Sony has announced that their next gen Eye camera will be launched in Europe this summer. Picking up where the EyeToy left off, the new device is custom built for the PS3 and works as an accessory for voice, video chat and online gaming. It’s a pretty slick looking device as well. PlayStation say it’s designed specifically to work with the next generation of social gaming titles and new services being developed for PS3. Key features of the PlayStation Eye include:
• A sophisticated microphone with the ability to reduce background noise and focus on the spoken word for smoother, more accurate speech recognition and transfer
• The ability to capture videos and audio clips directly to your PS3’s hard disk drive
• Engineered to perform well even in low-light conditions
• A range of different capturing modes, including slow motion and time-lapse
• Faster frame rate for improved tracking, responsiveness and smoothness
• Two position zoom lens for close-up and full body options
• A range of eye-catching visual effects to apply to photos and videos
• Bundled with EyeCreate™ editing software, which allows users to save and edit photos, video and audio clips
Here’s some more specific info on the PlayStation Eye
EyeCreate software
EyeCreate editing software, bundled free with PLAYSTATION Eye allows you to save photos, video and audio clips to your PS3 hard disk drive and apply eye-catching visual effects to your images. Different capture modes like time-lapse and slow motion open up a world of possibilities to be explored further in EyeCreate’s editing suite, where you can turn your media into professional looking movies.
New microphone functions
An all-new four microphone array, incorporating multidirectional voice location tracking, enhanced echo cancelling and background noise suppression allows for clear audio chat in even the most noisy of environments, without the need to hold or wear a headset.
Next-generation camera features
A frame rate of up to 120 frames per second allows for super-smooth video and sophisticated low-light operation means that the room doesn’t have to be brightly lit for the camera to deliver crisp, perfectly exposed video. The adjustable zoom lens features a 56º field of view to capture head and shoulders action for close-in audio-visual chat, and a 75º field of view to capture the whole body for a fully physical gaming experience.
Technical Specifications:
• 4 channel audio input:16 bits/channel, 48kHz, SNR 90db
• 56º to 75º Field of View zoom lens
• 2.1 F-stop, <1% distortion, fixed focus (25cm to 8 at 75º FOV)
• 640 x 480 at 60 frames/second
• 320 x 240 at 120 frames/second
• USB2 high-speed data transfer
• Uncompressed video or optional JPEG compression
Looks freaking cool.
Comment by Jast3r Rogu3 — Apr 26, 2007 @ 10:56 am
If i understand well, this is also the “Ps3 headset”. A sort of all-in-wonder product. Interesting. And the price?
Comment by Wildy — Apr 26, 2007 @ 11:05 am
Certainly looks interesting.
I see as well that beta invites or the invitation to apply for a place in the beta testing of Home in the US has appeared on the internets. Hopefully there will be some news soon as to when we can put our names forward.
Comment by Pete Cullen — Apr 26, 2007 @ 11:09 am
Looks ugly & top heavy. Prefer the look of the old eyetoy myself.
Comment by Mick — Apr 26, 2007 @ 11:24 am
320×240? 630×480?
Where is the ‘HD’ that everyone was rumouring?!
A bit disappointing…
Comment by Tom Kiss — Apr 26, 2007 @ 11:47 am
I agree it is ugly, the microphone could have more thought to it’s placement and styling.
Comment by appmacguy — Apr 26, 2007 @ 11:54 am
How about the pricing?
Comment by Black Bambou — Apr 26, 2007 @ 1:07 pm
We’re told the price hasn’t yet been confirmed.
Comment by Three Speech — Apr 26, 2007 @ 1:11 pm
Thank you =)
Comment by Black Bambou — Apr 26, 2007 @ 1:12 pm
I actually don’t think it’s ugly at all, and the mic looks detchable. It’s leaps ahead of any other can technology out there by the look of it. I bought the XBOX360 cam and so far there’s been a really shit arcade game and face mapping. That’s it. I know Sony is planning on supporting this as they did with the original Eye Toy.
Comment by Ben Furneaux — Apr 26, 2007 @ 1:22 pm
And the HD rumoring was exactly that. An HD camera at an affordable price?! Not gonna happen for a good few years.
Plus 640×480 is technically 480p which is pretty close to HD and will do a great picture.
Comment by Ben Furneaux — Apr 26, 2007 @ 1:28 pm
Hi Ben. 480p can of course never be regarded as HD, it’s often tagged as being ‘ED’ or Enhanced definition.
Logitechs 720i ‘HD’ camera is £89. But this confused me. If 720i can be regarded as HD (which surely, it can’t be) Then a camera capable of 640×480 progressive image @ 60Hz should be capable of capturing a 1280×960 image interlaced, right?
Which could be translated as this camera being able to capture a 720i image. Which would be enough to say it’s teh real next gen.
But then re-reading that I think it’s just logitechs 720i branding that’s confusing me….
Comment by Tom Kiss — Apr 26, 2007 @ 1:48 pm
I wonder if this can take higher res pictures. Generally cameras can take much higher res stills than the movies they can record.
