Hawk-Eye Tech for Sony PS3?

Could Sony be planning to throw a curve ball when it comes to motion gaming? Sony has paid some £20million to buy the UK company behind the Hawk-Eye technology used to track balls in a variety or sports including cricket and tennis.

Hawk-Eye is a complex computer system used in cricket, tennis and other sports to visually track the path of the ball and display a record of its most statistically likely path as a moving image. In some sports, like tennis, it is now part of the adjudication process. It is also used in some instances to predict the future path of a ball in cricket. It was developed by engineers at Roke Manor Research Limited of Romsey, Hampshire in the UK, in 2001


Source:[Spong][Wikipedia]

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Valve's Dream's To Tap Into Your Subconscious

Besides having a development studio, being an engine vendor, and the owner of the PC’s most popular and important digital games portal – add one more to the list: "Game biometrics group". Valve's Mike Ambinder has touted some extraordinary potential for biometric feedback.

“People are not stable, their emotions can be manipulated,” said Mike Ambinder at the start of his hour-long GDC speech.

“Current control schemes provide one-dimensional gameplay – they map only player intent. What you don’t get with that is a reading of feeling or long-term goals. Those feelings are not communicable though current controls, and at Valve we want to attack that issue,” he said.

Mike Ambinder is Valve's 'experimental psychologist'. His goal is to detect how players are feeling in the middle of intense gun fight or the moment of being mind fucked on a puzzle. Mr. Ambinder goal is to decide which technologies is best suited to bring biometrics to the masses and make gaming a more mind altering experience.

In a Left 4 Dead experiment, the firm measured electrical resistance of the player’s skin to get an outline of their interest in the game. That data fed into Valve’s AI ‘director’, which in turn upped the challenge during lulls of activity. This was true adaptive real-time difficulty manipulation, and a survey conducted by Valve shows that the guinea pigs were having more fun when the biometric tricks were in play.

A dream goal for the company, Ambinder said, is to ascertain if there exists ‘optimal arousal patterns’ – essentially if it’s possible to find a pattern to the most enjoyable experience.

In theory this seems like a brilliant idea, especially if implemented into multiplayer games. Think Nintendo's Wii Vitality Sensor but it actually helps enhance the game-play and experience. Even though the technology is in it's infancy, Valve may be on to something truly special and game changing.

Source:[Develop-online]

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Kinect hacks, performance art: pin boards, puppets, RoboThespian and a X-Ray Magic Mirror

Microsoft's Kinect has seen some very clever and innovative things done from researchers around the world with minimum budgets. Hopefully the game development community is keeping notes.

Kinect Hacks Video Below.


Kinect Hack: Humanoid Robot with Motion Sensing Technology, @Cebit 2011, Hannover - Germany



We Be Monsters :: A Collaborative Kinect Puppet



Kinect Hack: Pin Boards


Kinect Hack: X-Ray Magic Mirror

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Kinect as 3D scanner: Copy Yourself

A new project uses the Microsoft Kinect as a crude 3D scanner. Joris said, "Fabricate Yourself is a tool by Karl Willis of Interactive Fabrication. Released at the Tangible, Embedded and Embodied Interaction Conference, the tool lets people strike a pose in front of a Microsoft Kinect. If they like the pose they can 3D print the result. The tool is not yet finished and improvements in resolution have to be made."

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Did you get Modern Warfare 2 and have you played Single Player Campaign Yet?

Modern Warfare has officially hit the streets, with millions fragging, sniping and camping but will you be playing the Single Player Campaign?

If you have been living under a rock Modern Warfare 2 has made a tremendous splash at 12am midnight on November 10th. With thousands of eager fanboys and girls standing in line all across America, Modern Warfare 2 is looking to live up to expectation and the hype. Walmart, EB Games, Best Buy and countless other retailers have partake'd in the midnight madness extravaganza.

If you are reading this you may have already amassed will over 24 hours of MP online play time and may have not even seen the single player campaign. So the magical question I have, did Activision put the conversational Airport scene in MW2, just to make sure people play the single player campaign? Are you going to play the single player campaign or will your soul and mind get lost in MP?

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CryEngine 3 Beauty Speed Interaction Trailer HD

Today Crytek released their new CryENGINE 3 all-in-one multiplatform development solution, now available for licensees along with a video of it in action below!

