Eyetoy II

[RolandG]

Don't know in which section to post this, but since it's hardware related it
might as well stay here. Let me just warn you that the following is a rumor
I am making up and I am only speculating.

My guess is that "augmented reality/fused reality" is going to be the keyword for the next
eyetoy. A year ago I saw a little spot about a small french company in a
music/culture magazine called tracks on the German/French channel called
ARTE.

The company is called Total Immersion and they developed a
brilliant technology called D-Fusion which could possible be employed within
the next eyetoy (warning speculation). Right now eyetoy only captures
your image and intergrates it into gameplay. This technology takes this
concept to the next level. The integration between 3d objects within the
image the camera takes and projects onto your television is much
greater(imagine a 3d ball bouncing around your room) and allows a
new way of gaming. This is all made possible through a little sensor.
So before I go on you might ask yourself why I am so sure that this French
firm Total Immersion has struck a deal with Sony.

1.
They said that they have exhibited at a japanese exhibition and there
hasn't been anything that was even just closely as well developed as their
product.

2.
There also is a short interview in german.

"Valentin Lefevre: Der nächste Schritt könnte sogar der sein, dass man alle
Kameras ab Werk mit dieser Technologie ausstattet. Das wäre natürlich
der Hammer, denn dann würde eure Sony Kamera, unsere Software mit
allen Algorithmen gleich mit an Bord haben."

Let me try and translate this into english

"Valentin Lefevre: The next step could be, that all cameras would be
enhanced with this technology. This would be awesome, because it would
mean that your SONY camera would have our software plus all the
algorhythmens on board".

Again this is pure speculation.

But please take a look at this real media clip and tell me that this is not
going to be the next eyetoy. Take a good look when the camera is zooming
out of the monitor ;). And Remember I told you first about it :)

http://sonix.sdv.fr:8080/ramgen/arte/tracks/20040603/immersion.rm

Total Immersion HP
http://www.t-immersion.com/fr/index.php#

[senas8]

WOW

[RolandG]

I know f***** impressive... aint it.
I have a feeling this post could make the rounds on the internet :)

[Danji]

That is incredible, I thought the next version of the Eyetoy would be great but if that is it that would be outrageously incredible! Such immersion would give a cutting edge above all other consoles and would definitely lead to sales. Image a game where you run around the room your in as a bonus stage as a ninja and kill opponents that randomly spawn. They could have the camera be operated with the right analog stick so it actually moves the camera! Such a thing would be so amazing that I can only pray that is what will become of the Eyetoy 2.

[Domination]

I don't see anything.

[RolandG]

you need to install real player to view the clip....

[Rallyracr420]

you need to install real player to view the clip....
or Real Alternative:
http://www.free-codecs.com/download/Real_Alternative.htm :o


But anyways...
about that video clip..... :shock: :shock: Whoa daaaaaaamn :shock: :shock: If we could have that kind of interactivity with the next gen systems, there's no telling what they're capable of

[shadowofomioc]

I've seen tons of things in my time, but I have to say that this is the most impressive piece of new technology I have ever witnessed.

At the very outset I thought it was like a holographic of a car that somehow actually moved around the room with the right physics, while that would be impressive, this to me is even moreso. Seeing the car interact with the room, and even jumping a makeshift ramp was unreal.

The thing that gets me is how you can actually see the person in the room on the computer also. The possibility behind this technology here is really endless. I smell virtual reality, like we've seen in the movies, not far ahead in our futures.

[shadowofomioc]

I've seen tons of things in my time, but I have to say that this is the most impressive piece of new technology I have ever witnessed.

At the very outset I thought it was like a holographic of a car that somehow actually moved around the room with the right physics, while that would be impressive, this to me is even moreso. Seeing the car interact with the room, and even jumping a makeshift ramp was unreal.

The thing that gets me is how you can actually see the person in the room on the computer also. The possibility behind this technology here is really endless. I smell virtual reality, like we've seen in the movies, not far ahead in our futures.

[shadowofomioc]

I've seen tons of things in my time, but I have to say that this is the most impressive piece of new technology I have ever witnessed.

At the very outset I thought it was like a holographic of a car that somehow actually moved around the room with the right physics, while that would be impressive, this to me is even moreso. Seeing the car interact with the room, and even jumping a makeshift ramp was unreal.

The thing that gets me is how you can actually see the person in the room on the computer also. The possibility behind this technology here is really endless. I smell virtual reality, like we've seen in the movies, not far ahead in our futures.

[shadowofomioc]

I've seen tons of things in my time, but I have to say that this is the most impressive piece of new technology I have ever witnessed.

At the very outset I thought it was like a holographic of a car that somehow actually moved around the room with the right physics, while that would be impressive, this to me is even moreso. Seeing the car interact with the room, and even jumping a makeshift ramp was unreal.

The thing that gets me is how you can actually see the person in the room on the computer also. The possibility behind this technology here is really endless. I smell virtual reality, like we've seen in the movies, not far ahead in our futures.

[shadowofomioc]

I've seen tons of things in my time, but I have to say that this is the most impressive piece of new technology I have ever witnessed.

