I recall Phil Harrison talking about basically the exact tech that Natal is like 3 or 4 years ago (facial rec, full body motion sensing, etc.).

Sony just missed the bus I think.

I hardly believe that a" PS Eye with a patch" (how funny) can challenge Project Natal.

How is that relevant? You only need to triangulate to do 3-d and you already have 3 reference points: the camera, the console and the player(s). All that's needed is for the player(s) to have something simple and cheap which transmits (a ring, or necklace, or...) if not an actual controller, and you have triangulation for 4-d movement (remember time is also a factor). if you're going to move full body motion gaming into other gaming genre's like FPS, TPS, hack'n'slash adventure, etc then most people will want to hold something in their hands while shooting their gun or swinging their weapon(s). I think PS2 eyetoy has a sword-swinging game of some sort. Then it's a simple matter of software. Given Sony already has 90%+ of the hardware necessary it could well be that while MS announced first Sony may deploy first.

Sony can't thrive and push gaming forward without upping the motion control features beyond what it already has. It must have a timeframe for sophisticated motion capture on par with MS, or it needs to try to take gaming into a different direction entirely.

3D incoming :p

Well, check this out - http://www.vgchartz.com/forum/thread.php?id=74873 =)

Good thread.

My Avatar back to you, Keep_the_change.

The PlayStation Eye is quickly becoming one of my favorite PlayStation 3 accessories. Video chat aside, both Eye of Judgment and Trials of Topoq offer some unique and enjoyable experiences that leverage the camera's tech well while still being fun to play. Nevertheless, Sony was keen on showing that developers have only just scratched the surface. Developers were demonstrating a variety of neat tech demos at Sony's pavilion on the Expo floor at GDC.

Catching many people's eyes was a fairly accurate face recognition program. As busy attendees flocked to and fro past the camera, small rectangles outlined faces and eyes. I stood in front of the unit and my face was instantly highlighted by a rectangle which began shadowing my face. I moved slowly, then quickly, and the rectangle stayed focused.

Noticing my interest, the booth attendant asked me to stand on a star marked on the floor in front of me and then switched to an application that demonstrated the potential for face tracking-powered 3D perspective views. Much like the Wii head-tracking hack that popped up a few months ago, the camera locked onto my face, and as I moved around, it shifted the perspective of the scene.

The other camera demo was much more sophisticated. I was asked to draw a tank on a piece of paper—the turret, body, and treads separately spread out—and to mark the point of rotation with a red marker. I was then asked to draw some geometrical shapes to form a level layout. I did both quickly and then placed them in front of the PlayStation Eye.

The software scanned the images and instantly added collision detection and animation to the scene in real time: the tank I'd drawn moments ago was now controllable with the SixAxis and was quite well animated: the canon shuddered with each fired shot, the turret turned, and the treads churned.

The cartoon tank game was incredibly impressive. I asked the developer on hand if the tech demos on hand would be hitting the PlayStation Store, if only as a free way to help boost camera sales and showcase the potential. "That's not a decision I can make, unfortunately," he told me. "But we'd love to see that happen."
http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2008/02/gdc-sony-shows-imaginaitive-playstation-eye-tech.ars

(video unrelated to text)

I think there is going to be loads of hypocrisy this e3 from Sony and Microsoft fans.

@Staude

That video is unbelievable!!!!!!

The eye toy is also has limited use in dimly lit rooms. If you listen to the Natal demos, room lighting is not an issue.