Video after the jump:

Video Games | CryEngine 3 | Beauty Speed Interaction Trailer HD

XBox 360 | Playstation 3 | Nintendo Wii

Press Release: Frankfurt a. M. (Germany), October 14th 2009 - Crytek GmbH (“Crytek”) is excited to announce that their latest all-in-one development solution CryENGINE 3 is now available for all developers.

CryENGINE 3 is the first game development platform for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, MMO, DX9/DX10 that also is truly Next-Gen-Ready - with scalable computation and graphics for all major upcoming platforms.

It provides the complete game engine to create AAA quality next generation games, and includes the redesigned CryENGINE 3 Sandbox™ level editor, a production-proven, 3rd generation “What you see is what you play” (WYSIWYP) - tool designed by and for professional developers.

CryENGINE 3 also introduces CryENGINE 3 Live Create™. It allows developers to work with a single editor, but see and play the results in real-time on PC, PS3 and Xbox360, hooked up to a single dev PC.

The engine takes care of the conversion and optimization of assets in real-time; enables instant, cross-platform changes to any part of game creation and as a result materially increases the speed, quality and significantly reduces the risk of multiplatform development.

“With CryENGINE 3 we are releasing the best development solution available today and tomorrow. With its scalable graphics and computation it is next-gen ready and with new features like CryENGINE 3 Live Create the best choice for game developers and companies developing serious games applications alike. It is the only game engine solution that enables real-time development and can ensure teams are able to maximise their own creativity, save budget and create greater gaming experiences.” said Cevat Yerli, CEO & President of Crytek.

“We’re delighted to launch CryENGINE 3 and we look forward to seeing what developers achieve with our all-new technology. CryENGINE 3 isn’t just about providing our trademark highest-quality graphics and our out of the box AI and physics for the first time on consoles – it also delivers real benefits to all disciplines in games development.

Programmers will create awesome new effects and gameplay; art, design and audio teams can play as they create with the fastest, entirely real-time WYSIWYP pipeline ever, materially reducing development time and risk – even producers, project managers and suits will love CryENGINE 3!

Of course, our international team of more than 20 dedicated support staff are available right now to help our licensees make the most of CryENGINE 3; at their studio or at one of our support centres around the world.” added Carl Jones, Director of Business Development CryENGINE.

CryENGINE® is the underlying technology for Crytek’s critically acclaimed games Far Cry, Crysis, Crysis Warhead and NC Soft’s recently released MMORPG blockbuster AION. It has already been licensed to a number of major game companies around the globe, including several recent serious games training and simulation projects. CryENGINE®3 is the underlying technology for the highly anticipated Crysis®2.

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Dantes Inferno dev diary discusses anger

Visceral Games has released a new developer diary of Dante's Inferno (PS3, PSP, and Xbox 360). This time, the developers discusses the fifth circle of hell, anger. Dantes Inferno looks very interesting so far. I wonder how will win? Kratos or Dante in the ultimate battle for Hades. Check out the video after the jump.

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Sony and Google teaming up?

Can we see Sony and Google join forces to produce PS3 Apps.


We already know that Google is committed to taking over the world---old news there, Sony on the other hand wants to take over our living rooms. With Google now a house hold name and Sony finally making head way with the PS3 in terms of sales, Sony wants to amend the playing field.

BusinessWeek reports Sony Chief Executive Howard Stringer's recent reshuffle of the company's top brass, and how keen the new blood are on integrating with open source technology.

Kenji Hall gives some examples of the growing relationship Sony are growing with Google; "It's the first PC maker to sell machines pre-loaded with the search giant's Chrome Web browser; the Sony Reader will be able to download e-books in a format backed by Google; and Sony Ericsson cell phones will use Google's Android operating system."

Hall admits that because of the tie-ups Sony are keen to introduce, Google may reciprocate with particular integrations and other offerings, with executives being invited to Sony's Tokyo pad for discussions on a closer relationship. One of the things being talked about is to "let Google and others create applications for its PlayStation 3 game console".

Implementing Google apps into PS3 can help add to the many interesting features the PS3 currently have pending. Currently PS3 needs the ability to search my 3000 songs I have, either by voice or by Google search. Google Earth would be very interesting. So would a PS3 specific Google Map app that would allow you to see where your frineds are and what they are playing?

