For years, one of the deadliest obstacles facing gamers has been the dreaded virtual camera. In some games, especially platformers, a bad camera angle can kill you quicker than an enemy. But what if you could control the camera with your own eyey?
That’s the question Sensomotoric Instruments (SMI) and Sony Magic Lab are hoping to answer with their new eye tracking software. Sony’s Magic Lab is the R&D wing that created the Move, the DualShock 4, and the Eye Toy camera. That team is currently working with SMI’s Red-oem platform, which offers eye tracking.
While it’s still in the early stages, the current concept would be to allow users to watch the screen and have a device track the movement of their eyes to control the camera in the game, or even replace aiming. The final product could take any one of a hundred physical forms, but the current prototype for the eye tracking camera is a bar that sits in front of you and maps where you are looking, then translates that into in-game camera commands. If you look right, the in-game camera will pan right. Look left and the camera moves left, etc.
The technology is still very much a prototype, and there are no assurances that even if it works perfectly Sony will push it to market. It does, however, offer a hint at some of the possible directions Sony is considering. Check out the video courtesy of GameTrailers for a closer look.