You know, despite being a notorious anti-sony hater, I've got to admit that I'm proud of them for doing something this good for humanity. There are plenty of unlucky individuals out there who have either lost or were born without one or both arms, disqualifying them from enjoying the electronic entertainment methods that we take for granted on a daily basis. Sony, I salute you for doing something so noble, even if it was unintentional.

~Y

Upsilon

Didn't some guy do this with a wii a while back?
This just spells glitches. What will happen with photos in the camera's view?

Haniko

@LittleBigPlaneteer: The video you linked to is similar to what Johnny Lee did with his Wii, NOT what the article on this page refers to.

IR tracking TOTALLY different from head-tracking.

Take a deep breath, Sony doesn't suck because of this. Nobody dissed Sony. It's going to be okay.

ABigSmall

YouTube link for us in Canada:

+ Watch video

Super_Otter

Could the choppyness of the head tracking or it losing the tracking have anything to do with all those people in the back ground walking by and looking in the direction of the screen/eyetoy...?

Me thinks so.

marklip

@Wellhereweare: Ah... I knew a 360 fanboy would show up sooner or later.
What's the matter jealous?

marklip

@LittleBigPlaneteer: It's also less accurate. There's a reason that most commercial and research head-tracking systems use IR tracking, it provides a much more accurate measurement of spatial orientation of the object being tracked. That being said, it's still cool to see any version of this type of tech making it's way to the consoles.

ColoradoCNC

Everyone talks about globalization, and here on the frigging WORLD WIDE WEB some corporate morons get to decide that a video is suitable only for people in the US of A ?

*sigh*

Franssu

I can't wait until devs start using this tech for 360 and PC games as well, which should be a relatively simple task. The idea of all 4 platforms (Wii, PS3, 360, and PC) having even rudimentary head tracking is just awesome.

ColoradoCNC

This was my guess at what that BBC article was talking about. 3D tracking without any kind of goggles or add ons. It's really cool and makes me want a PS eye if they work it out. This, and the one where you draw your own vehicle.

crashlanding

The video works for me. I'm in the Mexican Caribbean. I feel sorry for canadiens... Not really...

mognetman

I think it's time I go out and get a PlayStation eye. This looks very cool.

homernoy

Meh, it'll be on YouTube soon anyway. Just wait... it will... *rocks back and forth*

-MoarPlz-

If Nintendo had come up with this, people would be calling it a "gimmick".

I expect this to be a one-trick-pony like the EyeToy...

inphanta

@juliopalio: It works fine for me too (Sweden). Maybe they're just blocking Canada :P

Harteex

@LittleBigPlaneteer:

Sorry but you make it sound like this is the next breakthrough. What Johnny Lee did was to hack a piece of hardware that wasn't meant to be used in that way and made it work to suit alot of different uses that wasn't thought off.

The whole headtracking thing isn't some new thing and showing it off on a PS3 is a good selling point and the wow effect seems to work well. Even though the whole thing is really old.

I know that with every logitech webcam you get a headtracking software in the whole funny outfits it can layer over your video chats. And most people to day with a webcam owns this.

ztilleto

@DaveKap: I tried it at GDC too, and it didn't find it laggy or choppy at all.. I didn't really get much of that "popping out of the screen" effect, but I kind of doubt that I would on the wiimote based version either.. There's a LOT of difference between watching it live, and seeing it on video, filmed from a fixed perspective camera, that always looks dead ahead..

It's not THAT impressive though, it was cool to be able to lean, and look behind stuff, but I still prefer 3d person.

Regarding the choppiness, they did seem to have issues with that massive LED display on the opposite wall though, every time it lit up, the tracking got kind of borked...

monkeybeach

Wait! The pseye now senses movement!
What witchcraft is this!

Malmer

Glad to see that all their years of recearch with facial recognition is finally producing something a side from those cameras with smile shots. There should be no technical limitation why this wouldn't recognise depth as well, the resolution of PSEye should be enough.

ara

@moeses213: You think the gov't is behind in this technology?

[cvrr.ucsd.edu]

That's a computer vision lab that I've collaborated with, check the video section for demos of the sort of things that the gov't is publically funding. I'm aware of some internal projects that are even further along.

The_Inquisitor

I seriously wish the united states millitary was looking at my comment right now cause this would be sweet to put in robots (terminators) to fight wars for us. Or be hall monitors in school or security guards at prisons or something

moeses213

PS3 sucks ass.

