mr Latte said:
Will "wii" or "Natal" detect eyes blinking, mouth opening, male, female, adult, child all on top of the headtracking or full body tracking PS3 Eye can achieve, no so just give up on your debate and lets wait to we see what all this development actually brings to the games and for us gamers.
WTF?
Why bring Natal or the Wii into this in this context? you seem to be clear on what PS-EYE can do which is all based on Sony 'hype', but seem to be saying 'no' to Natal when MS's 'hype' which also said it will recognise individuals and a whole slew of theoretical features.
Please don't even remotely wonder why I find your exuberance for Sony's products so odd when you make such statements.
I prefer to, as you say, 'wait until they are released and see what they actually offer us gamers when they are in our hands'.. I see good in both technologies, I see the hype, I see the media response with their hands-on and they seem to indicate both are viable technologies (if different)..
As for the other argument, I'm fed up of telling you same thing, it's always been about delivering the same reliability and accuracy and operational flexibility (lighting/range of detection) as the Wii-mote and even Move wands do, I have a logitech webcam that does all the simple head tracking as all the demo's you've shown.
[edit] Removed derogatory comment
In simple terms, comparing the head tracking ability of PS-EYE to the Wii-mote method or commercial head tracking like TrackIR
1.Does the Wii Mote/Track IR methods work in all light conditions - Yes
Why? They use Infra-Red for detection
2. Does the PS-EYE work in all light conditions - No
Why? as with all normal camera's poor light reduces the information available to the sensor
Proof - Anton Mikhailov (The Sony guy who developed the PS-EYE) said
"One big issue with EyeToy we always tried to tackle was lighting. If you have low-light conditions, you can't see the user and you can't track him very well. That's why the spheres are illuminated: you can work in pitch-black conditions. Second thing: it's robust. It goes back to precision: if the interface isn't precise, the user starts to blame the interface and we don't want that.
Note that no IR or low light technology other then the illumination of the wands has been given, which really is because it is just a camera, and that's all.
3. Does the Wii-Mote / Track IR systems offer a high degree of accuracy - Yes
Why - For high accuracy they both use a fixed 'target' that moves with the users head. Since the target is two or more point sources of light, of a fixed size and distance/angle apart, the camera can very accurately determine the exact centre of each target light, and knowing the geometry can work out the exact 3D position, depth/tilt/angle, etc
4. Does the PS-EYE offer the same accuracy - No
Why? The proposed head tracking scheme would use pure facial recognition, this uses facial features to determine the distance/angle of your head. The problems in terms of accuracy are that detecting the exact centres of each facial feature causes a degree of error, how wide/closed your eyes are, any changes in light that casts shadows around the features, all lead to a jittery approximiation of each facial feature that is changing due to many variables, since these facial features are quite close to each other, just a few mm of error in determining one of the facial feature target points results in a much larger error.
Evidence to back that up? - Sony has given us the exact nature of why they chose the 'wands' with spheres on top. Firstly they are illuminated, so any change in light conditions or shadows will have negligible effect, secondly, no matter what angle they are at, the diameter of the shere is a constant, the camera measures the diameter and since it knows the exact sphere size, can place it instantly in 3 dimensions, this is almost indentical in principle to the TrackIR and Wii-mote target marker principle, i.e. a fixed geometry marker to allow accurate and fast 3D positioning data.
5. Can PS-EYE do head-tracking then? Yes
Why? It's been around for ages using just webcams, PS-EYE is a fast/hi-res web-cam. The logitech HD web-cams already offer 3D Avatars, where the camera is tracking the head reasonably well, it tracks your mouth (smile and your avatar smiles, look sad, your avatar looks sad), it tracks your eye movement (wink, and your avatar winks). This type of technology has been around for some time. However, as can be seen above it is not as reliable, robust or accurate as the more dedicated solutions.
But, that shouldn't stop games like GT5 or as per the shown head tracking demo's working well enough, providing they confine the face with reasonable 3D bounds, and obviously the user's lighting scheme is sufficient, then it'll give a reasonable head tracking experience. If you want it to work reasonably well while moving all around the room, and not have sudden moments of uncertainty (the main reason this type of far field tracking is reserved for window washing type games), then it's going to not be as robust by a long chalk as the Wii-Mote/TrackIR type solutions.
6. Have I only ever said that the PS-EYE cannot offer the same accuracy and reliability as the Wii-mote method shown in the video (unless some type of target device is used as well)? Yes
7. Am I trying to push Natal as a superior product and dismissing 'Move'? - No
Why? I see them as different technologies (which they are), they have different aims/spins on motion control, so will have different games/control methods. I see no major reason either is better then the other (at this point), I have seen the Media's reactions to all the hands on previews of both, and both seem equally praising and catious..
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