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Just as the title says, how does they way the Playstation 2's EyeToy calculates where things are compare to how the 360's Kinect does it?

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The PS-eye is just a camera like any other, so this question is really asking "How does the Kinect work" - which has already been asked – BlueRaja - Danny Pflughoeft Jun 1 '12 at 21:43

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The PS2 EyeToy is essentially a QVGA (320x240) webcam, which is paired with image and gesture recognition software to create a device capable of detecting objects and simple movement.

Kinect is essentially a VGA webcam (640x480) paired with a VGA infrared sensor/emitter array. When paired with the proper software, this not only allows it to detect objects in 2D, but also depth and motion in 3D.

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Why would the Kinect use such a low-res camera? Wouldn't that cause inaccuracy? – ryansworld10 May 31 '12 at 0:12
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I think it has to do with the amount of data that a USB　cable is capable of carrying at any given time and the amount of processing required. Remember there is an actual game going on and Kinect adds extra load to it. – deutschZuid May 31 '12 at 0:20
@JamesJiao Good point. The limitations of 2005 hardware are really starting to show. – ryansworld10 May 31 '12 at 0:27
I think (just speculation) that this is also why Kinect games (that use the camera) have subpar graphics compared to the ones that don't. Games like ME3 and Skyrim use the microphone on it and that doesn't seem to have any visible effect on the graphical quality of the said games. – deutschZuid May 31 '12 at 0:31
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@ryansworld10 USB 2.0's not so much the limitation. Object detection doesn't require that many pixels - in fact, in many cases object detection is done on a subsampled frame even when you have higher resolution data available. Essentially, VGA's all they need, so why put extra cost into the device? – agent86♦ May 31 '12 at 0:32
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Basically the ps2's eyetoy is rubbish, the kinect has a greater recognition and smoother gameplay, which is understandable seeing as the eyetoy was released in 2003

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This doesn't really explain anything and just points out the obvious; which is that the Eyetoy is a much older, inferior gadget. – Marty Wallace Oct 22 '12 at 10:39
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My interpretation of the question was that it was asking which was better, hence how do they compare – minimatt Oct 22 '12 at 11:15

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