As for the EyePet issues -- the room was very well lit, and it was daytime. But it is a beige carpet, which I think is the most common type of carpet... Did no one at Sony think of the potential issue here? Did no one do any kind of real testing in the many years since EyeToy has come out? Or do they just not care?
Given the lack of attention, I'm inclined to say they don't care or are overloaded. ^_^ (Some are probably working hard on PSP2 ?).
The problem you encountered can be sidestepped by using the Move controller instead of your fingers. They seem to have forgotten to change the instructions.
At SD resolution, both Kinect and Move cannot detect fingers when you're too far. The EyePet algorithm attempts to sidestep this by detecting movement instead of fingers, but it doesn't always work.
I think Sony should just not try to do image recognition (EyeToy style gaming), because the technology just isn't there. It's as infuriatingly random was it was when I first tried it in 2000 with my Intel webcam on the PC. They should stick to the glowing-orb tracking with the camera, and the accelerometer/gyroscope readings in the controller. It works reasonably well, but the design itself seems quite limited also.
As with most tech, it depends on how you use it. Image recognition works well for sketch recognition because you draw with the Move controller, or you hold the drawing close to the camera. The light from your TV screen will light up the drawing bright enough for a decent recognition. The frustration there is the poor implementation of "framing" the drawing. You have to hold it close enough but not too close.
If you use the Move controller to draw, you don't have to frame the drawing.
I think HD camera would have blown the bandwidth. It's not an issue with backward compatibility. At SD, they can also track player movement up to 60Hz. 120Hz for 320x240.
I'm particularly perplexed by Singstar Dance -- how exactly does this work? Does it not just track how your one hand moves with the controller?
I think it only tracks your controller hand but people will simply mimic the dancers' movement anyway. I played it this morning with my kid. He was too shy to play at first. Then jumped in. Let's just say dancing is not my strong suit. ^_^ I prefer the sports type. We love the song collection though.
EDIT: About EyePet... you also need to be aware that the game tries to simulate a pet's behaviour. It can be quite dumb (or play hard to get) sometimes. It's one of those "build your relationship with animal" thing. Even for sketch recognition, you'll find that your first 4-5 recognition sucks *ss because the program deliberately mis-recognize your drawing -- until you "trained" your pet. After that, every drawing will be recognized perfectly. My kid was disappointed at first (He looked at me with a sad face, then went hurray when the pet could deal with his drawing flawlessly). The old man inside me ran out of patience after the second attempt.
I can't stand this stage. Sony management just doesn't care enough about the overall Move experience to think through the implication. In this aspect, Shuhei has failed his customers thoroughly. The product marketing people also need to share the blame on this. Even if they are tied up with other projects, some of these attention to details require very few additional work (like mentioning that you can use Move to lure the pet, besides your hands or fingers or feet).
