Sony: PlayStation Eye can recognize faces -- right now

Interacting with games without using a controller is apparently a really big deal. Microsoft's got its "Project Natal" thing and Sony has its magic motion wand. Oh, wait. That's technically a controller. That you hold. Fear not, as, during the Develop Conference going on right now in the UK, Sony has revealed that the existing PlayStation Eye camera can recognize you -- well, specifically your face -- and track your skeletal movement without getting all touchy-feely.
SCEE says that it already has libraries available for developers who want to integrate the technology into their games. Develop magazine's site quotes developer relations head, Kish Hirani, who divulged that the software was developed by SCEE R&D along with outside developers.
While attending the conference, we also learned that it's capable of making out the movement of individual digits -- fancy-talk for fingers -- along with those of your facial bones. Sony has not commented on whether certain hand gestures will be edited out by the software. (Nothing can edit what you'll find after the break from your mind.)
SCEE says that it already has libraries available for developers who want to integrate the technology into their games. Develop magazine's site quotes developer relations head, Kish Hirani, who divulged that the software was developed by SCEE R&D along with outside developers.
While attending the conference, we also learned that it's capable of making out the movement of individual digits -- fancy-talk for fingers -- along with those of your facial bones. Sony has not commented on whether certain hand gestures will be edited out by the software. (Nothing can edit what you'll find after the break from your mind.)






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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
keroro645 @ Jul 16th 2009 10:24PM
We're watching you.
O.o'''
Kill a mans jiro @ Jul 16th 2009 11:32PM
Can anyone confirm if this is real and this would confirm this whole post too.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L17O43X39cg
Pat @ Jul 17th 2009 12:34AM
@ Kill
I'd say it is very real because nothing shown there can't be done by the Eyetoy right now. You can even see some sliding happening on some objects the people are grabbing. Is it a game? Probably not. I'd bet it is a tech demo for developers of updated libraries to work with the technology.
I can't find the video but I saw a demo for the PSEye from early this year where it was used to put the person in front of it a virtual wig. It was in a showroom in Japan.
Check these out too (from 2004 showing Eyetoy tech being researched since 2001):
Head tracking:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pfbMxcJHJAw&feature=related
The basics of the PS Motion control concept:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_PtoxKDcCXc
And research for full body mocap that Sony did 5 years before Microsoft:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jYHr0I-iFHE&feature=related
Enjoy!
MystileArmor @ Jul 17th 2009 12:23AM
That's just as fake as the Project Natal trailer was with the skateboarding and trying on the clothing.
Those video's are a big "what if", sort of. They showcase the options they claim to be possible. Wether anyone is going to program anything like that is a whole different story.
If those video's were real like that, they would've shown off exactly that at (example) E3.
Dr.SammyD @ Jul 17th 2009 2:25AM
@Pat
In this video you pointed to,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jYHr0I-iFHE&feature=related
He says about 38 seconds in that the camera they are using, is developed by 3DV systems, which is the company that Microsoft bought last year. So yeah, it's not like Sony was doing it before, it's that 3DV was. They passed up on buying it, thier loss. But that video is the SAME tech that Natal is made of, or rather, a precursor to it.
SimbaDogg @ Jul 17th 2009 12:10PM
gah'd damn i love hall & oates...i was just singing this the other day
Kamasama @ Jul 17th 2009 12:15PM
@Dr.SammyD
Sony was still researching/experimenting with that technology and developed some kind of software for it. The hardware is just a means to detect motion, not capture it. Perhaps they deemed the cost too high at the time to bother with such fidelity.
Karlito @ Jul 16th 2009 10:24PM
LOL i like Hall and Oates
mezzanine @ Jul 16th 2009 10:44PM
Me too.
tmacairjordan87 (aka Mr. Negativity) @ Jul 16th 2009 10:46PM
Thirded!
Mana37 @ Jul 16th 2009 11:40PM
fourthdeded
Desert Eagle @ Jul 17th 2009 12:12AM
Fifth'd.
DBuck_Eye @ Jul 17th 2009 12:17AM
C-c-c-combo Breaker!!
Sly @ Jul 17th 2009 1:25AM
are you allowed to call the combo breaker by doing the combo breaker yourself?
Wonderflex @ Jul 17th 2009 11:17AM
No you aren't...so I'll do it for him:
C-c-c-combo Breaker!!
ArchiGamer [thephilosophyofgames.wordpress.com] @ Jul 16th 2009 10:29PM
I just hope it doesn't watch -everything- I do...
MystileArmor @ Jul 16th 2009 10:38PM
Your chocolate-in-the-pants-stuffing-days are over mister!
j.howlett @ Jul 16th 2009 10:29PM
i still have to pick one up. was going to with burnout but i still don't have that.
Jesus (PSN: Luttdawg) @ Jul 16th 2009 11:22PM
I've never found it useful. Just borrowed my mates to net the platinum and did not want after that.
j.howlett @ Jul 17th 2009 12:20AM
it has other uses beyond that game.
Cousin Kyle @ Jul 16th 2009 10:30PM
Whats f**kin stupid about the camera is, it wasnt cheap and yet what the F are they doing with it?!?!? Nothing!!! Why cant they make the game makers use it for OUR advantage in games like UFC! When we create our character, have it read our freakin face damn it, so we can then use it on the damn body@!!!!!!!!!
Noshino @ Jul 16th 2009 10:44PM
uh, don't blame Sony for it, hell, those features have been available for quite a while on some 1st party games even for PS2 games....