Comment by Andy — Apr 26, 2007 @ 2:29 pm
[…] Three Speech link Press Release […]
Pingback by Bye bye EyeToy, Hello PlayStation Eye « Next-Gen Gamer — Apr 26, 2007 @ 3:57 pm
I don’t think the quality matters to much, it’s more what’s done with it. From what I know about Eye of Judgement it’s ground-breaking, original and incredibly ambitious.
Comment by Ben Furneaux — Apr 26, 2007 @ 4:10 pm
Is this going to be more for communications or games a la the original Eye Toy? If there are games coming out, any liks to some info on them?
Comment by phil — Apr 26, 2007 @ 4:50 pm
Sounds cool. So basically this replaces the headset and adds video as well. I can see Sony bundling this in future PS3’s.
Any word on when this’ll be out in the US?
Comment by PSN: Neil — Apr 26, 2007 @ 6:16 pm
Playstation Eye Unveiled…
Its no longer a toy. Sony today announced the successor to the “Eye Toy” of the PS2 generation. Dropping the ‘Toy’, its called the Playstation Eye and will be available this summer. It works for Video / Voice chat and games, in…
Trackback by Absolute Blog — Apr 26, 2007 @ 7:18 pm
Sweet accessory. I’m buying it as soon as it’s available in the U.S. I know this will lead to the ability for Home/SingStar users to upload unique content to share and to chat.. but will this lead to PS3 users finally having video chat in games as well? I hope so!
Comment by nmc75 — Apr 26, 2007 @ 7:44 pm
[…] Source: threespeech.com/blog […]
Pingback by PS3 EyeToy dated for Summer release » GAMINGtruth — Apr 26, 2007 @ 8:01 pm
ahh, no bluetooth-connection?! =(
Comment by sebastian — Apr 26, 2007 @ 8:38 pm
you really need a HD-Camera on a game console?
what are you going to do with use it to shoot your porno’s?
get a life for $49…
Comment by mark — Apr 26, 2007 @ 9:26 pm
it doesnt look ugly come on now peepz.
it looks exactly like what it is; a cam with a mic on it.
Comment by whatdafunk — Apr 26, 2007 @ 9:32 pm
Look sweet.
Definitely will be keeping an “eye” out for this one.
Comment by Mr. Dark E — Apr 26, 2007 @ 10:34 pm
Depends on what the CCD used to capture images is. I have no idea how they’re doing 120 fps… that’s pretty awesome for a ccd, sometimes they’ll use a large one and capture each frame on a seperate section of the chip to help speed things up.
And as for bluetooth… at 640×480 @ 60fps, that’s very close to the max bandwidth for USB 2.0 without using image compression, which they say is optional. I’m not sure you can have a decent webcam with bluetooth at any sane resolution and quality.
We know the ps3 already has code for face recognition… they could do some really interesting things with this, especially combined with Home.
Comment by androvsky — Apr 27, 2007 @ 12:19 am
Ooh, like mirroring your facial expressions on your Home avatar - so if you’re happy and laughing, so is your Home avatar. Nice idea!
Comment by Rikki — Apr 27, 2007 @ 9:42 am
you might be right androvsky, maybe there isn’t enough bandwidth to transfer the video in a satisfying quality with bluetooth connection. The problem is, I’m allergic to cables
And there are no USB-connectors on the back of the PS3 which gives me the possibility to hide away the cables =( Doesn’t look nice to have an ugly cable laying in front of the beautiful PS3…
Comment by sebastian — Apr 27, 2007 @ 11:37 am
Eyetoy pwns this.
Comment by Haxar — Apr 28, 2007 @ 6:50 pm
Found a new use for the Eyetoy!
OK, I was messing around with the PSP to PS3 Remote use. Here’s the set up.
One of my PS3’s is downstairs in my living room. I turn on the PS3 to Remote play, and run upstairs to listen to some tunes and such while upstairs.
Now my PS3 has an EYETOY hooked up to it, so I was wondering if I could start a Video Chat with my PSP thur Remote play.
Sure enough It works…. Not only could I get another person into my Video chat, but I can also see my Downstairs living room on my PSP FULL SCREEN.
I played around with it, and now if I wanted to watch what ever was going on where ever my PS3 is I can thur remote play.
This means once Remote play can take place thur any WiFi area, you can leave your PS3 on, Just to see what is going on at home where ever your Eyetoy is facing. Not telling wife, want to see what she’s up to while I’m at work =p, and now I can see what dog is chewing up the couch =p ( have 3 dogs… ones being naughty )
heres link
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bGbf0v3iHYA
EQDruid
Comment by EQDruid — May 3, 2007 @ 5:18 pm
How the F*CK can you “stylize” a microphone?
Comment by Rock Lee — Jun 3, 2007 @ 2:58 pm
OMG THE PS3 COMPLETES MEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!! LOL I LOVE YOU PLAYSTATION!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Comment by Psp — Jul 19, 2007 @ 1:10 am
[…] Jag nämnde den nya EyeToy-kameran i december förra året, men sedan dess har det varit väldigt tyst om den. Men nu har i alla fall Sony meddelat att den nya kameran PlayStation Eye kommer att släppas i sommar. Den kommer att vara specialbyggd för röst- och videochattande, och ha följande funktioner: […]
Pingback by PlayStation Eye | PS3bloggen.se — Oct 4, 2007 @ 4:47 pm
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