Slashdot Mirror
EyeToy - Chat Turns PS2 Into Videophone
Thanks to GameSpot for its coverage of Sony Europe's announcement of Eye Toy: Chat for PlayStation 2, a piece of software that works with Sony's Eye Toy USB camera and "allows users to communicate with each other in four different ways, namely text, voice, video mail, and one-to-one video chat." It's also explained: "While engaging in a one-on-one video chat, users will have the option to play games against each other, including chess, checkers, and naval war." The article has further clarification on potential worries for parents: "SCEE is eager to point out that that it has been working very closely with several children's charities in order to ensure that EyeToy: Chat is safe for even the youngest PS2 fans to enjoy."
"In other words, it won't be any fun, and nobody over the age of 12 is going to buy this."
Anyone over 12 who wants to use video chat wants to do so for genital exposing and/or foul mouthed reasons? That's odd, I wasn't aware our age group was so easily categorized.
I hate liberals. If you are a liberal, do not reply.
It all depends on what you read into it. If "strict safety measures" means I can't have a private conversation with a friend, it seems like a waste of money to me. But, then again, the article was pretty light on details.
How will they keep the private chats between two people safe for kids? Will moderators invisibly jump from place to place, peeking into the conversations?
Cheap techology is great -- make digital cameras inexpensive, offer an SDK to grab their output, and folks will come up with wonderful ideas for how to abuse them. Devices like EyeToy are mostly just oddities now, but I'd like to see them used to popularize gestural interfaces.
Arkane Studios' RPG, Arx Fatalis is one of a handful of titles that offers gestural input, with its mouse-gesture-based spells. But this was more a novelty than a boon for usability -- it would have been easier to cast a spell by clicking icons. Perhaps a sequel will allow you to embellish your runes with serifs to achieve subtle variations on an incantation?
Avant Browser offers up a more useful gestural interface -- and I like it because it allows me to execute common tasks more easily. Rather than having to hit a smallish "new window" icon, I can rudely right-click anywhere on a window and sloppily drag my mouse upwards to open a new window.
EyeToy takes this a step further and does away with the mouse altogether; and though I had modest luck with the thing when I played against the noisy backdrop at Toys "R" Us, here's hoping that it's the first among many such interfaces. Perhaps five years down the road, a) gestures will be common, b) we'll laugh at what Minority Report got wrong, and c) we'll thank goofy gadgets like this one for paving the way.
After all, it was pretty silly to have a "Rat" for the Atari 800.
________________________________________________
The Inago Rage website is now up.
Critiques welcome and appreciated!
We're indie. We're working on our 14th game.