Wellhereweare

Yay! I can actually play virtual hideNseek in the the upcoming future. = P

KYLE_ELYK

@ABigSmall:

Have you seen the other video that was shown with the PS Eye? It is pretty much the same exact technology.

See this thread: [kotaku.com]

LittleBigPlaneteer

@juliopalio: We could "fix" NZ for you.
There is still a clause for making NZ a state of Australia in our constitution. ;-)

Doshu

@LittleBigPlaneteer: I'm pretty sure that buying the PlayStation Eye counts as an "additional hardware" requirement. And it's many times more expensive than some cheap IR LEDs at that.
And as stated by DaveKap, currently this PS3-method is NOT very much the same VR tracking.

ABigSmall

@fuchikoma: w00t!

fuchikoma

@TitillatedOcelot: Then rolls one. A fat one. ;)

Kaneda

I'll take the headset LED's any day of the week. They are much more accurate.

Cartman86

@juliopalio:

"This comes nothing close to Johnny Lee"

You're right. It's a hundred times Better

1.) It's being used directly on the PS3 as opposed to JL's Wii version

2.) It doesn't require any additional hardware or modifications, it just uses the eye.

3.) The VR tracking is very much the same, except it's now easier to implement (see above)

LittleBigPlaneteer

it seems like with a little tweaking, the pseye could work with depth a little better, i do think johnny lee deserves a heap of credit for ever thinking up vr through the wii sensor bar in the first place, it could really change the crap out of gaming, i think that with the pseye you could capture the size and position of the person's head and then be able to tell when that head moves farther back or closer to the pseye, but again, all it needs is tweaks

gstatty

I live in New Zealand and the clip works fine, must only block Canadian, and UK/Euro(?) IPS.

This comes nothing close to Johnny Lee's.

@Doshu: Australia equals punishment? When it comes to gaming, try NZ on for size!

juliopalio

So, uh, how close to the TV and the eye do you have to sit for this thing to have the greatest effect?

Gospel X

@big_world: Lucky bastard. Wait-

Bokusatsu_Tenshi

It's cool but Wii's version is cheaper. Ain't no one gonna buy a playstation eye now.

If both consoles began packing their respective peripherals in, there'd probably be little to no difference on the wii's pricing.

orangeclover

Let the head waggle games commence!

boopadoo

@Arttemis:

Same, I find it absolutely incredible.

But now that I know the PS3 is also capable, I'm a little more excited for it.

Maybe it's just me, but the Wii's seems more accurate, and less wonky.

Figroti

Yeah that was an awesome video... oh wait, I live in England... apparently we're not good enough to see this video; MTV fails at the internet.

Shadowcast

I gave this a try while at the GDC (it was at the entrance to that pavilion and I was super-excited) and I have to let you all know that it's completely disappointing.

I started moving my head around and said, "Uhhh I don't think it's working," and the handler goes "No, it is, see..." and I can only kinda notice that some of the targets only sorta almost look like they're popping out at me. It really doesn't even come close to the awesomeness seen in the Wii videos.

Unfortunately, there is too much latency between the tracking on the PS Eye and the response on the video. It's also kinda choppy. I think more movement prediction and interpolation could help improve it, but as of now it's still definitely in the alpha stages.

DaveKap

Heh, nice. I wonder... I suspect that while I´m playing a game with this tech no one can look at it. I can imagina a head poping up saying "sup? whacha playin?" until we both see a "you´re dead" screen and a "what´s going on?"

Wyld

I've always thought the the PS Eye had a lot of potential and this is just one example. I'd really like to see a gesture based XMB and browser with voice recognition for text input (the PS Eye has a microphone built in).

rawg

@ABigSmall: The EyeToy does track distance, that dude on the mtv comments don't know what hes talking about. You'll notice in the video there is a red box around the area of the guys face. The size of this box is inversely proportional to the distance from the camera. Well that, and that fact the PS2 EyeToy games like Anti-Grav had parts were you could lean in and out of the screen. Its all been done before.

cybereality

@PaulHunter: I didn't realize that living in Canada was a punishment. Thanks MTV!

Actually, I think that you're being punished for living in Canada. Living in Canada isn't really a punishment (judging by the time I worked there), but if you really want a great country to live in and get punished lots for living there, Australia is the place. ;P

Btw, I had no problems with the video of this here: [gizmodo.com]

Doshu

@ Phoenixtilt: Does your cell phone have BWU WAY?