SoCoolCurt (PSN: KillaKornbread - XBL: SoCoolCurt) @ Jul 16th 2009 11:26PM
yea i have a PSEye and i am sorely dissappointed with the lack of support for it. i don't have a single game i use it with. and i do realize that that is the developers faults for not using it but Sony could have pushed it more like MS is doing with Natal now. i mean Sony had a tech demo a couple years ago showing the PSEye doing almost exactly the same stuff as Natal, yet we see absolutely nothing from it. i tell ya what though, i bet Sony starts to use it if Natal takes off.....
Kill a mans jiro @ Jul 17th 2009 12:24AM
Talk 2 the UFC devs about that, take fight night for example, Im playing with a virtual me its awsome :) Took 2 pics of me and was done,
megapenguinx @ Jul 17th 2009 12:37AM
Your post has way too many punctuation marks.
Shagittarius @ Jul 16th 2009 10:29PM
and i got no privacy...
MAster MIndead @ Jul 18th 2009 1:05AM
I have burnout, about the only game that takes a picture ..oh and LBP .that two at least.
MRBlue @ Jul 16th 2009 10:30PM
What's really frustrating is that Sony had Project Natal-like features for YEARS with the Eye Toy and had the ability to go further with the PS Eye but they just slept on the technology and now they're paying for it.
If Sony really wanted to they could implement a similar experience but unfortunately for them they'll look like the copy cats, not MS.
Premature ejaculation man @ Jul 16th 2009 11:23PM
Eyetoy was more a motion detection camera. But yes I still see your point.
Chris @ Jul 17th 2009 4:10PM
How are they "paying for it"?
Sony will be gauging the market response to Natal and can implement something similar if they want, and they'll have their own high accuracy motion controller as well. Not that frustrating imo.
Anthony @ Jul 16th 2009 10:33PM
If they made another antigrav game for the PS3 then I would get it.
It was the funnest game on the PS2 eyetoy.
http://www.us.playstation.com/PS2/Games/EyeToy_AntiGrav/OGS/
Kill a mans jiro @ Jul 16th 2009 11:24PM
I remember them great eyetoy games lol, its why im struggling to see how project natal is as "revolutionary" as its supposed to be,
Kill a mans jiro @ Jul 16th 2009 11:26PM
Infact, stick the word "Project" Infront of somthing and it seems much much more fancier lol,
Project Playstation
Project Xbox
Project EYe toy
And so on
Ashitaka @ Jul 17th 2009 8:26AM
The game's motto is the same as Natal's!
"Your body is the controller"! (
The Dark Wang @ Jul 16th 2009 10:34PM
So Natal and PS Eye can essentially do the same thing. I knew it, but I'm still gonna get a XB360 to play Halo with motion controls
Anthony @ Jul 17th 2009 12:10AM
That would be difficult I think
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xUxiXEGtp70
The Dark Wang @ Jul 17th 2009 2:32AM
Well I don't have a cat, so it'll work perfect. ::) ::) ::) ::) ::) ::) ::)
::)
Iridium @ Jul 16th 2009 10:35PM
Or maybe Sony knows that the type of controls Natal is capable of is nothing more than a gimmick and doesn't work for anything other than simple mini game crap.
Perhaps that is why the PS Eye is really just a advanced webcam or at worst a simple toy to play with for a little while and discard.
Brendan H @ Jul 17th 2009 12:05AM
Doesn't really matter if you consider it a gimmick or not. It only matters if people will buy it. Odds are, they will.
bazzerk @ Jul 16th 2009 10:41PM
I can assure you that 'Playstation Eye' is nowhere near as technical as the camera and sensors used by the 'Natal' project. I am no console gamer but I do know about this technology and it really does work. I'm not going to get dragged into an argument I'm just stating FACT, simply because I dont like it when these companies (all of them) lie to you the public.
Wiizer (Michael Pachter MUST DIE.. Professionally) @ Jul 16th 2009 10:59PM
"I am no console gamer"
GTFO
Greenwald @ Jul 16th 2009 11:00PM
ok expert. so you won't reveal why the technology is better because the details are too technical for us simpletons and it's fact because you said so without any points to back you up.. oh yeah. right, you're god. forgot about that
Eh @ Jul 16th 2009 11:09PM
YOU ARE 500,000% WRONG!
Kill a mans jiro @ Jul 16th 2009 11:55PM
I BEG 2 DIFFER
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L17O43X39cg
Rob @ Jul 16th 2009 10:40PM
It's only a matter of time before our game consoles become self-aware, and then...
ROBOT CONSOLE APOCALYPSE!
Anthony @ Jul 17th 2009 12:11AM
hahaha, made me laugh.
MystileArmor @ Jul 16th 2009 10:40PM
This seems like a quick jab at Microsoft. I'll just wait and see what Natal will do for gaming before I make my judgement, though.
If this thing is so great, howcome no one does anything with it, at all?
solarshadows074 @ Jul 16th 2009 10:45PM
cause sony needed that kick in the pants from microsoft....
Noshino @ Jul 16th 2009 10:47PM
No quick jab, they are right, they have done it before
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EyeToy#Games
the problem was that the recognition software wasn't as advanced(and so accurate) as it is now
MystileArmor @ Jul 16th 2009 11:35PM
I don't know if it's so much software as the hardware.
Natal has 3 ways of seeing stuff (if I remember correctly). It just seems more accurate then the Eyetoy. I don't know though.. we'll see it when we see it.