Revolution Realized
Eye See You
Feasibility: "moderately plausible"
On June 1st, 2004, numerous media bodies came across a new Nintendo trademark. For all intents and purposes, everything pointed towards the idea of a new camera device. Shortly afterwards, Nintendo also made a public note that Mario Party 6 should be releasing this year with an unconventional way of controlling the action. Coincidence? Perhaps. But one thing is for certain, there is a good chance that something is brewing over at NCL in terms of optical devices.
Many have already experienced the Eye-Toy peripheral for PS2 that allows players to capture their figure on screen so they may interact with objects with natural gestures. Sony has already stated that they are hoping to integrate this Eye-Toy technology into their next home console right out of the box. While the released device seems pretty spiffy right now, there is something far more interesting on the horizon in the way of cameras: infrared sensors.
What is infrared? In simple terms, it is light so red that it is invisible to human eyes. The interesting thing about infra-red sensors is that they see the infrared color the same way regardless of time of day. An infrared photograph taken at noon looks the same as one taken at midnight. Traditionally, this has been a great help to those who have a need for night vision.
At E3 2004, a small conference was held whereby the different panelists could speak of game interfaces and where they are heading. One such example piqued the interests of onlookers - the infrared Eye-Toy experiment. Demonstrated and created by Richard Marks (the creator of the Eye-Toy), the camera went above and beyond the typical fare. Instead of capturing a picture and using it to interact with a game, the camera would use infrared to detect actual depth in front of it. The demonstration was said to have Richard stand in front of the camera, where a 3D mesh of himself was shown on the display. As he moved, the 3D mesh would move accordingly. Finally, Richard could even kick a virtual beach ball and make it fly accordingly.
Moving ahead, Nintendo could integrate such an idea into their next console to make for some interesting gameplay ideas. Imagine playing Super Smash Brothers: Revolution, where you can take images of your bedroom in 3D and they become the stage. Your book case, bed, pillows and more could all be used as the battlegrounds. Or how about throwing jabs and dodging virtual blows in Punch Out Revolution? This would technically be possible with the infrared technology.
Is this something Nintendo will explore? Right now it is hard to say. Nintendo seems bent on releasing a camera device of some kind given the information we have. Whether or not they will release an infrared version of the camera is hard to say.
"I think we can come up with something more unique than the Eye-Toy all the time. We really want to be the number one R&D team." -Yoshio Sakamoto (Nintendo R&D1)
Coming from the same group that brought us the innovative and addictive Wario Ware, these are encouraging words. We grade the infrared camera system as a moderately plausible venture.