PlayStation Camera: What are the benefits?

There has been limited information on the abilities of the PlayStation Camera (PS4). The following is what seems to be available, information-wise:

- 1280 x 800 x 2 @ 60Hz at 12-bit color depth (640 x 400 x 2@120Hz and 320 x 192 x 2@240Hz)

- 85 degree FOV

- Ability to change things like exposure, white balance, and gain per camera or per frame (Ex: can allow a developer to, for example, use one camera at low exposure to track the bright PlayStation Move balls, and the other at higher exposure to show a player that would otherwise look dark in a dimly lit living room)

- Built-in 3 axis accelerometer

- Can be synced with the "game loop" clock so that images of players line up with the in-game action without lag

- Stereoscopic 3D
- Built-in 4 mic array
- Outputs RAW YUV (uncompressed) video feed
- Uses USB 3.0
- F Value/F2.0 fixed focus lens

- Each lens has independent resolution/framerate functionality (Ex: one lens can work at
1280 x 800 @60Hz, while the other lens is tracking motion in 320 x 192 @240Hz)


Knowing these things, what are some of the unique possibilities this type of setup can bring to games or apps?

Edit:
Depth Tracking with Stereoscopic Camera

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pydla1fPfBw

Face-tracking Library (w/ Augmented Reality)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gOtPVof2K94&feature=youtu.be&noredirect=1

Voice Recognition Library

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5TaUsSy-f0Y&feature=youtu.be&noredirect=1
 
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The USB 3.0 connector seems to be proprietary.

Advantages versus the old PS Eye are that for the PS Eye on PS3, games had to trade off camera image capture quality (which wasn't great at the best of times) against how well the Move could be detected (which is easier with sensitivity to light low, so you only see the Move controller light up). So the quality of the AR applications should be able to increase significantly without too much lag. Supporting 3D doesn't necessarily negate this however, as the 3D information can also be used to help determine the position of the Move controller more accurately. I suspect this would be more compute intensive, whereas on the other hand the non-3D may be faster and has the advantage of being easily backward compatible with the PS3's setup.

The accelerometer (isn't that more a gyro? / magnetometer?) is intended to know in which direction the PS Eye is looking. This could help being more precise with knowing in which direction you are aiming. I am particularly curious about if they could increase the pointer precision for Move detection (or the DS4's lightbar).

Obviously 3D AR will be more possible, though here it may get more complicated, and more light-conditions dependent.

I think it will be interesting and informative to learn more about face recognition and voice recognition on the PS4.
 
Stereoscopic 3D tracking hasn't been demonstrated, so we can't rely on it working well. We know the current setup can produce everything promised with the other EyeToy devices only much better, so an incremental improvement. If the 3D works well, it could achieve more. Sony really need a Kinect-like for their dancing games, which the PS platform was something of a pioneer for. Sales to girls for singing and dancing are likely diminishing as PS doesn't support the best solutions any more. Until the 3D is shown working, I wouldn't count on it.
 
Stereoscopic 3D tracking hasn't been demonstrated, so we can't rely on it working well.

Yep - there was a single, weird, quote about the UI being navigable via the camera, but it's unclear what that meant. Other than that comment, there's been no justification for the dual camera setup.

It's rather unclear whether that's a strategic move or a lack of confidence in the peripheral.
 
Here's the info Sony told developers/media back at GDC in March:

Eurogamer/Digital Foundry:
The light fantastic

Sony confirmed that the lightbar on the controller is indeed used to track player location in the room - Norden discussed dynamic split-screen with the gamer on the left automatically getting the left screen as opposed to it being allocated by default to player one, with the views shifting if players swapped sides. Similar to PlayStation Move, different players receive different lightbar colours: the first pad gets traditional PlayStation blue, the second gets a red light while the third and fourth controllers illuminate with green and pink respectively - Norden explaining that the colour choice correlates with the colours of the PlayStation symbols on the face buttons. Devs have control over the lightbar to a certain extent, so the LEDs could flash when a player takes damage during a game, for example. The lightbar also flashes while charging, with the pad able replenish its batteries even when the console is in standby.

Applications for the PlayStation 4 Eye camera were also discussed in depth. Firstly, a 1280x800 resolution per camera with 12-bit colour precision and a 60Hz refresh was confirmed, although it was also revealed that developers can trade pixels for frame-rate and that, at its fastest, PlayStation 4 Eye can update at 240Hz. We initially thought that the dual cam would be used for 3D applications and while the tech can triangulate depth in this way, Norden revealed a great many other uses too - the same shot can be acquired simultaneously at different levels of exposure, for example, giving a high-dynamic range effect and boosting low-light performance, while the frame-rate of the camera can be synchronised with the frame-rate of the game. Gesture-tracking and face-tracking libraries are also being provided.

Norden also hinted at Kinect-style gameplay, saying that the PS4 would support controller-free gameplay as well as custom props (reminding the audience of the old PS2 title that was bundled with pom-poms).

"You can get a really good lock on items in the room," he shared. "Cards, AR markers, wrist bands, clothing, LEDs, anything you can think of, you can track - LEDs work really well because it's a nice constant light source but you can do pretty much anything."