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PS3 Motion Controller Dubbed 'Sphere'

Development community refer to Sony's new motion controller as Sphere.

There's been a lot of talk lately about motion controllers; Nintendo has its Wii MotionPlus and Microsoft is referring to its technology as Project Natal, but what of Sony? The Japanese electronics giant has yet to attach a name to its motion control tech so it’s been left to the developers who are currently referring to it as ‘Sphere’.

The term Sphere obviously refers to the orb on top of the strangely shaped device and, according to Joystiq, producers from Sega and Polyphony Digital have both referred to it in interviews as ‘Sphere’.

“The term Sphere obviously refers to the orb on top of the strangely shaped device”

Sony claims to know nothing of the ‘Sphere’ name so there is every possibility it could just be a development term but it is strange that two totally separate companies have used the term on different occasions.

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TDK Unveils New 320GB 10-Layer Blu-ray Disc

TDK has recently announce a new 10-layer Blu-ray disc capable of 320GB of storage in development. Can you say epic games!

According to TDK: “It is possible to write and read data on and from the disc by using a blue-violet semiconductor laser with an oscillation wavelength of 405nm and an objective lens with a numerical aperture (NA) of 0.85, which are currently used for the Blu-ray disc.”

This has been a trend in newer, higher-capacity Blu-Ray discs. Due to the spread of high speed Internet connections everywhere and firmware being written to non-volatile (update-able) chips, it means that our PlayStation 3 consoles may simply be a firmware update away from reading these 10-layer behemoths of Blu-ray discs in theory.

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Gran Turismo 5 features unvelied?

Sony has been on a roll with True HD 3D making it's way onto the PS3 in the very near future, a new Heavy Rain trailer, an official date for Gran Turismo 5 release, and a new special edition FFXIII 250GB PS3 Slim. The blogosphere has been a buzz with the wave of momentum that Sony's is gathering into the next year.

One of Sony's most anticipated titles Gran Turismo 5 featuring head tracking, will have a realistic release date of March 2010 in Japan. "I don't think it's going to be that much later in the US and Europe," Yamauchi said. "This is based on our production schedule. The reason why the dates for the US and [European] regions are not decided yet is because their marketing is still discussing their issues. It shouldn't be too far off from [the Japanese] date for the other regions as well."

Gran Turismo 5 Feature List

Cars
- Over 950 Cars

Courses
- Over 20 Locations
- Over 70 Variations

Physics
- New Physics
- Overturning of cars
- Damage
- Movable objects on the course
- The newest Hybrid cars and electric cars

Arcade Mode
- Single Player
- Split Screen 2 Player

GT Mode
- World Map
- My Garage
- Car Dealer
- Tuning Shop
- Championship Race
- License Test

Online
- Open Lobby
- Text / Voice Chat
- Private Room
- Online Photo Album
- Online Replay Album
- Export of replays to YouTube

Photo Mode
- Photo Drive
- Photo Stage

Gran Turismo TV
- Improved UI
- Export of video to the PSP
- Progressive downloading

Via:[us.gran-turismo.com]

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PS3: LittleBigPlanet & Resident Evil - with Motion Control

Sony recently announced a full list of games that will support Sony's new motion controls. It seems some current games will be supporting Sony's new tech. At TGS09 Capcom showed off Resident Evil 5 using Sony's new motion control tech, if that was not enough Sony went off and shown LittleBigPlanet being played with Sony's motion control. Check out the video after the jump:


LittleBigPlanet PS3 Motion Controls



Resident Evil 5: Director's Cut is currently slated for a Spring release. Hopefully Sony and Capcom will release an online update to add the feature to regular copies of the game so we don't have to spring for a whole new disc.


PS3 Resident Evil Director's Cut

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Where is Natal?

From the look of things Sony is marching head on with the release of the New Motion Controllers due to arrive Spring 2010. They have released a list of games that will be debuting along side plus we got a chance to see what the official product looks like.

With Sony currently driving and riding the motion control bandwagon, what is very surprising is the lack of any news from Microsoft in reference to Natal. Just to refresh you, in case you've happen live on the other side of the moon for the past 12 months. Natal is Microsoft's foray into motion control made possible buy the purchase of Israel-based 3DV, IDB Holding Corporation's Elron Electronic Industries and its subsidiary, Rafael Development Corporation.

