Sony submits patent for potential Eye Toy technology

While the Eye Toy camera for PlayStation 2 never really took off as a revolutionary gameplay device, Sony Europe has continued to support and develop it over the years. So it should come as no surprise that Sony recently submitted a patent for some fancy new camera technology that could end up in a new Eye Toy peripheral.

Up ’til now it has required two cameras for a piece of software to recognize an object in 3D. Picture all those crazy robots coming out of Japan or NASA rovers with stereoscopic human-like “eyes”. Now, forget all that.

According to the patent, Sony’s engineers have come up with a way for a single camera lens to identify objects and motion in 3D via a “patented mapping technique.” Comparative scans and interpretive calculations spring to mind but, honestly, I have no clue how this could work. It just seems like quite a taxing bit of hardware (hope those Cell chips live up to the hype) but one that could revolutionize things just like the Wii.