At the very outset I thought it was like a holographic of a car that somehow actually moved around the room with the right physics, while that would be impressive, this to me is even moreso. Seeing the car interact with the room, and even jumping a makeshift ramp was unreal.

The thing that gets me is how you can actually see the person in the room on the computer also. The possibility behind this technology here is really endless. I smell virtual reality, like we've seen in the movies, not far ahead in our futures.

[shadowofomioc]

woah sorry. Kept entering a debug mode and i thought it wasnt posting.

[cpiasminc]

To a certain extent, this doesn't completely surprise me. If you remember in the Zimmons' Cell graphics ppt file, you might remember some stuff regarding summed absolute difference used for stereo video capture to estimate 3d depth of pixels within view. The really involved thing from that demo is actually constructing physics objects from the sampled information. Usually, using a stereo setup is only so accurate, even with highly precise pre-calibration.

[High Lander]

:shock: :shock: :shock:

[ultimategamer2004]

hey this sounds really good :shock: i'll probably be getting it. i have eyetoy but this sounds alot better. imersing your imagne in gameplay should attract alot of people.

[Illmatic]

Let's just hope Sony picks this company up before the others, the trailer was unbelievable. :shock:

[cpiasminc]

Reading up on a few more things, it looks like it wouldn't be as hard as I thought. There's apparently a handful of GPU-based techniques that utilize a few Z-test passes to construct a voxel grid for collision tests, but it still sounds like there'd be a need for the z-buffer and a normal (normal as in "normals", not normal as in ordinary) image to get good response characteristics... not that it'd be necessary for collision itself -- and it's especially well-suited to soft-body systems. It's still really slow because of the need for readbacks, but in a CELL-driven GPU where APUs and the pixel pipes share the same memory, it wouldn't be so bad.

[RolandG]

Agumented Reality isn't really that new, but these guys seem to have the most advanced / markable solution I have seen to date. Even if Sony doesn't cooperate with Total Immersion (which I doubt since I really think that there are certain clues) Sony is definetely going to bring us something new.

Just take a look at Sonys (Sony`s ?) Qualia line and their design research

http://www.qualia.sony.us/qualia_main.html
http://www.sony.net/Fun/SonyDesign/2003/home.html

I think that the PS3 is not just going to be "yay better graphics". I think it's about time that Games move away a little from the typical "oh great another war related first or third person game". I think it is a time for interactive entertainment to evolve a little. Let's hope Sony delievers.


oh... and I found a few more d'fusion videos

http://www.t-immersion.com/mov/car_outd.html
http://www.t-immersion.com/mov/markerle.html
http://www.t-immersion.com/mov/airbus.html
http://www.t-immersion.com/mov/car_desi.html
http://www.t-immersion.com/mov/in_situ.html
http://www.t-immersion.com/mov/immersiv.html
http://www.t-immersion.com/mov/airplane.html
http://www.t-immersion.com/mov/MARKER_T.html

[Domination]

you need to install real player to view the clip....
or Real Alternative:
http://www.free-codecs.com/download/Real_Alternative.htm :o


But anyways...
about that video clip..... :shock: :shock: Whoa daaaaaaamn :shock: :shock: If we could have that kind of interactivity with the next gen systems, there's no telling what they're capable of

Holy Crap!!! I sure hope hope they get their hands on this technology some how. When 3D imagey was mentioned, there was no way I could even picture what was being explained about a 3D object bouning around the room without thinking about what the normal Eye Toy was already doing. This is some brilliant stuff these guys have come up with.

[cpiasminc]

Some pertinent stuff.

Volumetric Collision detection for deformable objects --
http://cg.informatik.uni-freiburg.de/publications/collisionDetectionETHZ2003.pdf
http://cg.informatik.uni-freiburg.de/publications/collisionDetectionRasterizationVMV2003.pdf

Image-space Based Collision Detection in Cloth Simulation --
http://www.cs.ucl.ac.uk/staff/b.spanlang/ISBCICSOWH.pdf

Detection of Collisions and Self-collisions in Image-space --
http://wscg.zcu.cz/wscg2004/Papers_2004_Full/M89.pdf

If you have a stereo image from which to reconstruct depth information for every pixel in an image, you shouldn't have any trouble getting a voxel grid out of it.

[Rallyracr420]

Maybe this is Sony's trick to get us all to buy 2 EyeToys. Buy one and you get little TV games...buy two eyetoys and your reality now belongs to the PS3. :shock:

[cpiasminc]

Maybe this is Sony's trick to get us all to buy 2 EyeToys. Buy one and you get little TV games...buy two eyetoys and your reality now belongs to the PS3.
It would never work with two Eyetoys, unless you also had to buy some sort of mounting bracket that kept the two of them aligned exactly right that it would match the calibrations the software is built around.

You'd need at least a single stereo unit... three sensors would be even better, 2 for depth measuring and 1 in the center to provide a reference image for what you actually see on screen. The more depth-offer sensors you provide, the more accurate and more expensive it gets.