The point I was making, and the point you missed is the inclusion of Kinect with Xbox One does allow it to do those useful things.

Nsanity said "I guess that explains the light bar not being able to turn off and the preinstalled PlayRoom.", to which, you replied "Yeah, at lease [sic] it's useful though."  I felt the implication being made, by you, was that Kinect wasn't useful.  My point was that Kinect does have similar functionality as the PS Camera and the DS4.  If not it is more capable.

Rewatched the tech demo video, it's possible but I got the impression a lot of it was augmented reality, meaning the camera would be required too.

Clearly in the beginning, the seem to indicate the Playroom will automatically identify the user visually.  Possibly the same with the controller, but there are likely other means to do that too.  If I remember correctly there is an accellerometer built into the DS4, so its possible that is being used to control the UI, however as I recall from the roll-out presentation the camera was being used then to determine the angle and thuse which direction to roll the UI wheel.  The actual "gameplay" with the floating droid I thought was augmented reality.    You were seeing yourself and the interaction with the droid.  In fact some of it is obvious augmented reality.  The pong game relied upon the light bar to determine the user and location, as well as screen augmentation.  Though, its possible that they could use other means of accomplishing that.

To me, bottom line, Playroom was intended to be used with the Playstation Camera.  The vast majority of experiences with it would suggest it. 

How did this thread get so big?

I can only guess that it has something to do with the camera being originally included with the PS4 but now its out to keep costs lower.

If this is the case, PS fans have no reason to be defensive........since core gamers don't like cameras and PS4 is cheaper in the end.

Yeah, I mis-read your comment sorry, sir.

Glad the controller at least has built-in lithium-ion rechargeable battery.

Ideas for the next thread: ps4 power light can't be turned off to save electricity! Proof that the ps4 was built last minute to answer Xbox1.

I know what its for but given the vast majority will not have the PS Eye it will be useless, the old indicators would have been subtler and not as annoying.  Don't make assumptions in future you'll look less foolish (probably not though).

The best of us do.

The "assumption" was valid being that you said it was "useless"

#Fail

It does not.

1) The light serves other functions than just an object for the camera to track.

It's the ON/OFF and Player indicator light. These are functions that existed on the PS3, 360, Wii, WiiU and in the case of just On/Off, Vita, DS, 3DS, GBA, GBA SP, DS lite, DSi, etc. 

Why are people ignoring these basic functions now is beyond me. SONY simply decided to enlargen this light so that it can perform these roles AS WELL as a point for camera tracking. 

In addition, other features are planned that do no require the camera and are determined by the devs of the particular title. They've mentioned 1 example that the light can be used to indicate a player's health and that devs can even have the light completely off. Think outside of the box here. There's a lot you can do with this that doesn't require a camera. Your light can dim and eventually go out in immersive survival horror game. You're light can start flashing red when your car's being over-revved or blin progressively faster as a time bomb winds down or the heart rate of the character rises.

2) There's no reason to believe that if the camera never existed that turning off the light would have been an option. Turning off an indicator light for not just a controller or handheld, but also a lot of other consumer electronic device just isn't the norm. Unless the device is 100% off.

All consoles in standby mode usually have a red or orange light and while fully on they have a green or blue light. My Vita's PS button light periodically lights up while in standby mode. The 3DS has a similar state. Back on the GBA SP, the power undicator would flash while the system was in low power standby mode. You also can't turn the light off on any console controllers while they're in use. It's the norm with consoles and controllers. There are a lot of TVs and PC Monitors that are almost never turned completely off and usually have a red or orange indicator light when in standby mode. 

Why people expected this to be an option is something I simply don't understand.

EDITED