PS3 Fanboy

With the exception of LittleBigPlanet and The Eye of Judgment, there hasn't been much reason to dust off the Eye. Well, put it to work! Get the camera off its lazy butt and have it become a fully functional PC webcam. The NUI Group is offering detailed instructions on how to get the Eye camera to work on your PC, with easy to install drivers.

[Via N4G; Thanks, Jon K.!]

When you consider the regular price of The Eye of Judgment is $65, this deal becomes readily apparent. This Eye-enabled card game used real cards and the PS3 to create an experience unlike any other -- Yu-Gi-Oh! cosplayers, this game's for you. Considering it includes the (rarely supported) PlayStation Eye, the price isn't too shabby. You can pick up it for $40 at Circuit City, but your local Wal-Mart may also have it for even cheaper: $30. Check your local store to see if you can get lucky.

(P.S. Pick up the game and you'll be just in time for the world tournament, too.)

[Via CAG]

We're expecting some pretty good stop motion animation to hit the web when the PlayStation Eye and Eye Create are released by Sony. Eye Create is a free application, downloadable on the PSN, that allows users to edit their captured videos directly on the PS3. A new post on the PlayStation.blog focuses on stop-motion animation, where a series of still images can be strung together to create the illusion of movement. This is similar to PSP's Go!Cam and Go!Edit program (downloadable from PSP Fanboy). PSP fans took the liberty of create their own pieces of animation, and we expect a similar following from PS3 fans.

We're still waiting for our Eye, but it looks like the cool kids at Joystiq have already had some quality time with their's. A few tidbits they've discovered:

• The cord for the camera is about 6.5 feet in length.
• Proper lighting is required for Eye of Judgment.
• The camera is an improvement over the PS2 EyeToy with: "smoother frame rate and slightly crisper on-screen image, as well as a nice auto-focus capability."
• Eye is not compatible with PS2 games and will not be recognized by the Xbox 360. A PC will detect the device, but appropriate drivers have not been released yet.

The Eye hits retail stores October 23rd by itself for $40, or included with Eye of Judgment for $70. To read Joystiq's complete hands-on and check out their pics, click here.

While Sony still has some work to do to explain Afrika, Mark Valledor, SCEA marketing manager, thought it was about time to shed some light on The Eye of Judgment, so he posted a new video and five things you don't know about the game on the official PlayStation blog. For your reading pleasure, I've condensed it all into a few sentences.

The game, which features the word judgment with only one "e" in its title, will be released for $70 on Oct. 23 in North America, followed by a global launch later in the month. Yes, it will be bundled with the PlayStation Eye, and expansion packs will be available to buy further down the line.

Lastly, Sony has implemented a system to disallow online cheating by forcing users to register their decks offline. Their decks will then be available to be chosen when they play against an online opponent and will be randomly shuffled and drawn by the game. Players will then have to play their corresponding physical cards in the "real" world.

For a much more in-depth explanation, keep reading on.

[Thanks, Ruben!]

Remember that neat little "secret component" everyone was talking about last month in regards to some extra hardware? You know... the next-gen Eye Toy? Well here's the return of it as Sony has filed big number 2006-178948, which is the patent for a new camera that "will recognize every move and position of an object and will translate these actions accordingly to an object inside a game." What used to take multiple cameras now takes one, thanks to a patented mapping technique.

It's like motion capture for the average Joe. But what ever happened to that Israeli company called Prime Sense? Weren't they supposed to come into the scene with their own interactive device which sounds a lot like this one? Well at any rate, Sony is on the move to get this camera inked in their name. Let's hope they don't step on any toes with this, because they haven't had the best of luck in the patent area lately.

Could the camera also have videoconferencing features added into it as well? Thanks to Avistar and company (and the magic of licensing), this new Eye Toy could be your next long-distance video phone. Yet another testament to Sony's desire to bring the PlayStation brand out of "For gamers only" territory and into a wider audience.

[Thanks, Fan]

Better late than never! Here's some footage of Eye of Judgement, which is like real life card playing meets next-gen hardware. If more immersive applications like this can take advantage of the PS3, then Sony just might give that Wii controller a run for its money.

[Thanks for the tips!]