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Waving your arms around worked pretty well for the EyeToy.

If you guys dig this, you may also get in to NPRQuake which takes quake 1, and turns it in to sketch art. It works on the shareware Q1 client, and doesn't require the amount of user intervention that this MS project does.

Still, it is an interesting concept.. and as I understand, the playstation2 is a huge seller. I had no idea there was such a market for this stuff.

Is there anything like EyeToy for anything but the PlayStation2? IMHO, this is the greatest entertainment device ever, and just might put most aerobics instructors out of business -- you play with your entire body and an hour or two provide quite a workout...

much. Unless you are trying to simulate reality I don't understand the continued obsession with improved graphics. With the Dreamcast hadn't we reached the golden age where any game imaginable can be created? What about using stylized graphics like Jet Set Radio instead of realistic graphics? Would The Simpsons be funnier if it had more realistic drawings or real actors instead of voice actors and simple drawings which look less real than Disney's Snow White from the 1930s?

Look how anime gets away with simple "graphics", but is able to quickly communicate emotions. Same with "South Park." We need to be more worried about what we do in games and how we do it (look at the success of novelty items like the eye toy) instead of only trying to push visuals.

I understand the excitement over new graphics when they enabled new games. Pong->Space Invaders->Pac Man->Super Mario->Street Fighter II->Super Mario Cart->Virtua Fighter, but I just don't see the point any more.

Here are three screen shots; which looks most fun?
fake far cry
real far cry
gish
Personally after watching the gish movies I think it looks the most fun :) But even the fake far cry screen shot, which won't happen until far in the future, doesn't really look more fun than the real far cry screen shot.

Yeah, that game is great, although it doesn't record your movement fast enough all the time.. and you kinda gotta slow down a bit and match the pace of the game. On that note, though, Ever seen the Eye Toy for PS2? My girlfriend's Aunt showed us that thing, it's effin' great, it's got it's own disc o' games that comes with it, nothing special, boxing, a soccer 'bounce the ball on your head' game, a game where you wash windows, a couple dancing games.. but damn it's fun, and you'll catch a good workout from it after playing a few games. I got one for my parents for Xmas this year and they absolutely love it. That thing will actually give you a little bit of a workout by the time you're done as well.

-matt

There's considerable biological and evolutionary evidence that motion (gesture) is intimately related to the development of language and the brain. See Section I of "Sense in Communication," available at www.galbithink.org. So I think that incorporating more bodily movement into digital games will be an important future trend, even if N-Gage hasn't quite gotten it right. For a different device that does this, consider EyeToy.

I'd say a recent and rather more successful innovative input device is the Eyetoy.

Sure at heart it's a cheap'n'nasty USB camera, but it's something that hadn't been used to control games before and which a rather large number of people actually seem to consider fun, at least more fun than rapid eyebrow twitching.

Regardless, is the show of women a good sign? If it helps create diversity in video games and help manufacturers build more innovative games than "Adventures of Barbie," then this can only help the industry.

Eye Toy is the best example. It is innovative, and appeals at much to men than women, according to my personal experience. And what is really unbelivable (and a good thing) is that it is topping UK Charts. It sells better than newest pokemons!

Fellow slashdotters can also admire this this week's runner-up : Norton Antivirus, who moved from 39th to 8h position, thanks to Microsoft. Exepect an even better result next week..

The Times reported on 1st April 1998 that, "Teddy bears...will soon be fitted with tiny cameras to spy on families across Britain."

Eye Toy anyone?

April fools jokes are all well and good but one cannot help but wonder if there is something more sinister underneath. Would make a great public reaction test - I wonder just how many enquiries / complaints they got about that story? In the event of problems "its an April fools joke" etc etc.

Coupled with XBox live with a broadband net connection the EyeToy has tremendous potential for abuse. How do people know it's not operating as a spy cam? Could someone use cracked code on a modded XBox to turn it into one?