The enhanced precision of the PlayStation 4 Eye feeds back into an improved experience using the already superb Move controller:

"[PS4 Eye] actually provides much better tracking than the PS3 camera. Wider field of view, higher resolution," Norden confirmed. "It's just more robust in general because there's more power. Better AR, better head-tracking, better marker tracking, better everything."

n3ug9jI.jpg
Sony revealed a lot of new information on the PS4 Eye dual-cam, including its ability to match Kinect in a number of ways. It even has its own six-axis sensor so the console knows where the camera is looking and whether its field of view needs to be tweaked.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-inside-playstation-4
 
Stereoscopic 3D tracking hasn't been demonstrated, so we can't rely on it working well. We know the current setup can produce everything promised with the other EyeToy devices only much better, so an incremental improvement. If the 3D works well, it could achieve more. Sony really need a Kinect-like for their dancing games, which the PS platform was something of a pioneer for. Sales to girls for singing and dancing are likely diminishing as PS doesn't support the best solutions any more. Until the 3D is shown working, I wouldn't count on it.

The first title I know coming out for all next-gen platforms I think is Just Dance 2014 ... I think it is even a PS4 launch title. It will be very interesting to see if it uses the Move or not. The official site doesn't show anything:

http://just-dance-thegame.ubi.com/jd-portal/nl-NL/just-dance-2014/ps4/index.aspx

EDIT: sounds from here that the Playstation 4 is camera only, even if you have to take it from only 5 words, so I'm going to assume that the Kinect version will be the best one for now. Still look forward to seeing it in action.

http://www.ign.com/videos/2013/10/08/just-dance-2014-hits-new-york-fashion-week
 
I just wish someone would demo something! How can a dance game be a launch title on PS4 for the camera, and yet no-one has reviewed it? Where was it at E3? Or TGS? Or GamesCom? Who's going to buy it without any knowledge or how (or if!) it works?
 
If it can do head tracking, it might be a bit fun in racing games and such. As long as it can get kids on screen, kids like it. My niece n nephew spent hours with the video effects in the video app on the ps3, making funny videos of themselves.

Kinect has a spot on appeal for families. Hope Sony also is able to develop atleast kinect 1 like capabilities on this one. I think they must have something in mind , hence the lightbar on the new controller.
 
If it can do head tracking, it might be a bit fun in racing games and such. As long as it can get kids on screen, kids like it. My niece n nephew spent hours with the video effects in the video app on the ps3, making funny videos of themselves.
It can do head-tracking. People have made headtracking software on single lens cameras.
 
I just wish someone would demo something! How can a dance game be a launch title on PS4 for the camera, and yet no-one has reviewed it? Where was it at E3? Or TGS? Or GamesCom? Who's going to buy it without any knowledge or how (or if!) it works?

Sony has made quite a conscious effort to downplay the camera aspects, solidly targeting the early adopter market first. And they may have little to gain showing anything that isn't as good as Kinect. Right now it is in their best interest to have the Playstation 4 at 399, and making the camera interesting ironically would only help Microsoft. But Ubisoft has been interesting in having as their strategy to get into anything new as early as possible.
 
I can understand Sony's position, but not Ubisoft's. They are selling a motion-controlled game on a platform without showing anyone that it works. Either it doesn't work, and people who buy it will be decidedly frustrated, or it does work but no-one cares to showcase this. There's literally no video or article where someone has stood in front of a PS4 with camera and played this game. Considering Sony are happy to bundle the camera with some PS4s, it's a really odd situation.

Edit: I tell a lie. A PS4 trailer showing PS4 camera on top of a TV (also shows Kinect) as people play with full hands-free navigation.
So the promise is there. I'll wait on hands-on reviews though to believe it. ;) Games like that Kung-Fu one showed faultless background removal which wasn't at all like the real experience.
 
Stereoscopic 3D tracking hasn't been demonstrated, so we can't rely on it working well. We know the current setup can produce everything promised with the other EyeToy devices only much better, so an incremental improvement. If the 3D works well, it could achieve more. Sony really need a Kinect-like for their dancing games, which the PS platform was something of a pioneer for. Sales to girls for singing and dancing are likely diminishing as PS doesn't support the best solutions any more. Until the 3D is shown working, I wouldn't count on it.

I think the 2 cameras can track using 2 different algorithms, instead of using 1 3D algorithm. Read that somewhere long ago.
 
The USB 3.0 connector seems to be proprietary.

It's because it get's it's own USB3 channel, i.e. it's not shared with anything else in the system. it's a high bandwidth device, so you can only plug it in in one location and you can't plug anything else into that socket.
 
The first title I know coming out for all next-gen platforms I think is Just Dance 2014 ... I think it is even a PS4 launch title. It will be very interesting to see if it uses the Move or not. The official site doesn't show anything:

http://just-dance-thegame.ubi.com/jd-portal/nl-NL/just-dance-2014/ps4/index.aspx

EDIT: sounds from here that the Playstation 4 is camera only, even if you have to take it from only 5 words, so I'm going to assume that the Kinect version will be the best one for now. Still look forward to seeing it in action.

http://www.ign.com/videos/2013/10/08/just-dance-2014-hits-new-york-fashion-week
With motion gaming, is it most important to have lower latency/lag (within a frame) or to have the most precision?
 
Of course, both are needed. In motion gaming, low latency (tracking fast) and tracking precision aren't required in equal portions, right?

It's a more complex question than just you need A more than B. Wii got a way with just a remote for their motion gaming story. Same if you have a motion sports game that depends on timing, then latency is more important, but if you have a freeform boxing game, then perhaps accuracy would matter more.
 
It's a more complex question than just you need A more than B. Wii got a way with just a remote for their motion gaming story. Same if you have a motion sports game that depends on timing, then latency is more important, but if you have a freeform boxing game, then perhaps accuracy would matter more.
Really? Why perhaps would accuracy take precedence over latency, in a boxing application?
 
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