Ahsayuni

@ABigSmall:
Just think of it this way-
The Headtracking videos we've seen before by Johhny are like the Wii-mote motion sensing, while this one at GDC is more like the Sixaxis.

TheSonicGamer

While its nice that this approach only requires a camera, its not going to be nearly as fast or accurate as the glasses approach. As strange as that may seem to some of you, this is how head tracking is most commonly done. If cameras worked as well we would be using those instead.

Lokno

Bububu-Sony doesn't innovate!

Pai Pai Master

@Figroti: Haha, no problem. I could watch it a dozen times and never find it tiring.

Arttemis

@ABigSmall: Whatever the case is I'd still be happy with it. If they make the glasses look..normal. I wouldn't mind wearing them. If they can do it without glasses even better.

Aflack: Likes slushies

Regardless, it is kind of pointless to force the player to look away from the screen in order to cause a corresponding on-screen camera movement. It could be viable if it is fairly sensitive to movement, but then we run the risk of it being too sensitive.

Yuki

@Arttemis:

Ahh, sorry. Next time I'll read through the comments BEFORE commenting. ;)

Figroti

@big_world: But is your PS3 compatable? If you have a twenty, sixty, or eighty gig, sure.
But if you have a 40 gig, you might have to wait for the next firmware update.
I suppose you could just mod your face, though.

TheCleaningGuy

This guy totally ripped off Johnny Lee.

+ Watch video

In any case, I look forward to what any developers (Both PS3 and Wii) actually implement this technology into.

Figroti

*, trying

Sparkamus

PS3: Soon it'll be reading our lips try to kill our astronauts.

Sparkamus

McWherthor do like Prometheus and bring this video to the rest of us!!!PLEASE!!!

Wolf_Dog

@okenny :): omg right back at ya!

Barob, who finally has a new picture.

Am I the only one who has a hard time getting news from anything associated with MTV?

ebrake

@jun581:

I doubt it too, thats why I said it was just a rumor. On the other hand with all this good information the last couple days 1 of 2 things will happen: either Sony will top it off with a great store update to keep the momentum going or it will be a lackluster update and the haters go into attack mode.

Personally I'm betting on a decent update

Sparx

@beezdeez: God I'm a day late and a dollar short. I see this has been brought up multiple times already.

beezdeez

Something like this has been done by a guy from Carnegie Mellon with Wii remote/sensors. He had the Wii sensor bar attached to a hat and the remote stationary pointing at him from his TV. Pretty cool stuff.

beezdeez

Video works for me, in Australia.

prawnmatic

I noticed that Mr MCWHERTOR and SONY are on a roll this week.

IntelSilver

so now we can do it with the wii and ps3....xbox360 its your turn!

OtakuHat

Wasn't there a demo of this at E3 2006 in Kentia Hall? Anyone remember that?

SeeOne

@ABigSmall: @Morberis:

+ Watch video

As you can see, Johnny's Wii-vention utilizies glasses with 2 IR reflective points. The software he wrote takes into account the distance the user is standing from the Wii by the distance between those 2 points; The closer together they are, the farther away the user is from the TV.
This feature is showcased toward the end of the video when he steps toward the TV, where he seemingly looks inside a magical box.

This is what the posts were referring to.

Arttemis

We can have hi-def Where's Wally/Waldo games, now!

pylon_trooper

Sony keeps the punches coming. Does anyone even remember what was announced at GDC this year anymore? Gears of War 2... Something else...

Sony effectively took the wind out of everyone's sails the couple days following. I still say I'm waiting for the Home update to surprise us all tomorrow.

PapaBear434

@Barob, who finally has a new picture.: omg...

okenny :)

@Sparx: i doubt it...but a man can dream. All this news coming at us like that, in-game XMB would be the bomb in the bomb she bomb

jun581

I didn't realize that living in Canada was a punishment. Thanks MTV!

PaulHunter

@Phoenixtilt: Hey thats great for you, too bad you apparently totally missed the point of the article.

Jericho114

Very nice. Very nice indeed.

Xaltmas

This technology would be an excellent segway into the "Tennis Match Spectator" genre of video games.

big_world

A little slow out of the blocks there Sony. But color me impressed, you seem to be moving out of your own way of late.

