game trailblazer

Chapter 362 Sony's Hawkeye

Seeing the shocking numbers, Ken Kutaragi couldn't help but fly to the United States on the other side of the ocean. Just yesterday, Manxing Iwata had already flown there, and he couldn't help but think this way in his mind: "Perhaps the future of Sony Computer Entertainment Here lies the hope!"

Foster City, California, USA, at [-]:[-] p.m. local time...

The travel-stained Manxing Iwata and the accompanying interpreter ignored the rest and headed directly from the airport to the destination of the trip - the office building of Sony Computer Entertainment America.Manxing Iwata is a research freak. He usually stays in the research room and seldom goes out. He even seldom goes to the good places around Tokyo. He took a few glances out of the window, and devoted the rest of the time to studying the materials he carried with him.

Judging from the introduction of the information, this is a project code-named "Eagle Eye", which originated from an idea proposed by Dr. Richard Marx. In simple terms, it uses a camera to capture the player's movements to achieve the purpose of controlling the game. The above is a relatively novel game control method.As a veteran researcher, Manxing Iwata has a deep research on game controllers, from the previous cross-key control handle to the more complex digital vibration handle on PS2, and even some rare ones, such as the Nintendo Red and White He also has some understanding of the glove-shaped controller "Power Glove" that appeared on the plane, but when it comes to using the camera to control the game, he really couldn't figure out how to do it for a while, so he was full of expectations for the destination of the journey.

Coming all the way from San Francisco International Airport, after driving for more than 10 minutes, Manxing Iwata has already seen the street sign of Foster City. This is a small city with a population of more than 2. Although the area is only 15 square kilometers, it brings Iwata Manxing's feeling is completely different, especially compared with the Tokyo he is familiar with, it looks very peaceful and pleasant.

The office building of Sony Computer Entertainment America is located on Hillsandra Street in the center of Foster City, not far from Central Park and Central Lake. Manxing Iwata, who was staggering by car on the busy street, was deeply touched, and even slightly envious of the working environment of the American branch.

As soon as he got out of the car, Manxing Iwata noticed several people standing not far away, and the leader among them was Robert Kane, CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment America.

"Mr. Iwata, welcome to America!" Robert Kane greeted warmly.

"Mr. Robert, nice to meet you!" With the help of an interpreter, Mitsuko Iwata responded with a smile on his face.

After exchanging pleasantries for a while, under the suggestion of Manxing Iwata, the group ignored the fatigue of the journey and went directly to the R&D department under the leadership of Robert Kane.Manxing Iwata is very curious about this project called "Eagle Eye", and President Ken Kutaragi had a special talk with him before coming to the United States. He is also aware of the current difficulties the company is facing. The introduction is so good, maybe it is really a good opportunity to turn around, but before that, he needs to evaluate it carefully.

The research department of the "Eagle Eye" project is located on the fifth floor. According to Robert Kane, a five-member team led by Dr. Richard Marx was in charge of the entire project. At the gate, Dr. Richard Marx was sitting around a round table with his team members, drinking coffee and eating snacks casually, and seemed to be discussing something.

"Mr. Iwata, this is Dr. Marx who is in charge of the project!" Robert Kane took two steps forward, pointed to a man in a light blue shirt who had just stood up, and introduced for both parties: "Dr. Marx, This is Mr. Iwata from the headquarters."

"Dr. Max, nice to meet you!" Iwata Manxing stretched out his hand with a smile on his face. In fact, he was still very confused. Just like many Americans can't tell the difference between Orientals, he also has a little bit of difference. It's better not to be a Westerner, unless it's a colleague he often deals with.

"Mr. Iwata, hello!" Dr. Richard Marx extended his hand and shook hands with Manxing Iwata, and then began to introduce the members of his team one by one: "This is Paul Neale, in charge of digital image analysis..."

Iwata Manxing maintained a smile, shook hands one by one, and then greeted them one by one with the help of the translator, but in the end he was still a little vague about the names of several people, but fortunately the focus was not on this aspect.After shaking hands and saying hello, Mitsuki Iwata glanced at Robert Kane, and then coughed a few times.

Robert Kane froze for a moment, then understood, turned around and said to Dr. Richard Marx: "Doctor, show Mr. Iwata a look at your results!"

"Oh, yes!" Dr. Richard Marx nodded. He knew that the next moment was the most critical. If he could successfully attract the attention of those who came, then issues such as research funding in the future would no longer be a problem. .

"Mr. Iwata, please come this way!" After making up his mind, Dr. Richard Marx stretched out his hand and made an invitation gesture, and then led the way to the inner room of the laboratory. This time he planned to introduce himself.

Iwata Manxing nodded with a smile, and walked forward behind Dr. Richard Marx, with a trace of expectation in his heart now, after all, no matter how detailed the information on paper is, it is not as good as what he saw with his own eyes. I am a little bit worried, worried that the actual product of the "Eagle Eye" project is not as good as the information on it.

