Word: eyetoy
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...This has actually been tried before, with peripherals like the Sony EyeToy. The problem with the Sony EyeToy and its ilk was that they were lame. They didn't track your motions very well, or precisely, and there were no good games for them. That's not surprising, because building a system of this kind is a very hard technological problem. But Microsoft's Xbox division has a somewhat different corporate culture than the rest of the company - it's nimbler and friendlier to innovation - and Kipman and his colleagues are extremely clever. Which is good, because they were going...
...report published by the Mayo Clinic in the January issue of Pediatrics. In that study, researchers found that children burned three times as many calories playing "active" video games versus playing traditional hand-held video games. Because the study was done before the Wii debuted, researchers tested Sony's EyeToy and Microsoft's Xbox. But Lorraine Lanningham-Foster, the report's lead researcher, expects the Wii to have the same effect. "If children are up moving around versus sitting down, then they're going to burn more calories," she says...
Sony, meanwhile, is trying to extend its PlayStation franchise to younger kids with its EyeToy technology, which features a camera that puts the player onscreen. In EyeToy: Groove, players bop to the likes of Madonna and Fatboy Slim, and a calorie counter shows how much of that Big Mac you have burned up--a nod to parents concerned that too much sedentary screen time is making their kids fat. Plug 'n' play games--cheap cartridges that plug directly into the TV--are also expected to do well this season, thanks to a revival of classics like old Atari titles...
...best of the bunch is the new EyeToy: AntiGrav, on sale Nov. 9 ($50, camera included). In this fast-paced fantasy racing game, you play as a hover-board rider who flies over gorgeous terrain, performing skateboard-style tricks, flips, grinds and spins. You can jump off ramps and slide along rails. You can fly through multicolored rings in the sky. Along the way, you hit targets with your hands to rack up points and earn speed bursts. With five levels to master, it could take weeks or months before you tire of AntiGrav...
What sets AntiGrav apart from earlier EyeToy titles is its appeal to both casual and serious gamers alike. Previous titles, on the other hand, suffered for appealing only to novices. In AntiGrav, however, mastering complex tricks like the gravitron (that's a backflip plus a 360° spin to the right) takes skill. The better you get, the more you are rewarded with surprises and new challenges. On a level called the Aerodome, for example, you ride through man-made lava, ice and jungles. In the Falls, you soar past waterfalls and skyscrapers. As you jump and duck, flip and soar...