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Sony Demos Natal-Like Control System
An anonymous reader writes "It's not just Microsoft investigating full body, markerless motion capture. Sony has enlisted the help of Swiss firm Atracsys to develop similar technology. Sony has openly discussed the technology with New Scientist, and has realistic expectations for the new system — it can capture broad body gestures but not individual fingers. That's just one trade-off needed in order to develop a real-time system that anyone can use, according to a markerless motion-capture expert."
It's still in the early stages of development, but the accompanying video shows the use of face-recognition software as well. The demo game has players moving their heads left or right to position their character, and then smiling to "catch" an object.
Project Natal running on PlayStation 2 , 5 years ago
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jYHr0I-iFHE
What's next on Slashdot? Microsoft 'invents' open source software development?
Sony demoed this system at the same show Natal was announced at. Both Microsoft and Sony were trying to come up with answers to the Wii.
Microsoft's system is, if you think about it, pretty clunky. It can't recognize fingers either (or it didn't at the demo).
Sony's is a little better, in that at least you have a controller with real buttons to denote actions.
But I think both, are in the end not as good as the Wii system, where you can sit on the couch and play if you want instead of requiring a rather large clear area right in front of the TV set, just where most people have coffee tables laden with remote controls and magazines...
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
MS copied Nintendo Mii's with their avatars. Sony Copied MS with achievements. Sony Copied Nintendo with motion control (poorly). I'm hoping Nintendo copies MS's online play and friend system. As long as they can give us all a better gaming experience without getting their asses sued, I'm in favour of it.
Umm.. what's poor about Sony's motion control system? It's a lot more useful than the original Wii control system..? I'm looking forward to it anyway (and yes I have a Wii, but I got bored of it and started using my PS3 exclusively long before motion plus came along).
which is totally what she said
from Natal. Here's why: http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2009/6/5/
weinersmith
Why else would they buy it? There are already camera games for PS2 and PS3, so what makes you think they wouldn't make use of this new stuff with the EyeToy?
which is totally what she said
Sony has had camera control since the PS2. Sony actually DID innovate this time. Microsoft ripped them off.
That skill point is exactly like the point system in Leisure Suit Larry (the first one, since you're too young to know anything but PS2 games). Heck, you can even compare it to end-level score system in the first Sonic.
What is it with Sony fanboys that they are the most neurotically defensive gamers around? They're beating even the gloating Nintendo fanboys of the 80s, the paranoid Sega fanboys of the 90s and the smug Amiga fanboys.
Newsflash: everything's been done before. It doesn't matter if something's new, only if it works. In the meantime, stop foaming at the mouth. Sony will survive without you.
Those who can, do. Those who can't, sue.
I just don't see how Sony + Camera + Gaming != PS3. Even the advertising stuff could be referring to the PS3, though I certainly hope not..
which is totally what she said
Ah, but since it was Microsoft that copied the eyetoy concept, we're all supposed to forget that the original ever existed. I'd think Slashdotters would know how this works by now... ;)
And Nintendo had motion control with Kibry Tilt and Tumble on the Gameboy Color.
They're call 'Skill Points' and they were first invented by Sony and Insomniac games all the way back in the late 1990s
From what I've seen of these skill points, Their pretty much the same thing as getting the hidden world stars in Mario 64, only you get a star instead of an extra life.
Sony had motion controls in games going all the way back to the early PS2 days
And it sucked. Just about all of the Eye Toy games were "stand in front of the screen and flail your arms around like a crazy man" since all it responded to was movement. Natal can sense depth as well as position and movement, so it actually knows where you are in 3D space. Regardless, the real question is can Microsoft capatalize on it in such a way to make a game compelling enough to play. Even the Wii is struggling here.
In Soviet Russia, Trojan exploits YOU!
When you are spending 2-3 times as much for your console
Compared to what? I play to own the PS3 for about ten years, playing online games as part of that. You buy the PS3 once and in the end the games are costing a lot more than the console, plus there are no recurring fees and you get a Blu-Ray player too.
If you are comparing to a 360, you are a damn dirty hypocrite since you'll be paying more than me after just a year or two, and if you wanted to watch Blu-Ray discs ever are really running up a tab.
If you own a Wii, carry on (except for the Blu-Ray point of course).
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Just think of all the hilarious motions going un-captured!
... and then they built the supercollider.
How much does LIVE cost on xbox?
The eternal struggle of good vs. evil begins within one's self.
$0.00
Not a Twitter sockpuppet... but I wish I was.
