Develop 2009: SCEE’s Hirani Reveals PS Eye Facial Recognition, Motion Controller Details

To take advantage of Sony’s upcoming PS3 motion controller, approved developers will be given associated libraries, access to AiLive's gesture recognition middleware, and Sony-developed facial recognition software. SCEE’s Head of Developer Services Kish Hirani revealed the new details at Brighton's Develop Conference. Although it wasn't demonstrated, Hirani promised the facial recognition software would "detect gender and even the age of the face, separate facial features such as the nose, eyes and ears, and even detect whether you’re smiling or not." The reveal was part of Hirani’s promise that developers wouldn’t need to develop their own tech to work with the new controllers. "If you are working with the Playstation Eye and think there is some new tech you’re going to have to develop for the motion controllers, just get in touch with us," he said. "We have a wealth of libraries available, and the chances are you won’t have to develop any technology yourself." Hirani also implied that libraries will include skeleton tracking, and expanded on the interaction between the camera and the motion controllers. "The sphere is what the camera is tracking, in full RGB -- it tracks X and Y, and Z is deduced from the area of the sphere," he explained. He promised, however, that the controller’s internal accelerometer will allow its movement to be fully tracked even when hidden from the camera. Developers interested in working with Sony’s motion controllers will need to be approved, said Hirani—- there are a "very limited" number of controller prototypes currently available, but approved developers will be quickly white-listed for the SDK and documentation, which will include free access to the AiLive gesture recognition middleware. In closing, Hirani discussed a potential future for the new Playstation Eye and motion controller. He suggested great gains could be made in augmented reality games, referring to Sony’s upcoming EyePet title for PS3 and Invizimals for PSP as examples. "We can provide you will all of the tech," he promised. "We want you to provide us great games."