Natal's claim to fame is the ability to do away with any type of controller and the player be the controller. Beside a spectacular staged demo at this year E3 we have not heard anything else from Microsoft about Natal. The last bit of news we heard about Natal was, EA will be holding off “Grand Slam Tennis” so it can benefit form the freedom of motion controls. So we know for sure there is one game confirm for Natal and that is "Grand Slam Tennis".

My biggest concern about Natal, is the lack of news, no R&D videos, no organized leaks, no nothing. Does this tech work? Is Microsoft positioning Natal as an all new game system all together? What games are in the works for Natal? Is Alan Wake a Natal Lunch title? And most importantly does the tech do what it says it does? Only time will tell--we will have to wait and see. What are your thoughts?

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Best FREE Dynamic Theme for your PS3

With the recent firmware 3.0 update for the PS3, Sony added some new super premium themes also known as; Dynamic Theme, these themes usually cost $2.99USD/1.59EURO a little pricey if you ask me. Now what makes Dynamic Themes different and special they are in full high resolution 3D and involves some sort of motion giving a pseudo 3D effect without the glasses.

I am not sure if they're worth a full three bones yet but they are some that is worth the free download. Now if you have happen to set up all three regional accounts for your PS3, you can get a free theme from all PSN regions except the US.

The US received, PAIN,PixelJunk and LittleBigPlanet featuring Sony's new adorable mascot Sackboy running around on a LittlePlanet, I drop the three dollars to check it out LittleBigPlanet of course. Not bad, I still think Dynamic Themes are not worth $3. If there were minor to advance interaction between you and the theme by way of the Sony Sixaxis Controllers then Dynamic Themes may be worth it.(Can we see this coming in the near future?)

The land of the raising sun receives a herd a zebras roaming around eating grass and getting very close to the screen almost to see what your doing. This theme is a tribute to Afrika the Sony PS3 exclusive which will be here stateside before year end.

Finally our friends across the pond in England gets a Wipeout HD fury theme. This is the coolest and most engaging theme Sonys offers by far and it's FREE. The Wipeout HD fury theme is basically a Wipeout HD hovercraft being tested in a lab, I swear, if this was in True HD 3D, I would piss on myself it's cool as shit. Do yourself a favor and create an EU Sony PSN account and download this Wipeout HD fury theme right away plus it's free.

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HD 3D Sony's PS3 Secret weapon Part II

If you ask any fanboy who is the "victor" this current console war many would proclaim the Nintendo Wii as the new 'champ' with the Xbox 360 a close second and PS3 feeling like a redhead step child.

Nintendo brought motion control (MoCo) to the masses and made it relevant amongst game designers and grandmothers, Xbox 360 introduced a unified and seem-less way to play online with a community of your top 100 friends. Sony on the other hand--introduced an expensive super HD Blu-ray player that actually play games that no one seem to get right.

Sony has unleashed a foray of never before seen R&D videos showing what they have been stealthily cooking up in their labs. We saw a very interesting super zoom feature for the PS3, Sony unveiled advance facial recognition with head tracking for the PS3, Sony also demo'd a new voice recognition library for the PS3, dubbed PS3VR which is currently featured in SingStar, and most importantly Sony showed off WipeoutHD 3D in spectacular true 3D HD.

Sony is currently lagging behind it's major competitors in terms of sales, with the recent introduction of the PS3 Slim has helped close the gap. Sony needs to do something big to change the playing field and prove their relevance to the gaming world and most importantly the public.

Sony's secret weapon that will help change the tide will be the advancement of 3D viewing technology in our living rooms. With most major Movie Studios going 3D and many movie theaters revamping their screens to digital 3D. The next logical step in the world of 3D would be to bring 3D to our living rooms.

With Blu-ray being Sony's Trojan horse, Blu-ray will be the Trojan horse for 3D eventually arrival into our living rooms. Sony announced a few weeks at IFA 2009 it is to bring out a 3D series of its Bravia TVs in 2010, marking the first time the company has brought 3D technology to its TV range.

"Incorporating frame sequential display and active-shutter glass systems, Sony's proprietary high frame rate technology will enable the reproduction of full High Definition high-quality 3D images, and will form the centerpiece of Sony's 3D entertainment experience for the home," reads Sony's IFA release.