Wasn't the Sony ps2 the first major console to have this? (the eyetoy- I know it sucked, but the idea was there)
I have very similar thoughts as the parent. The only difference is that I'm in favor of it
If you can read this... 01110101 01110010 00100000 01100001 00100000 01100111 01100101 01100101 01101011
The 360 launched in two versions, "core" for $299 and "elite" for $399. The initial 20gb PS3 sold for $499, and the 60gb for $599.
You perhaps could argue whether it was $100 or $200 more expensive, but it was clearly more.
Maybe I'm looking through rose-tinted glasses, but I seem to remember this funny little thing that games used to be defined by. I can't remember the word for it... oh yeah. They were Fun. I can live without these new-fangled gimmicks. I don't see games being any more fun with the Natal system than with the Wiimote, nor do I see them being any more fun with Sony's system. The concepts are neat, but they just don't seem efficient. The focus is turning away from good games and more toward gimmicky games.
I'll admit, the Wiimote is gimmicky, but Nintendo hasn't forgotten what Fun is.
Welcome to the future of gaming! Have fun with your friends while you stagger around like zombies! Please take a look at the feature video and behold the faces of the players! Yes! That's a smile right there! Sony brings joy to your life. Ain't that game great?
And it's the only game you actually get better the more Jager's you kill.
The microsoft version is using Israeli military technology, it's not just a webcam. Or it is a webcam, but it's also something else.
A small time before the camera sends another frame downstream a small led in front of the camera flashes. That flash has a specific color, that's rarely seen in nature. Then it resets one layer of the CMOS camera. Then, a short while later the frame is sent downstream ... with 4 color components.
You have your superstandard red, green and blue channels. And you get a depth channel. The last channel indicates how long a time passed between the flashing of the led and that pixel seeing the color emanated by the led.
In all but the most extreme situations (there are a few extreme angles that don't work as expected, a few materials that are not opaque to the sent-out color, and there's a minimum and maximum distance, which aren't stellar, as well as limitations on how many such camera's can be active at once, as they have to timeshare), that would be the distance between the eye of the camera and whatever object the pixel was on.
Natal does not give you a 2d image, it gives you a 2.5d image (meaning x,y + height, not truly independent x,y,z coordinates), but still. The difference between normal pictures and natal pictures is like the difference between mario bros and duke nukem 3d.
Natal is the combination of a camera + a (relatively short-range) 3d range scanner. That equipment doesn't really exist yet, and while camera's are cheap, I seriously doubt you can find a 2d range scanner running at 60 Hz for less than 50.000$.
A PS3 costs the same as a Wii or an Xbox 360 these days. Below works on the following assumption Xbox and PS3 games tend to be single player with the multiplayer aspect online, while most of the Wii games tend to be Mulitplayer games where you need multiple controllers.
In the UK a Wii will set you back £179 you will need anouther Wiimote £29.99 and atleast one nunchuck at £14.99. (I'm ignoring WiiFit and Motion Plus here). This means your looking at spending atleast £223.98. If you want two nun chucks and include Motion Plus (£19.99) then the price reaches £278.95. Thats £278.95 for a console Nintendo are already talking about replacing.
For my Xbox 360 Comparison I'm assuming you only need a single controller since most of the games are single player with online play. An Xbox Elite will set you back £199.99 and if you want WiFi thats anouther £49.99. Meaning to enjoy the 360 your looking at spending £249.98.
A PS3 Slim is £249.99 Making it £0.01 more expsive than the equivlent Xbox 360. It comes with Blu-ray as standard and Sony seem to suggest it will have a longer life cycle by several years.
If you feel I've been unfair to the Wii in reguards to accessories wise a Xbox360 controller costs £29.99 and a PS3 controller costs £34.99.
So yes the Wii is the cheapest at £278.95, the Xbox is inbetween at £279.97 and the PS3 is the most expensive at £284.98. The £10 price difference shouldn't be enough for anyone to care about and while the links I offered showed Games for the Wii and Xbox360 and not the PS3 in my expearence Game offers vary wildly for all the consoles and you can get a PS3 slim with COD5/GTAIV for the £249.99 price.
How do you think it's more useful than the Wii controllers? Eyetoy was a cute game but it doesn't seem anywhere near as useful to capture movement using a single camera (ie: no 3d movement) as using a controller. I'm sure at some point the two will be combined for some interesting effects, but the camera alone is very limiting.
When I said "Sony's motion control system" I was referring to the one they demoed at E3, the one that uses a controller (or two controllers) in combination with EyeToy for full 3D positioning with "sub-millimeter accuracy". That system does all the things that I thought the Wii was going to be able to do, but didn't.
which is totally what she said
How much does LIVE cost on xbox?
$0.00
This is misleading. These lists are pulled from the XBox Live site. XBox Silver, for free, gets you:
XBox Live Gold, for $60 a year, adds:
How much it costs depends on how much you want to do.