Playstation Eye Revealed
Sony unveiled its PS3 evolution of the PS2's EyeToy. Now dubbed the Playstation Eye (see, it's not a toy anymore, which probably means it'll be what, like twice as much, right?), it features what Sony terms an "intelligent" camera, and a noise-canceling microphone. Spec-wise this new camera only makes an incremental improvement on the old. Notably, it adds low-light capabilities to address one its predecessor's biggest issues, and it boasts 60 frames per second at 640 x 480 resolution. But on the subject of resolution, apparently that's as high as it goes. For picture-in-picture headshots that ought to be more than adequate, but presuming that there will again be full-screen games like there were to go with the first one, that could look pretty ugly stretched out to fit your 1080p TV. Granted, incorporating HD capability would no doubt have an impact on price, and you wouldn't want to try and stream HD video while trying to play anything online, but, Sony does push the HD experience an awful lot, and you certainly could take advantage of improved resolutions when using it offline. Not what you'd expect from the company behind the CyberShot cameras. Hey, at least let us take HD stills.
This new design doesn't get any points for its aesthetic either. The old one was ugly, but at least it mimicked the design cues of the console; this one is just plain ugly. Looking like a rejected design from Short Circuit or some equally 80's Sci-Fi flick, we wonder how badly it will stick out next to the super-sexy PS3. So, I figured what the hell, let's put the two together and see:
Warning: Objects may appear larger than they actually are. We don't really know how big the Eye is yet. So this image is definitely not to scale, but it does give you and idea what the two look like next to each other
Other bits and pieces from the announcement hint at some of the ways we might get to fool around with the Eye. In describing the noise-rejection capabilities of the microphone, Sony specifically noted that it would be better at speech recognition. We're already waggling the SIXAXIS controller around; it's not too much of a leap to imagine another experiment in voice-controlled gaming. But you have to figure Konami would need a lot of convincing to green-light a Lifeline sequel. Software also comes packaged with the new camera/microphone. EyeCreate not only lets you save video, audio, and stills, it gives you the ability to play with some special effects and do other tricks like time-lapse and slow motion video capture. And the editing suite will let you pull everything together into movies. YouTube is sure to explode, but surely Sony will want to capture as much of that energy as it can. Expect to see a dedicated video sharing area appear on the Playstation Network concurrent with the camera's release, and for video sharing to figure prominently into the community elements of the upcoming HOME service. With the right moves maybe these features can help compensate for some of its technical deficiencies.
Separated at birth? You be the judge