With the Wii making waves it's easy to forget Sony was already pushing the ergonomic envelope back in 2003. Remember the EyeToy? Digital color camera for the Playstation 2 that detects motion, color, and sound? Games that made you wave your hands and jump around like you'd chugged the office water cooler then waited to hit the restroom too long?
Enter the somewhat more sophisticated sounding Playstation Eye, Sony's not-just-a-toy-anymore audio-visual capture peripheral for the Playstation 3, and basically what you'd expect from second gen hardware: an up-ticked camera/mic with better software support.
No word on a U.S. release date or price, but Europe's getting it this summer (Europe got EyeToy: Play first as well, and that product sold over a million there before releasing a few months later in the U.S. and Japan). My guess? Holiday 2007 for the rest of us.
The announcement should also come as happy news for Playstation 3 owners waiting impatiently for proper video-chat support.
From Sony's press release, key features include (emphasis mine):
- A sophisticated microphone with the ability to reduce background noise and focus on spoken word for smoother, more accurate speech recognition.
- Engineered to perform in low-light conditions.
- Faster frame rate for improved tracking, responsiveness and smoothness.
- Two position zoom lens for close-up and full body options.
- Free EyeCreate(TM) editing software, which allows users to save, edit and add cool visual effects to photos, video and audio clips.
- EyeCreate also enables user to capture videos and audio clips directly to your PS3?s hard disk drive and access a range of different capturing modes, including slow motion and time-lapse.
Technical Specifications:
- 4 channel audio input:16 bits/channel, 48kHz, SNR 90db
- 56 degree or 75 degree Field of View zoom lens
- 2.1 F-stop, < 1% distortion, fixed focus (25cm to 8 at 75 degree FOV)
- 640 x 480 at 60 frames/second
- 320 x 240 at 120 frames/second
- USB2 high-speed data transfer
- Uncompressed video or optional JPEG compression
Heh, Nintendo was doing motion sensing WAY before SCEA was a thought in the CEO's pants. Remember the Power glove or track pad? ROB the robot? All Nintendo Innovations. DO your homework buddy.
Of course I remember! That's precisely why I didn't say something genuinely silly, like "it's easy to forget Sony had already invented the wheel..." :)
BoSolaris,
While the Power Glove was a motion sensitive controller Nintendo had nothing to do with the design, they just licensed it; the Power Pad was a thin controller with pressure sensitive pads, not a motion sensing device; and R.O.B. worked like the light gun in reverse by getting flashes of light from the TV screen, it didn't sense motion.