A Closer Look at the Capabilities of the PlayStation 4 Eye Camera

E-mpire writes: Sony revealed the successor to the popular PlayStation Eye camera last night during the PlayStation 4 reveal. This camera has a lot of improvements over it's predecessors. As a professional videographer and avid gamer, I was eager to find out the specs on this camera. Let's take a closer look at what this thing can do and what kind of gameplay possibilities it has.

[talisker]

Imagine playing Watch_Dogs with this device on top of your TV. Shivers.

[R_aVe_N]

lmao you would always be wondering if Ubisoft is hacking you while you play XD You would get random pop ups on your screen telling you to stop picking your nose or scratching your but.

[Bathyj]

ha, thats funny. i was saying to a friend while watching the demo they should an actual ps4 console in the game you could hack into

[KwietStorm_BLM]

Lol dammit why did you say that

[Bahpomet---]

i and the illuninati aprove of this

[RuleofOne343]

Where have I seen this done before where o where, that right saw something like this out in Redmond Washington what's that companies name is it Microsoft . wow talk about an out right copy & paste scenario.

[telekineticmantis]

on this thing called the playstation eyetoy, can't copy a copy...

[plmkoh]

*Clap* *Clap*, congratulations, you were able to see the similarities between the Microsoft Kinect and this PS eye simply because it has two cameras.

No, please, do continue to ignore that fact that Kinect relies on it's infrared sensor for it's controller-less pitch where as this continues to rely on a physical controller for on-screen manipulation.

[fr0sty]

Edonus, you are wrong. It does full body tracking, just like the eyetoy and eye before it did. It also tracks Move. It uses dual 3D camera (which kinect did NOT have, it had one standard and one infrared lens, but they did not see in stereoscopic 3D. Kinect got it's 3D info by projecting infrared grids onto the room and watching how they deform) to enhance both the full body tracking and the move tracking. Since both move and DS4 controllers are being motion tracked, the second camera is needed not only for the added 3D precision, but also to be able to track multiple controllers at once with minimal lag.

Also, Microsoft didn't even develop Kinect, unlike Sony with Eye. They had a company come to them with the tech and they bought it. A company Sony had previously turned down already because the tech was too laggy. So, even if Sony did put an infrared camera into PS4Eye, they wouldn't have copied Microsoft, but rather Prime Sense who developed the Kinect Sensor.

Get over it.

[Muerte2494]

waiting for what kind of rebuttal Edonus is going to have to Frosty. He was slapped in the face by facts. Balls in your court Edonus.

[plmkoh]

@edonus

Congratulations you just proved yourself a smug and tried to sound like you knew what you were talking about by going into techno babble.

Did you know not read what I said? Kinect CONTINUES to rely on an INFRARED sensor and the Move CONTINUES to rely on a PHYSICAL controller. That's the bloody difference.

Get this in your head: the Primary function of the PS eye remains to track the Move, I thought that was so blatantly obvious in the PS conference yesterday...but you..."OMGz 2 camera = kinect".

Hell by your simple-minded logic the Kinect copied the PS3 Eye simply because it also has a 4 microphone array and motion tracks at 120hz @ VGA resolution. OMG it can't be a coincidence, because it's not 'different' enough I guess also Samsung really did copy Apple too by making a tablet as a "rectangle with rounded edges".

[plmkoh]

@edonus,

No, not really, I completely understood what you have said, but I don't bombard my comments with tech 'theories' to 'talk down' on others.

Honestly, you having worked on 3D cameras means jack all because we're not discussing the mechanics of it, we're talking about the end user products that even babies can point out, don't confuse people.

I don't want to repeat myself like you just have like a broken record, my points were pretty darn obvious. But I couldn't help but notice you didn't even address how I pointed out that the PS eye had a four microphone array 3 years before Kinect even existed. Yet even I acknowledge that's not copying. It's called converging technology, you don't have to reinvent the wheel just for the sake of difference.

[LackTrue4K]

Ya there very similar, but one thing was missing....
"The terrible jumping and Horrendous are flapping"

[JoGam]

Let me skool you for a sec, PS3 had controller free gaming first. Yes PS3. Look up the game called "Creatures Features". Even the way you select in the game was copied and used with Kinect.

[Joe913]

Don't forget Kung Fu live the reason the game was made was to show you can do the motion tracking with the ps eye because the Kinect was about to come out.

[KwietStorm_BLM]

Cool. And how much of your input was responsible for that piece of plastic you're defending? None? Soooo why do you care?

[etownone]

First Sony copies Wiimotes with nunchucks..

And now they copy Kinect with this.

But of course, like always, Sony fans will love this and hail this as innovation.

Although still impressed by PS4 stats and new controlar.....even if they did take a note from nintys pagebook and present just the controller for what was supposed to be a console reveal.

[fr0sty]

Kinect copied Eyetoy, what's your point? Nobody will deny Move copied Wiimote, but it also made it better. Taking an innovation and making it better is something that game companies have done for decades. Sony invented the CD, DVD, and Blu-Ray (helped invent it), but where's the idiot fanboys saying Microsoft and Nintendo stole those from them? You do know that Microsoft pays Sony a royalty for every Xbox sold because it can play DVDs? You know that motion sensing controllers first popped up on the PS1, with a 4 axis tilt controller being released (third party) that was able to control games like warhawk? You do know the dreamcast was the first to integrate a screen into their controller? You do know that Dreamcast and N64 both had voice activated games (Seaman and Hey You Piccachu) long before Kinect ever came along? It could be said that Microsoft ripped off Sony's concept of dual analog, which Nintendo has now as well. Dual shock as well.

I could go on, and on, and on... You cannot name one company in gaming that has never taken another idea or product from another company. And good for them for doing it, as improvements to the technologies have been made all along the way. This is how innovation grows, by taking an idea and making it better. Not every idea a game company has needs to be 100% never before seen stuff. Sometimes just a subtle improvement on an already existing tech can work wonders, as we saw with dual analog controllers making such a better playing experience than Nintendo 64's single analog stick that would always break.

I know you fanboys like to sling your turds at each other, but do a little research before you do at least.

[BabyTownFrolics]

Now that Sony has a kinect like device its the future of gaming!

Anyways.... I was totally hyped by the presentation and I cant wait to see the official pricing on PS4. I hope its in my price range cause I want one now.

[Joe913]

I hope it can take 3d video now that it has two lens.

[Jek_Porkins]

Not sure how I feel about a camera always watching me, what if Sony tried to invade my privacy?