Opening a movable door, Dr. Richard Marx led the way in, followed by Mitsuki Iwata and took a look. This is a relatively spacious room, and a pile of instruments are neatly stacked on the shelf against the wall on one side. equipment, there is a TV cabinet on the other side, besides a large-screen TV, there is a PS2 game console on it. Judging from the computer in the direction of the extension of the black cable on the console, this should be a development machine. The TV screen A video camera is set above, and opposite the TV cabinet is a large green background wall.

Noticing Iwata's curious eyes, Dr. Richard Marx smiled, pointed to the camera above the TV and said, "Mr. Iwata, this is Hawkeye!"

Iwata Manxing leaned over curiously and observed carefully. He found that the camera on the TV was actually a digital camera produced by Sony, with a pixel count of about 30. Other than that, he didn’t see anything magical about it. It was the large pure green background wall opposite the TV cabinet that made him particularly curious.

"Mr. Iwata, let me demonstrate for you!" Dr. Richard Marx said, turning on the power of the TV and the PS2 game console one by one, and the camera above the TV also lit up a red light. light.

Manxing Iwata, who didn't know what happened, decided to wait and see what happened. He didn't want any jokes to come out.Dr. Richard Marx pressed the remote control a few times, and a picture of the PS2 game console being started appeared on the TV screen. Beautiful light spots of various colors swam around many cubes, and then "PlayStation2" appeared on the screen. , and then the screen slowly went black, and when it turned on again, four huge icons appeared on the screen.

At this time, Dr. Richard Marx came to stand in front of the green background wall, and his image appeared on the TV screen simultaneously. Looking at the standing doctor, Iwata felt as if he had grasped a certain key. But the inspiration disappeared again, and a puzzled expression appeared on his face.

Glancing at Manxing Iwata who was a little dazed, Dr. Richard Marx stood in front of the green background wall and waved his right hand towards the TV. The picture on the TV screen immediately began to change, and a game-like game appeared. The new picture, as if he directly touched the TV screen with his hands.

Immediately afterwards, a scene that surprised Iwata took place. Dr. Richard Marx kept waving his hands like a madman, and sometimes even twisted his body as if dancing.What surprised Iwata even more was that the image of Dr. Richard Marx on the TV screen was also moving along with it, and following the doctor's movements, the villains in the game screen were also reacting, as if the doctor's hands could move. As if directly operating the game, a crazy idea was churning in Iwata Manxing's mind: "My God, this is Hawkeye!"

When I was looking at the materials on the way here, the whole article was full of technical terms such as "video key frame recognition", "key frame digital comparison" and "computer image analysis", which slightly exceeded the technical scope of Iwata Mitsuko, which seemed a bit disappointing. It was puzzling, but after seeing Dr. Richard Marx's performance now, he figured it out. The so-called "Eagle Eye" actually uses a camera to collect video images, and then compares adjacent images at high speed. The location to judge the player's actions, and then feedback to the game screen.This can be said to be a brand-new game control method, and it is very close to the player's natural habits, and does not need to wear a lot of equipment like the ancient power gloves.

Manko Iwata did not directly participate in game development, but he also gained a deep understanding of game development during the process of designing the PS2 game console. Seeing Dr. Richard Marx's demonstration, he couldn't help thinking of "Eagle Eye" It is possible to apply it on PS2. Maybe when the player needs to cast a spell in the game, he does not need to press the gamepad to choose, but directly makes a gesture to release a huge fireball, even like a sci-fi movie. Players can Select and operate directly in the air with your hands.

"...By that time, the scent generator will be nothing, let alone "Halo"!" Thinking of the wonderful things, Iwata Manxing couldn't help showing a smug smile.

Seeing some silly visitors from the headquarters, Dr. Richard Marx felt slightly disappointed, coughed a few times, and continued to introduce: "The core of the 'Eagle Eye' project is computer high-speed image recognition and analysis technology... the camera and Images are collected at a fixed rate. When there is no change in the scene, the content of the two images before and after is the same. When there is movement of an object, there will be a difference... By comparing two adjacent frames of images, we can get the different parts of the picture, and then Analyze to obtain whether there are moving objects and some attributes of moving objects, such as size, position and color, etc..."

Manxing Iwata listened very carefully, and even took out his notebook habitually to record the key parts. Although most of what Dr. Richard Marx said was mentioned in the materials, he listened to it against the real thing. That feeling is different.It's a pity that Iwata Manxing did not expect that Dr. Richard Marx, a veteran in the industry, was ambushed during the introduction process. He talked more about the advantages of "Eagle Eye". Disadvantages such as relatively sensitive and not suitable for complex backgrounds are mostly fleeting and basically not mentioned.

So with the efforts of two people with different concerns, the "Eagle Eye" project internal briefing continued gloriously and victoriously...

(End of this chapter)