PS4 and the possibility of Head Tracking

Johnny Chung Lee is a master in all things Wiimote (plus a lot of other things I imagine). He has manipulated the use of the Nintendo Wii controller to provide such things as multi-point interactive whiteboards, finger tracking and now head tracking. The Wiimote features an Infra-Red camera, which reads the location of the infra-red LED’s generally found in the sensor bar which is placed above the TV. By reversing the setup, mounting the wiimote on the tv, and effectively wearing the infra-red LED’s on your head, the Wiimote can be configured to feature head tracking.

Johnny Chung Lee has developed a basic program in which the position of the users head changes the perspective of what is seen on the screen. Imagine the possibilities on utilising such a method in a first person shooter game. As you hide behind the corner of a wall, you physically peek your head as if you were to look around the corner. The camera view of the game would register this, and change the view on screen accordingly. The PS3 already features basic movement features with the sixaxis controllers, so it seems Sony think this is a step in the right direction as gaming gets even more diverse! However, I don’t see a system such as this coming to the already released PS3. The PS4 is a system in development though where fascinating development ideas are always welcomed.