In addition, to 3D Bravias, Sony is also set to introduce and "develop 3D compatibility into many more of its devices, such as Blu-ray Disc products, Vaio and PlayStation 3, to provide a multitude of ways in which 3D content can be enjoyed in the home - from 3D movies to stereoscopic 3D games."

Specialist 3D games developer, Andrew Oliver, founder and CEO of Blitz Games told TechRadar:

"At IFA this week the big news is going to be 3D! Several companies will be showing their new 3DTVs, which is really exciting and having been privileged enough to have seen some of the prototypes, they really do produce exceptional results. 3DTV not only gives you the high resolution of HDTV, but also allows you to look into the worlds with a far greater level of immersion. 3DTV will soon be the new HDTV."

Sony also launched a new branding strategy at IFA 2009 – with its "'make.believe' philosophy" signifying the company's ability to "turn ideas into reality", with lots of talk at the IFA conference of 'synergies' and 'leveraging resources' in order to help promote 3D in the home.

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PS3 Motion Controller Update Part III: R&D Video

Sony has released a series of videos on their blog pertaining to the development of the new PS3 Motion Control wands coming this spring. With the Nintendo Wii sales coming back to reality and Microsoft sitting in the shadows with a dirty secret--Microsoft has yet to share anymore information on (Natal?). This video replicates everything from E3 with a few additions due to time and a real camera crew. The demo, including spray paint, pencils, FPS mode, RTS gameplay and the manipulation of several different objects is all there plus--a few things Sony never had the time to share. The video after the jump shows some great potential for the upcoming PS3 wands.

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Sony provides Physics SDK to PS3 developers

Sony has slowly begun to show their cards, in recapturing this contentious next generation console war. During CEDEC 2009 Sony release a slew of impressive videos of technology that will be implemented into he Sony PS3 in the no so soon future.

Some of the impressive tech that was shown during CEDEC 2009 were Sony's Extreme Zoom capabilities and advance voice control dubbed PS3VR. Sony now has the ability to provide all developers with physic base SDKs that would make third party engines such as Euphoria and Havok absolute or less dependent on.

With Sony's physic base SDK tools in the developers hands--developers will be able to quickly capitalize on the pure horse power of the PS3. With it's CELL processor the PS3 will be able to calculate physic base solution within milliseconds giving a very accurate repersention of real world physics. Video after the jump.




Via:[Playstation LifeStyle]

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Advance Facial Recognition heading to the PS3

There has been toying with Facial Recognition ever since the Sony Cyber Shot cameras days. Currently there is a primitive form of facial recognition with the recently added photo gallery app. The photo gallery app currently can tell your age, if you are smiling or if you are sad. This gives you the ability the sort your photos by emotions and age. Also let's not forget head tracking coming to GT5.

Let's fast forward one year and Sony will be planning to take Facial Recognition to the next level with Vision Library. Once a face has been analyzed, your Sony PS3 can tell it apart from others, determine orientation, identify gender, tell what expression that face is expressing, and then superimpose some big-eyed anime head right on top of it real-time. This combine with Sony MoCo(Motion Controls) and 3D can really change the way games are played.

Video after the jump:

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Motion Controller Update Part II: Interview with R&D

Sony PS3 will be entering the MoCo(Motion Control) market in spring 2010. Sony has released part I video to re-introduce the world to Sony's new high tech MoCo(Motion Controls). Today we get a chance to see Part II enough to break down the new controller’s PVC origins and some of the possible applications for this new technology.

Video after the jump:


Via:[NanogeektechTV]

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Sony bringing extreme ZOOM to PS3 and PSP

Sony will be providing some very cool technology to developers to use for the PS3 in the near future. Gigapan has started the incredible super high resolution movement with imagery that our feeble minds cannot comprehend.

Sony will be jumping onto the bandwagon to capture stunning images at gigapixel resolution. But providing the same sort of effect by linking multiple documents and items together and allowing you to zoom from one to the next. The video after the break shows a number of demonstrations, including what looks to be a release calendar that, inside each cell, contains high-resolution photos and even videos of whatever is releasing that day.

Also demo'd is a new voice recognition library for the PS3, dubbed PS3VR which is currently featured in SingStar. Sony PS3VR will be able to understand about twenty different languages. With extreme zoom, facial recognition, voice recognition and 3D right around the corner Sony may be able to finally capture some of their magic back.







Via:[NanogeektechTV]

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