-EDGE-

@ABigSmall:

Inquiring minds want to know!

Morberis

every camera you buy has face tracking now.. its not all that great.. My cell phone cam has face tracking on it...

Phoenixtilt

Nuts! I was hoping to see the video here, but I guess it's MTV exclusive and thus blocked from my Canuck. It sucks to be Canadian!

*pours maple syrup on his back bacon and washes it down with beer. GOOD beer.*

TitillatedOcelot

@jun581:

doubt it, although there is a rumor going around that since tomorrow (in US time) is Phil's last day and since Home was his pet project there might be some information leaked

Sparx

Damn you Sony. You should've put the Eye in as a standard tool for the system! That way, everyone would be dying to use it for things like this.

Did Kotaku also post the story about that Boom Blox game using the head tracking thing on the Wii?

Now, if only they combined head tracking programming with boob shading technology. NOW you'd have next gen!

"Construction Worker Stereotype Sim! Now with real boob-looking and wolf whistle action!"

Ampillion lives a life much like No More Heroes.

my gosh all this sony news for the past 2 days...i don't think i can take this anymore. If xmb is announced tommorrow, i might just blow

jun581

seems to have some problems when going to the side as the person in the video said. If they work out the problems this could be really cool. Headtracking = the future!

crazyorloco

WHY WONT THEY RELEASE THESE THINGS ON PSN..

FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK

joelface

A couple of comments were on the linked MTV Multiplayer article:

"Kalabalana says:

Johnny Lee's glasses are for simulated VR not head tracking. More specifically, they allow a camera to estimate where a person is looking, and their distance from the camera (screen). This allows for many immersing effects in a computer generated 3D environment, like a video game's. Head tracking software could mimic this, but is very, very far away from this goal. The above article clearly shows a complete lack of understanding for the material it actually links to!"

"Stephen Totilo says:
Kalabalana,

I understand what Johnny Lee's video demonstrates. You raise a good point about how depth perception functions in his set-up, and it's one I'll try to get clarification on from Sony. I don't recall the PSEye one detecting depth well, if at all. A potential disadvantage? Sure. But the need for less equipment is in the PS3's favor.

Thanks for drawing out some of the distinctions.

-Stephen"

ABigSmall

Really impressive. But the glasses version looked more precise IMHO.

Can't wait to see its aplications on a real game.

Lider

THIS is next gen

kickass solo(my GT)

Maybe this is why the PS3 will be #1 in 2012? Because that's when I expect this type of tech to be implimented successfully in a casual market.

tme2nsb

See, THIS is what Sony needs to be putting its resources in. This kind of thing will be able to compete with Wii, on a casual level.

ThisCharmingMan

This can actually be used by games! That's amazing.

gamadaya

I love this. More than I should...

Heliophage

Just imagine playing a game with the anti missile thing the guys in the Macross Valkyries use (targeting the missiles with just the direction of an eye look. those who have seen Macross Zero know what I mean ;)

Acunia

That has a lot of potential. I wonder how long before it makes its way to the market?

Phenom88

A face? Hey, I've got one of those!

big_world

Aww..I don't care if the tech video is more impressive. What made the old one so fantastic is what I was imagining in my head as I watched it.

"He-hey...Th-thisss is Salad Fingers....I j-just wanted to show you that y-you don't n-need a Wii to head track."

Seriously. He was creepy, really creepy, but that just made him all the more attractive.

Kirbytheslayer: In-Kirby XMB

If this is the stuff Sony is able to release now, imagine what they must be keeping under wraps for E3

Sparx

Seems like it would work better detecting an IR signal. It looked a bit choppy, but maybe there was just too much going on behind him.

waitinthecar

meh, i wanna see the camera put to good use in games tho; what will this tech take 3 years to use? Or will the engine it runs on use to much processing power or will this tech just be a luxury for largely funded projects.

Marked

I bet we hear alot of "too hard to program for" :p

GUNLOC_MORIYM

WHY? I want to see the vid T_T (I live in Canada)
More news from Sony huh? :/ All I have to say is that this is going to be an awsome year for Sony.

goldwings

My excitement knows no bounds!!!

UltimatePancakeSensation

this has potential

Sparx

That video is blocked in Canada. Gayyyyyy

DrLight

See, that's what I'd call raising the bar, not shinier graphics and louder booms.

Barob, who finally has a new picture.