Sony's EyeToy, a miniature camera that attaches to the PlayStation 2 and translates body movements into a video game - from digital sports to Harry Potter's Magic wands.
RICHARD MARKS, a 34-year-old astronautical and aeronautical engineer, has been spending a lot of time lately pretending to be Harry Potter. His wand is made from parts of a hotel clothes hanger and has a brightly colored ball on one end. But when he waves it, Dr. Marks says, it begins to glow and emit a distinctive hum in a TV monitor across the room. By moving the wand in a circle, he can produce a trail that turns into a ring of fire on the screen. By flicking the wand toward the TV, he can make a fireball sizzle across the monitor. Other geometric shapes conjure tornadoes or make the player invisible. "I actually had my son draw up a list of spells he thought would be good," Dr. Marks said. Don't put in an emergency call to the Ministry of Magic just yet. Dr. Marks, a special-projects manager for research and development at Sony Computer Entertainment America, is only recounting his exploits with EyeToy, a miniature camera he invented that attaches to the PlayStation 2 and translates body movements into a video game. Peripheral devices for video-game consoles generally do not sell well, but more than one million of these set-top cameras have been sold in Britain since they were introduced there in July. Last week EyeToy was released in the United States with a suggested price of $49.99. The camera is packaged with a dozen free mini-games known collectively as EyeToy: Play, including Kung Foo, in which players swat away tiny ninjas that swarm across the screen like mosquitoes, and Wishi Washi, in which contestants clean a series of windows before the timer runs out. With the controller out of the picture, EyeToy levels the playing field that separates inexperienced gamers from enthusiasts, which means parents can finally win a few rounds. And the innate goofiness of seeing players projected into the game on the TV screen makes watching nearly as much fun as Wishi Washing. read full NY Times article
