Interesting concept though. But I'll just wait to see how they're gonna use it. Gestures are not enough to make it more than just a gimmick... like AR.

Bokusatsu_Tenshi

has anyone heard of a price?

The tech is improved on eyetoy (and web cam motion sensing) of the past by mixing int he depth sensing. but depth sensing cameras have classically had a small range (like 3 feet where it's accurate, though you can set this 3 foot range to be out a certain place in the room - it doesn't necessarily mean their shit only works in the first 3 feet of their demo machine. that would of course be retarded for a living room gaming environment... curioussss.). The other problem classically has been the need to put out a lot of infra red light. like A LOT. And if you pump out a lot of infrared light, you don't want ot be staring into it for hours on end. it'd be like staring into a halogen bulb. except IR is invisible so you'd probably just get mysterious headaches every day.

still. i haven't used their zcam. fingers crossed that it is both improved on past tech and cheap. (a depth cam i experimented with a couple years ago, just black and white depth data mind you, ran more than 5,000 bucks). I'm nervous that they're planning to cheat on the zdepth by working in the color data as well (eye toy style). hmmmmmm.

warrenE33

toyotaboy

tchangtx

Geist420

awdark

EMoShunz

Vagabum

The PC manufacturers will never adopt and bundle it until there is a slew of software that supports it and the software developers will never support it until there is substantial market penetration that will not happen because the PC manufacturers will never bundle it. Sony and MS may be all over it though as they struggle to catch up to Nintendo in the interface innovation category in hopes of attracting those elusive new casual gamers that are flocking to the Wii.

Vagabum

dcartist

[www.3dvsystems.com]

Videomatting without a monochrome background. Greenscreen without the green. It doesn't really make a 3D model, so much as a topographic map of all the visible pixels, showing distance from camera of every pixel, based on the timing of reflected IR on your sensor pixels.

The real key to using this as a computer control is coming up with a reliable, intuitive, OS that incorporates gestures in the air, no mean task.

With a bit of cleverness, definitely could do some great things with it.

If you set up several cameras at different angles, you can crunch a little math to do tomography, and do true, realtime motion capture without the "pingpong balls".

I work in pediatric rehab, and this camera might be really good for tracking dyskinetic and spastic movements to pull out meaningful gestures for communication. Also could probably use something like this in the gait lab as well, when the frame rate gets higher. The resolution isn't high enough to manufacture orthotics, but maybe then next gen could.

-

What is the core price of the chip since it's not mass produced yet? I suspect the D-channel detector chip has a much lower resolution than 1.3 MP... but the data is then mapped onto the 1.3M RGB visible pixels (figure it's not necessary to be that high in the D channel, because objects of interest are not going to be only 1-2 pixels wide).

dcartist

It's a clever method of detecting depth information about visible pixels in the frame, to separate foreground and background objects.

The information that the camera ends up with, though, is more like a topographic map, than actually mapping 3 D objects, since you can't see behind objects, you can only see the depth of visible pixels.

According to this, the original application was "video-keying" without a monochrome background. i.e. greenscreen without the green.

[www.3dvsystems.com]

If they could improve accuracy, they could use this for orthotics manufacture (4 mm is not good enough).

Actually though, if you put down multiple cameras though, (synched for time windows on their infra red pulses to not interfere with the other cameras) you could use tomography to do a fairly good 3D, real time motion capture (at only 60 fps for now) without the annoying ping pong balls.

In my own field of medicine, using multiple cameras, I can see how this could someday be used for high quality kinematic capture in a gait lab for a very cheap price.

dcartist

robbo

robbo

faslane

Pretty cool technology though!!!

Faslane

faslane

In fact, I'm happy I haven't invested more than 100 dollars so far in my home cockpit :)

Spaceboy

It'd be even more awesome for boxing games than the Wii (which still hasn't released Fight Night Wii Edition, you stupid shits); there are definitely a lot of genres that I'd like to have something in my hand for.

Also, I'm waiting to see how FPS games are implemented. Basically, I'm waiting for something more than proof-of-concept.

Sqube

niravabhavsar

niravabhavsar

[www.filmcrewonline.com]

There's also "cinematic titanic" with Joel and the VERY original crew, but I havent seen any of it yet.

d_saum

Nerdelphia

I prefer Mike over Joel, but only barely. Mike just seemed to be funnier and had a better voice.

d_saum

Jesus Diaz

Excellent concept.

Joel and the bots = Awesome

Mike and the bots...not so much.

strider_mt2k

Jesus Diaz

Gaming to start with, but think about home theater setups. Be able to control your TIVO moving your hands. And I would to be able to casually wave my hand to have something happen in my computer.

Oh, and MASTER NINJA SIMPSON!

Jesus Diaz

alin0steglinski

alin0steglinski

howdytex

Jesus Diaz

hanswurst0815

Jesus Diaz

Jesus Diaz

Wwhat

altus

IF it is all real.

I guess the jpeg group has to start adding Z depth to their specifications now

Wwhat

focalproductions

pizzlepaps

skulldriveshaft

peterlarson233

Arsenal6

TheTheTheTheWhat

Any examples of these professional cameras? If I could find something like this, but usable with real lenses (and 1080i resolution) I would drop $10k without having to even think.

I've been doing greenscreen work as of late to support a media project. Green backdrop, green floors, lighting rigs, renting space, *tons* of manual post-processing, ... A true 3D camera would eliminate so much work for me! Record, apply a clip plane for depth and the floor, and I'm done. It'd even make it feasible for me to record out door scenes, which would be fantastic!

And I'm just imagining all the fun, fun experiments I can run with depth extracted from scenes, both for coding projects and robots applications! Robust depth exaction without stereographical guesswork? I could chuck all my computer vision books!

The console / gaming focus for this device seems... odd to me. I'm imagining a ton of more useful applications.

Dehappy

Set to evil

I guess all the beenie weenie's caiming to have 10 inch cox can put up or shut up now. I think your IMing experience just got a whole lot more experiencable.

karnak

P.S. - My Gf is a redhead.

Oh yeah.. FUCKING cool camera!

Acemonster

greyer

NeoPoliticus

capitalass

I would love this camera on a laptop to manipulate screen windows. I wonder if they could have one that can also see your hands near the keyboard so small movements could be translated on screen. Looking at my 24" monitor in front of me it seems like it would be too much work to use as a main interface device on a big screen.

flumbo

itwasthedog

randlsa

randlsa

Kamenwati

scram

KronikFpLiOnYkD

kinkypinky

Nixelad

The proposed EyeToy 2 even used the same tech - pulses of infra-red light. I remember because the "how does it work" question came from Will Wright, and I think the guy answered almost out of reflexive respect before he realized that he might be giving out important trade secrets to a room full of strangers who weren't on NDA and might work for their competitors.

For whatever reason, the PlayStation Eye didn't end up using this tech.

james.ahlschwede

KenK

Parker. A

And a great product for disabled people, not for regular people, yet.

Saad Rabia

yogibimbi

takemetoyourtoaster

Jesus Diaz

Terminator12139

Jesus Diaz

mcg1969

CoolZWhip