PlayStation Eye creator blabs News

The "father" of EyeToy, Dr. Richard Marks, believes the best new feature of the PlayStation Eye is its microphone.

He reckons its ability to channel out background noise and give players hands-free and headset-free voice input makes it unique and pioneering.

"The hands-free voice input this enables may be the single most important feature of Playstation Eye," Dr. Marks told Level Up. "Previously, the only way to get clean voice data was using a headset worn by the player; now, without wearing a headset, players will be able to talk freely."

"The device is especially good at removing ambient sounds like traffic and wind noises from outside, the whirring of fans, etc. Also, there is special processing to remove the game sounds generated by the PS3 itself."

The PlayStation Eye was revealed late last month and will go on sale sometime this summer. It has four times the resolution, twice the frame-rate and double the sensitivity of its EyeToy predecessor, as well as the all important microphone that can focus on certain audio sources (like you) - blocking out other "exterior" noises.

It will come bundled with the EyeCreate editing suite, with games like Eye of Judgement - a card-battling fantasy game - set to take advantage of its abilities later this year.

The price, however, is still unknown. But Dr. Marks is insistent that it will be affordable and accessible - just like the EyeToy.

"Just as with EyeToy, we wanted to create an affordable device that could be accessible to all players and gain widespread popularity," he added. "I don't know exactly when the price announcement for PlayStation Eye will be, but please note that the model used for the rough cost design was EyeToy."

The EyeToy was released on PlayStation 2 for Europe in 2003. It cost GBP 39.99 at launch.

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