Blog
First Time
Well this is my first blog post here, so I’ve decided to talk about what I do and the potential it could have in game development in the future. I work for a small software company primarily focusing in transportation security via the use of image processing. Image processing is the process of taking images from a camera and analyzing them with a computer. We do most of our image processing with an open source library called OpenCV. Now you maybe were wondering how image processing can relate to video games. Well lets look at some current game hardware we have available to us in consoles and computers alike. In the DSi we have a built in camera, the PS3 and Xbox360 both have camera peripherals and the computers can have webcams along with most laptops coming with them built in now. Those provide a means to acquiring images. Now there are already games available that make use of these peripherals but they are for the most part just gimmicks. The biggest hurdle to overcome in designing a game to make use of these is the issue of the game just feeling like a gimmick. One approach is to not just throw these features at the player all at once, instead add subtle features into the game that add to the experience instead of just making the game just painful. Image processing allows us to analyze pictures that the cameras can take so we can analyze motions the player makes, we could subtle features that make use of this to make the over all experience more enjoyable. Example of using these features in neat new way would be in the interface of the game instead of navigating with a controller, why not navigate the menus they way science fiction movies tend to depict it with hand motions, maybe interacting with objects in the game, instead of pressing a button you simply grab at the screen, these are just some examples of ways we as designers can add to the users experience. When the Wii first became known and how the player would interact everyone thought this was one big joke and look at the success that they have had. I’m not trying to say we need to make a bunch of crap-ware that’s where we as developers need to not go. What I’m talking about is immersing the user even more into the game, some games make excellent use of this and I think that in the field of making use of the camera as another tool for the player to interact in the world of the game.
