PlayStation Eye Tracks Your Head without Strapping Things to Your Head
By Chris on Thursday, February 28th, 2008 at 6:53 PM PST In Game Companies, Game Consoles, Game Platforms, Gamer Life, Hardware, Sony, Sony
We thought it was cool when Jonny Lee managed to rig a Wiimote to work as a head-tracking device. Sure, it wasn’t particularly graceful, but the gimmick of having something follow your head was pretty cool. I had never really seen any usage for head-tracking outside of IL-2 Sturmovik before, but that’s exactly why I’m rarely referred to as “creative.”
As cool as the Wiimote mod was, it simply wasn’t practical. Cue Sony and the PlayStation 3’s camera peripheral, the PlayStation Eye. Using the camera – and only the camera, nothing more – the system can track your head’s movements and reflect that on-screen. And while I can’t think of much practical usage for this, again, there’s a reason why my nickname isn’t Creative Chris.
It didn’t look perfect, but that’s probably due to the environment that Stephen Totilo (the guy in the video) was in at GDC, what with all of the people in the background. It may not be cool as certain other things we’ve seen the Eye do, but it’s definitely very cool.
via MTV Multiplayer
cant think of a practical usage?? dude, think of the first-person shooters! maybe then youll only use your right thumb for aiming, not for looking around. its genius!
Ehh… until they can pin point a very tiny spot on your face and track it at really high fps, I don’t see this replacing the mouse. When I wan’t to aim a gun at something, I look at it with my head…yes, but then my eyes focus on the target but then my arm and hand are what put it all in line.
Most all of the new webcams have face tracking now, it’s just a matter of writing software to work with a particular game that were waiting for.
And I definatly think its cool though:)