> -----Original Message----- > From: Mary Jo Sminkey [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > Sent: Tuesday, August 21, 2007 11:41 AM > To: CF-Community > Subject: Re: Game Consoles > > >Personally I think you'd do better with a PS2 and the Eyetoy camera. > Both > >the console and the camera will run you about $150 (less if you buy > used). > > Thanks for the information Jim. Do you have the Eyetoy? It sounds like > a nice option for me but I'm concerned about all the reviews that talk > about how picky it is with lighting. Like this one:
We've got two. The original and a special, apparently "cooler" version that came with Kinetic which came with a snap on fish-eye lens. The lens on the original was designed for focusing on a torso about 6-10' away. Kinetic was much more of a "whole body" game so the wide-angle lens (which actually works with any EyeToy) was included. We've had it four different rooms across several apartments/houses now. The EyeToy does like light - a lot - it's really no better or different in this than any cheapy web cam (for that's what is). Natural ambient light is best (just because it's brightest) but the sun shining right in the lens will kill it. Right now we have a huge living room with an offset picture window. Nearly perfect conditions. But the camera also works in the basement playroom with only basement windows and one, two-bulb ceiling fixture. One key is the direction of the lighting. Ambient back lighting is best (but not so much that the camera is flooded). Directional lighting (such as the floodlight mentioned in the review you posted) is probably the worst - it creates nasty contrasts of extremely bright and extremely dark that are the bane of all digital cameras. In our experience if you need extra light a simple post-style "torch" lamp (you know the kind - there's one in almost every students apartment) works great (we needed on in our last aparement). In general we've found that the camera works fine under normal lighting conditions but works best when it's a brighter than we would normally have the room. The main thing to remember is that this is just a digital camera: everything that turns your regular digicam pics to crap will screw this up as well. There are a few other things as well. All common sense really, but important: +) Since the EyeToy works on edge detection lack of contrast can also affect it. Wearing a blue shirt while sitting in front of a blue wall on a blue couch could confuse it. In practice this has never really been a problem but it's worth mentioning in case you're overly color-coordinated. ;^) +) The EyeToy doesn't track "you" it tracks movement. I've heard people scream about how "it doesn't work" only to find that they've got it pointed at a crowd of people... or a bird cage or a ceiling fan or some other source of movement "noise". A person working behind you can confuse it - it doesn't know if it's two people or a four arm, two-headed person. +) Related to this I've also seen people really frustrated with the controls - usually big "buttons" on screen. They "press" the button and wait when the EyeToy really needs to "wiggle" (wave your hand) over the button for a second or two. The interface is responsive (buttons which "see" movement grow until they "pop" - the delay elminates stray movements). +) If you don't have enough room you won't be happy with it. Again the article you mentioned talked about how he was told to "step back"... well, do it! You can cheat at almost all the games by just standing two feet from the camera but between 6 and 8 feet is ideal. If you're too close all the motion blends badly together. I've found that the EyeToy and the Wii are happiest with about the same distance from the screen although the EyeToy usaully needs a little more "swing room" since motions are freer. +) You'll probably never need to touch it but the lens is manual focus: you have to twist it. We had one friend that swore his was broken only to discover that his kid had twiddled with the knob. ;^) The bottom line is that it's a digital camera (a cheapy one) and has all of the downsides of digital cameras. As for the rest of the review I honestly don't know what he's talking about - the camera itself has no interface or software. It comes with one game "EyeToy Play" and I have to assume that's what he's talking about. The only "personal information" that "Play" asks for is your name (to track scores) and you can ignore that (there's a "play now!" option). If you create a profile the game takes still pictures of "record holders" and lets you review a gallery of them (this is one of my kids favorite features). The tutorial is cute (an old lady in a mechanical room going bodily through the mechanics), short - about three minutes tops - and completely optional. Honestly my kinds love both the Wii and the EyeToy (okay... they love games in general) but the EyeToy games are significantly easier for my daughter (only five) to play. She still has lots of trouble with the neccessary button presses on the Wii games - although she's a suprisingly good bowler nonetheless. All I can really say is give it a try - you can always return it if your room/area isn't compatible. For what it's worth the "Eye" (for PS3) is designed to work in much lower light (near infrared) and features a much improved omni-directional microphone array. No word yet, tho', if it's compatible with the older EyeToy games (although we'll be finding out in October). Jim Davis ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| ColdFusion is delivering applications solutions at at top companies around the world in government. Find out how and where now http://www.adobe.com/cfusion/showcase/index.cfm?event=finder&productID=1522&loc=en_us Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/message.cfm/messageid:240978 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=11502.10531.5
