Another CEDEC presentation found by Titanio:
http://techon.nikkeibp.co.jp/english/NEWS_EN/20100909/185557/
http://techon.nikkeibp.co.jp/english/NEWS_EN/20100909/185557/
Sony's PlayView information tech coming to PS3
- Thread starter patsu
- Start date
I remember this (was it last year, two years ago), and have wondered for a while if we'd ever see it again. It's a very pleasant surprise to now see it actually running in realtime on the PS3 and now controlled with the Move as well. Gives me hope for a better browser as well. 
It's not actually image enlargement though, but efficient, selective loading of a massive dataset. Which is a shame, as I was hoping for something like the tooted Toshiba Cell upscaler, which I still ahven't seen any reviews of!
It is much more than just that though. It's interactive, embeds videos, links to the internet, etc. Consider it a highly advanced form of print publishing, a little like you're starting to see in interactive magazines on the iPad. There is a demo of this somewhere back when it was still R&D. I hate that I can't find it now, but I'm 100% sure ... Way more cool than any upscaler anyway, imho.
EDIT: thank god for GAF:
Cooler, but probably not as valuable. This new tech (MS showed something similar ages back. How can Sony be beating them to the punch??) isn't really anything more than a reorganization of data. You can just as easily find info following a link as zooming in. Maybe there's an ergonomic improvement, but it's not really changing the world beyond making it flashier. I mean, it's cool and all. I'm not against it. Just, it was described as upscaling, and it isn't. I thought this was a new way to upscale images. And this is of interest because I was thinking of Toshiba's tech and the framerate upscaling, and wondering if upscaling could become sufficiently wonderful that we could render SD, low framerate, very high quality visuals and have upscaling turn them into smoothly animated, HD movies. So seeing a new upscaling system announced, I was all excited, but it's just an unveiling of this tech.
Oh, and now I'm suddenly grumpy, because this is another 'cool feature' from Sony but they still aren't addressing PSN's online gaming shortcomings!
Get your priorities right, Sony! I'd much rather have the ability to chat in games than to zoom into a gaming forum and see videos of irrate gamers saying how sucky PSN is!
Oh, and now I'm suddenly grumpy, because this is another 'cool feature' from Sony but they still aren't addressing PSN's online gaming shortcomings!
Down boy!
Sony is a big company and not all about games. There are loads of different departments working on different things. I think the big advantage of this system beyond simple HTML is that it is scaleable in another way - you can use the same content source for a variety devices (the original video showed PSP and PS3 both for a reason) resolutions and display sizes. Although you might think the web does this, webpages aren't as flexible (they could be more flexible than they are now with better website design, but even that doesn't happen all that much).
Yes, it's certainly more portable. It's virtualised a lot of the content to the server, so any client just needs a graphics renderer in input methods. how is this being released for PS3? What content will be available? Is there an open authoring system for people to create pages? Actaully, if there is, I might take a look at creating a concept map for my educational stuff...
I don't like the "PlayView for Games" idea. It sounds like a technology looking for a solution. Who read game manuals ? May want to launch something everyone will use.
It needs to have a network angle, me think. If it's a static image/info for me to zoom, after a few tries, I'll probably fall asleep half way (seriously !). They should combine this with something that is already gaining traction (VidZone in Europe ? PlayTV in Japan ? say... Google stuff in US)
May be game spoilers or cheats can help (Zoom in in-game to see the hints).
I think it should be more useful in UI areas, like this iTunes UI:
http://gizmodo.com/5634816/apples-itunes-spiral-interface-would-put-your-music-in-hypnovision
In PlayView, we'll need some structure info/metadata to organize the zooming.
I think it should be more useful in UI areas, like this iTunes UI:
http://gizmodo.com/5634816/apples-itunes-spiral-interface-would-put-your-music-in-hypnovision
In PlayView, we'll need some structure info/metadata to organize the zooming.
There's actually a negative effect off this zoom system, which is that information becomes serialised. Links to documents can be duplicated, so you can refer to a definition or discription or tangent from multiple places. That's the whole point of an index, and in the most basic of information technology, the book, we have serial information, an index to link to it, and a contents page, using random access to enable access to information in two different ways. How would that work in the context of a superzoom document? If the data is a child of the contents, and you zoom in on the contents page to read about the subject, how would an index work to look up a specific reference?
In fact, as I think about it, this tech seems like a backwards step. Information is becoming more database driven, structured more flexibly by relationships. Wikipedia cannot be represented as a flat page of infinite resolution because it loses all the interconnects. We have things like a visual thesaurus that extends in multiple dimensions, built on the fly from links. Embedded info sounds extremely static and pointless, save for a specific representation of more/less detail. But without the support for cross-relationships between information, how does it actually help us manage information more successfully, rather than just more flashily?
