual faces and overlay a different model for each person. And that's where things get a little more interesting. Aside from augmented-reality uses, Sony imagines the tech being used to generate virtual world avatars on the fly...[DigInfo]

PlayStation Eye Still Alive, Support For Facial Recognition Coming Soon

Jack Loftus — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 12:00:00 EDT

The all-but-forgotten PlayStation Eye, not one to be outshined by its prototype, unnamed motion-sensing PlayStation controller brother, will soon support facial recognition.

Says Sony Europe's Head of Developer Services, Kish Hirani, the Eye will have the ability to "detect gender and even the age of the face, separate facial features such as the nose, eyes and ears, and even detect whether you're smiling or not."

And taking a page from Microsoft's Natal platform, Hirani said the Eye will also support "skeleton tracking."

Now, I'll admit, these are cool features, but I do hope the update allows the PlayStation Eye to work in the dark. Facial recognition firmware update or not, for this to work Sony's going to have to figure out a way for this forgotten gadget to function from within the pitch black confines of people's storage closets and attics. [Gamasutra Kotaku]

PlayStation Eye Tracks Your Face As You Dodge, Duck, Dip, Dive and Dodge

Wilson Rothman — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 15:40:00 EST

Last week at GDC, Sony showed how the standard PlayStation Eye camera connected to a standard PS3 does well at tracking face and body movement, even at some distance. As you can see in the above video starring my good friend Stephen Totilo, it works great, and would be brilliant for duck-and-cover maneuvering in first-person shooters. However, as you might guess, support for games has yet to be announced. I've got my fingers crossed for Dodgeball: The Movie: The Game, complete with 3D wrenches. [MTV Multiplayer]

PlayStation Eye Concepts Really Are The Future

Mark Wilson — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 09:45:59 EST

These tech demos are seriously amazing. The PlayStation Eye camera that connects to the PS3 is one of the more promising entertainment devices that the mass public still barely knows about. Here's a peek inside the Sony test labs showing what their innovative, custom programming can do with what would otherwise be just another webcam. And hit the jump for a bonus video.

Now we just need to learn how to draw. UPDATE: We pulled the second video due to technical difficulties. Hit up that Sony link to get your fill on the other concepts. [Sony via digg]

Playstation Eye Now Available

Sean Fallon — Tue, 23 Oct 2007 19:10:28 EDT

We have been telling you about the impending release of the Playstation Eye for some time now, but for those of you who have trouble remembering what month we are currently in, much less the release date of highly anticipated gaming peripherals, you will be happy to know that the Playstation Eye is now available. The device will come bundled with the Eye of Judgement card game with EyeCreate, the video capturing and editing application available as a free download via the Playstation network.

PlayStation Eye Coming Cyclopsian For $39

Jason Chen — Fri, 12 Oct 2007 16:10:42 EDT

We already knew the PlayStation Eye webcam was coming bundled with the Eye of Judgement card game, but you'll be able to buy it solo for $39 on October 23 as well. It's got a four-microphone array to let you do AV chat, which is one more thing you can add to your list of "Things I Do with the PS3 Other than Gaming". [PlayStation Blog]

The PS3 webcam PlayStation Eye is coming...

Jason Chen — Thu, 23 Aug 2007 14:30:01 EDT

The PS3 webcam PlayStation Eye is coming October 23, bundled with a copy of Eye of Judgment, the weird playing/trading card game. [Amazon via Krunker]

PlayStation 3 Eyetoy No Longer Toy

Wilson Rothman — Thu, 26 Apr 2007 10:05:03 EDT

The PlayStation EyeToy has grown up: today, it has officially been rechristened, simply, PlayStation Eye. It will be out this summer, at an as-yet-unannounced price.

Judging from its appearance, function outweighs form. The original EyeToy had an industrial yet streamlined look, like one of those battleships at the beginning of The Fifth Element. The all-new Eye, on the other hand, looks like it could be one of the loser droids at the back of the sand crawler's holding pen.

But like I said, this is a feature play.

The Eye has a four-microphone array for multidirectional voice location tracking, enhanced echo canceling and background noise suppression. That means, according to Sony, no headset necessary.

The USB 2.0 camera can capture up to 120 frames at 320x240 resolution; a still impressive 60 frames in 640x480. It has a digital zoom (or perhaps, digital wide angle) feature that captures either a 56 degree field of view or a 75 degree field of view. And it's designed to work better than its predecessor in low light. Compare all that to the XBox cam's 640 x 480 res at 30 frames per second.

EyeCreate software that comes with lets you take photos, mess with them, and even capture video and audio to save on your PS3's hard drive. The best EyeCreate feature is time-lapse photography: when taking one pic every 15 minutes for 12 hours reveals you in the exact same position with the same blank look on your face, you will have documented proof of how sad your life really is. – Wilson Rothman

PlayStation Eye Brings Next-Generation Communication to PlayStation 3 [Sony Computer Entertainment America]