Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Microsoft Working On Motion-Sensing Camera For the Xbox 360

Posted by Soulskill on from the and-they-promise-not-to-watch-you-and-laugh dept.

The Wall Street Journal reports on the motion-capture technology Microsoft is rumored to be working on for the Xbox 360. "Unlike the Wii, the Microsoft camera won't require users to hold any hardware to control on-screen action, the people familiar with the matter said. The camera would sit near the television and capture when players move their hands, legs or head." The Guardian Games Blog points out that we've gotten a look at this technology before, from a company called 3DV, which was reported to be talking with Microsoft earlier this year. Many expect the specifics of this technology to be revealed at E3 early next month.

11 of 68 comments (clear)

  1. Hmm by u38cg · · Score: 2, Informative

    This sounds familiar.

    --
    [FUCK BETA]
    1. Re:Hmm by 91degrees · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I never realised the eyetoy was a 3D camera.

    2. Re:Hmm by nizo · · Score: 3, Funny

      They tried selling 2D Eyetoys but people had a hard time picking them up.

      --
      I Am My Own Worst Enemy
  2. Unfortunately... by rackserverdeals · · Score: 4, Funny

    They're going to have to wear a black leotard with whit ping pong balls on it as they jump around....

    and in many cases, people don't want to see that.

    --
    Dual Opteron < $600
  3. Face Recgonition and Motion Sensing by MoldySpore · · Score: 2, Interesting

    This is actually a fairly cool bit of technology. My girlfriend recently got a crazy expensive webcam for herself. I don't know the model # off the top of my head but it is the one of their upper level models that has the Carl Zeiss Optical technology in it. Bundled with the camera comes face recognition and motion sensing software. It locks in on her face and when she moves around it follows her face so that she is never out of frame. It is actually quite accurate and rarely loses track of her.

    Not sure how much people who would be using this with the XBOX would be moving around, but it is generally a pretty neat tech.

    --

    "I hope you know how very lucky you are to know me, because I am so incredibly incredible."

    1. Re:Face Recgonition and Motion Sensing by caffeinemessiah · · Score: 2, Interesting

      It locks in on her face and when she moves around it follows her face so that she is never out of frame. It is actually quite accurate and rarely loses track of her.

      From a video processing point of view, this is not too hard when pretty much the full frame is filled with one prominent face, which is looking head on at the camera and usually not too far from it. Playing video games is a whole different cup of tea, and some of the reasons why this might not work so well are:

      1. You're usually very far from the screen, so the face/body is less evident in the scene, although this isn't a huge problem.
      2. There are usually people sitting next to you on the couch, so the algorithm has to keep track of multiple faces/bodies and track only the relevant one (or track as many people as are playing). This is much harder to do accurately and continuously.

      Well then again, it might work well on that massive, 8-core Cell proces---oh wait, that's the PS3.

      --
      An old-timer with old-timey ideas.
  4. Warning! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    You are wanking to unlicensed porn!

    [buy license and continue playing porn] [abort wanking]

  5. Too bad it's bound to fail in the market by Turken · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Two major problems with this possible system: First, it's just a camera. Without a full set of buttons on a controller that can be operated one-handed (or two hands with independent motion), you're stuck with waggle-only games and the Wii has already shown us how bad (or just plain frustrating) those can be.

    Second, at this point in the console life cycle it's just another add-on with potential for a niche market at best. Unless there is massive developer support and or a large pack-in campaign, there simply won't be enough people with the hardware to justify developing many games for is.

    So basically we're looking at another eye-toy, albeit one that can work in most rooms. Maybe Microsoft can come out and really surprise us with something amazing to add to what's already been tried before, but I'm not keeping my hopes too high for this one.

  6. No good. by Millennium · · Score: 2, Interesting

    There's a reason that even Hollywood still relies on external sensors for motion capture: machine vision is decades away from being able to do stuff like this. There is simply no way this will be any good, but then, I think that's part of the point: reinforce the 360 fanboys' perception that motion is bad by giving them a bad controller for motion.

  7. Re:What about the existing 360 camera? by 91degrees · · Score: 2, Insightful

    The 360 has a particular set of users that are unlikely to be that enthused about a motion capture camera. They can already go out and buy a Wii if they prefer to make their input without using a normal controller.

    That's kinda the point. MS want people to buy an XBox when they might buy a Wii instead.

  8. Re:Should be lots of fun to watch... by JustOK · · Score: 3, Funny

    And even before that, there was Track & Field for the, you know, field with the track.

    --
    rewriting history since 2109