Microsoft purchasing 3dv system - works better than Wii

[famousringo]

BrainBoxLtd said:

famousringo said:
This is the one using ultrasonic tech, right?

Looks a little more comparable to eyetoy than Wiimote. I wonder if it can detect orientation effectively...

 

From Wikipedia:

ZCam is a brand of time-of-flight camera products for video applications by Israeli developer 3DV Systems. The ZCam supplements full-color video camera imaging with real-time range imaging information, providing enhanced functionality over regular video. The original ZCam, released in 2000, was a professional video camera add-on used for digital compositing. 3DV is planning to release a ranging video webcam (previously called the Z-Sense), also under the name ZCam. The ZCam webcam is one of several competing real-time range imaging camera products in development that target game controller applications.

The ZCam coordinates the timing of infrared light pulse emissions and a fast image shutter according to a specified range, so that the reflected pulses are gated before capture by the image sensor. The amount of pulse signal gathered at each pixel can be used to calculate the time-of-flight to a corresponding point on the captured subject.

I have no idea what any of that means. But...yeah.

@shams

I said I agreed with your point about the Wii Remote's versatility, in fact I listed the same examples you did in the same post you quoted. =P

 

Hm. So it's basically an imaging lidar integrated with a video camera. The video camera wouldn't really provide any useful input other than perhaps putting an image of the player in the game. The whole arrangement sounds kinda pricey and processor-intensive to me (not that the HD consoles don't have plenty of cycles to spare). It'll be interesting to see what the price and performance of a retail product will be.