Edit: Just watching the above vid, it looks like it kinda cheats, and will embed a link dynamically into a zoom level. Each zoom isn't really a zoom onto a flat file, but a node in a tree with a parent above and children below. You'd need one link above (Back Button on your borwser) when zooming out to know what to render, and all the child links would fetch the content and render them as pieces of the current node. Zoom into one and it becomes the node, with the higher level being the link you followed from, and child links rendered in page. If so, you could create a cyclic document that links the same nodes together in a chain, and could zoom in forever. So really, it doesn't change anything except look flash! I wonder if this tech is in part why PS3's browser has remained so sucky, if Sony were intending to change it with a superzoom browser?
In fact, as I think about it, this tech seems like a backwards step. Information is becoming more database driven, structured more flexibly by relationships. Wikipedia cannot be represented as a flat page of infinite resolution because it loses all the interconnects. We have things like a visual thesaurus that extends in multiple dimensions, built on the fly from links. Embedded info sounds extremely static and pointless, save for a specific representation of more/less detail. But without the support for cross-relationships between information, how does it actually help us manage information more successfully, rather than just more flashily?
Edit: Just watching the above vid, it looks like it kinda cheats, and will embed a link dynamically into a zoom level. Each zoom isn't really a zoom onto a flat file, but a node in a tree with a parent above and children below. You'd need one link above (Back Button on your borwser) when zooming out to know what to render, and all the child links would fetch the content and render them as pieces of the current node. Zoom into one and it becomes the node, with the higher level being the link you followed from, and child links rendered in page. If so, you could create a cyclic document that links the same nodes together in a chain, and could zoom in forever. So really, it doesn't change anything except look flash! I wonder if this tech is in part why PS3's browser has remained so sucky, if Sony were intending to change it with a superzoom browser?
It looks like a view management system where the contents are organized in such a way to provide a seamless zooming experience. So a database backend or a cloud should be possible. It's like clicking on a hyperlink. Instead of going to a different page right away, it allows a variable low-detail preview first.
I reckon when used in Playstation Home, we should be able to zoom into someone's T-shirt, or a bulletin board, and follow infinitely into other worlds. Heck, may be these "links" can be embedded and shared by end users.
As for web browser, they probably need some visual info about all the "next" pages first before they can render the preview images. Will need better bandwidth. May be they can try on a closed group of databases first.
I reckon when used in Playstation Home, we should be able to zoom into someone's T-shirt, or a bulletin board, and follow infinitely into other worlds. Heck, may be these "links" can be embedded and shared by end users.
As for web browser, they probably need some visual info about all the "next" pages first before they can render the preview images. Will need better bandwidth. May be they can try on a closed group of databases first.
They are content trees, and the branches can be linked just like webpages. You should probably just quickly look at this video from last year to get a better view, it explains the underlying structure and possibilities and shows them on PS3 and PSP (then still with DS3).
I also wrote a little summary at iWaggle:
http://iwaggle.blogspot.com/2010/09/playview-technology-returns-at-cedec.html
I also wrote a little summary at iWaggle:
http://iwaggle.blogspot.com/2010/09/playview-technology-returns-at-cedec.html
Did no-one read my edit?
Yeah, read/watched it. I am just saying someone should grab the "PlayView for Games" budget and use it elsewhere, with the same tech.
[size=-2]Do not need a game instruction manual or guide.[/size]
I see no reason why this could not be combined with an index or hyperlinks, or any other way of branching up information into logical dimensions.
A superzoom browser would be cool, but there would be nothing to browse with it as there are no superzooming pages (other than a handful of demonstrations). Hell, can't sony just put in a proper bog-standard browser instead, that'd be fine with me kkthx...
jeff_rigby
Banned
Down boy!
I think the big advantage of this system beyond simple HTML is that it is scaleable in another way - you can use the same content source for a variety devices (the original video showed PSP and PS3 both for a reason) resolutions and display sizes. Although you might think the web does this, webpages aren't as flexible (they could be more flexible than they are now with better website design, but even that doesn't happen all that much).
Think about the device it is first being presented on; the home TV screen with a Sixaxis or "Move" controller...no keyboard. Now imagine the ease of use in such a setting.
Admittedly it wouldn't work for all data structures but for those that do it's perfect for the home PS3/TV. My questions is what browser on the PS3 are they going to use for the Service mentioned in the fall of 2010. A New WEBGL PS3 browser? Fall of this year? Firmware 3.5 has at least part of one ( HTML5 and Javascript). Or an APP using the HTML5 in Firmware 3.5.
The tech is different from HTML technology. It is not necessarily better than a web page. It is different. They need to have proper UI design and usability testing throughout the whole system, end-to-end, to be user friendly. If we simply throw PS Move at it, it may still suck in usability.
Sony has been neglecting UI issues since launch. PlayView does not address this problem. A change in management or management goals/attitude might.
Sony has been neglecting UI issues since launch. PlayView does not address this problem. A change in management or management goals/attitude might.
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