PS3 Attitude wrote that Evans said to expect a proper image import tool by the end of the year. Speaking at GameCity in jolly old Nottingham, Evans reportedly said the feature was cut due to time constraints.

Word from the official PlayStation forums, however, places some doubt on that claim, with SCEE's Senior Community Development Manager Sam "Protagonist" Bennett writing there are "currently no plans to introduce it for a variety of reasons." That's right. "No plans."

But... a newly uploaded pic of said image import tool just popped up on Flickr today, noting that it's a "work in progress." It's pretty clearly noted that LittleBigPlanet will let you "import images from your PlayStation Hard Drive to use as stickers." It even notes it thrice, for extra emphasis. File it under safe bet.

Work In Progress [Flickr - thanks, Justin!]

EyePet takes advantage of technology we've seen previously in PS3 demos, allowing users to draw and scan in objects that the in-game creature will play with. The EyePet is said to remember objects it is shown and modify its behavior for objects that it is unfamiliar with.

Announced only for PAL markets so far, EyePet is said to ship in late 2009, giving us ample time to learn more about it.

What makes a pet real? Introducing EyePet, the virtual pet that follows your every movement and command…

Leipzig Games Convention, 20th August 2008: Sony Computer Entertainment Europe (SCEE) introduced the availability of EyePet for PAL region. It won’t make a mess on the floor or claw at the curtains – EyePet is the ultimate pet for modern living. Forget the hamsters and guinea pigs and get the perfect first pet for kids and adults alike. Developed by SCEE, EyePet is the responsive virtual pet who reacts to your every move and brings entertainment and fun for the whole family; plus it’s pretty cute as well.

EyePet comes with an impressive array of abilities all made possible by PLAYSTATION®Eye, the next-generation camera for PLAYSTATION®3 (PS3™). A loveable, simian-like pet, EyePet lives in an on-screen picture of your sitting room as captured second by second on PLAYSTATION Eye. Working in ‘Augmented Reality’, EyePet is fully aware of people in the room and will interact with you and your environment. Place an object in front of the camera that EyePet hasn’t seen before and it’ll know exactly what to do with it, give it something new and it’ll examine it thoroughly. Tickle it by waving your fingers in front of the camera: it laughs, poke it: it jumps, roll it a ball: EyePet chases around the screen after it.

An incredibly lifelike little critter, EyePet gives you all the lovable benefits and interaction of a real-life pet without tearing up your sofa or making a mess on the rug. Kids and adults alike will love to customise, dress it and watch its facial expressions that range from the sweet to the cheeky to the hilarious. It’s all made possible by the power of PS3 which has enabled EyePet’s developers to achieve incredible graphics and animation in its facial reactions, lifelike fur and incredibly intelligent interaction with you, your environment and anything you choose to place in front of it.

EyePet will be available in late 2009, so prepare to bring a furry ball of mischief into your home and a new friend into your life.

GC08: “Next gen” EyeToy game to be revealed in Sony presser today [VG247]

PLAYSTATION Eye [Famitsu]

I think that this price reduction, coupled with my hopes of uber tank awesomeness making its way to PSN, will cause me to drop some cash later today.

Eye of Judgment [Amazon via CheapAssGamer]

Using facial recognition know-how, the Eye could track one or more faces, altering the on-screen image to great, simulated 3D effect. MTV Multiplayer's Stephen Totilo has video of the tech in action, but one thing that might not be evident in the video is that it also can determine the direction in which you're looking. The possibilities? Cool. The video? Over at MTV (and only available to US residents).

PlayStation 3 Head-Tracking — No Gimmicks, No Glasses, Just A Camera (Watch this) [MTV Multiplayer]

New PLAYSTATION Eye Games Available Today [PlayStation.blog]

While only one of the tech demos looks somewhat playable—a simple Lunar Lander-style mini-game controlled with the SIXAXIS—the others are still impressive. Take a gander and day dream of the possibilities.

Video of New Research Conducted with PlayStation Eye [PlayStation.blog]

Unfortunately, the west coast office has no access to a copy of The Eye of Judgment with which to test this out. It's actually I'm quite interested in pursuing, as I asked the game's North American producers just how they had planned to circumvent card copying and cheating at E3 earlier this year. They didn't seem the slightest bit concerned at the time.

Given that one of their revenue streams may be drying up, should guilt-free players opt not to drop $15 on theme packs or $4 on booster packs, we wonder how concerned they are now.

Thanks for the tip, macavity.

I'm PlayStation Eye-less at this point, but fully plan on cobbling together sexy performances of "Hungry Like The Wolf", saturated with comely air-clawing motions, when SingStar finally ships.

The company's Japanese division also recently added a new trademark, known as the Broadcasting Engine, the logo of which can be seen above. The trademark info hints less at a software release, instead covering hardware bases on cellular phones, computer mice, video cameras, dvd players, video game machines, set-top boxes and vending machines. This is intermixed with multiple mentions of downloadable media, like music, movies, television programs and video games.

The Broadcasting Engine may be the name of the technology that powers the PlayStation Network Sir Howard Stringer was referring to recently in an interview that took place in Moscow. He spoke of Sony's plans to integrate the PlayStation Network throughout its consumer product line, connecting PlayStation 3s and PSPs to Bravia televisions and Sony Ericsson phones.

The official PlayStation Blog provides a quick technical rundown of the microphone-equipped Eye, promising "upcoming games that integrate the Eye in really innovative ways." I'm hoping that developers take advantage of that 4-microphone array and explore new PlayStation Eye gameplay concepts that go beyond what the EyeToy offered.

PlayStation Eye, A Little More Info... [PlayStation.blog]

Sure I've got a retail copy of Halo 3, but I've already finished that fight and the multiplayer co-op, that can wait for a bit. The thing that made me squeal a bit in excitement was opening up a box to find an early build of Eye of Judgment complete with the new camera, stand, playing field and two packs of cards.

Not only can I not wait to play around some more with this game (remember, I do have "skills"), but I'm even more excited about totally blowing my son's mind when he sees it the first time. He's going to trip out.

The stand comes packed away in a smallish plastic bag and was fairly easy to put together, though it's not the sort of thing you're really going to way to take apart and put together over and over again. I think I would have preferred if they had made it collapsible instead of takeapartable.

The camera looks and feels pretty solid. It has a four microphone array. You can twist the lens, switching between a red and blue selection on the front of the lens. I'm not positive what this does but think it's either for switching between auto and manual focus or, more likely, between distance and close-up focus. If you couldn't tell, none of this stuff came with directions.

I can't review the game until mid October, so you'll have to make do with what I've written about the game in the past, which is that I love it.

Eye of Judgment Online Impressions [Kotaku]

The camera controlled game that owes at least part of its existence to Atari's Marble Madness puts your image on a series of panels, each broken up into 16 by 16 (and later 32 by 32) grids. Moving your arms about will cause the tiles in these grids to move upward, creating a wave that affects the motion and position of the ball. You'll push the ball off of a square section, moving it either into another grid, down a ramp or tube, and ultimately into the goal.

It's not easy to control the ball at first, and given that the Games Convention floor featured nothing short of optimal lighting for a PlayStation Eye game, it might make it even more difficult to manipulate in a home environment.

But guiding the ball is only part of the equation. You'll need to focus on precision and near-expert timing; say, for instances where the ball needs to avoid one of the dangerous Red Devils blocking its path or you need to deposit it in a launcher. I found the game oddly addictive, promising myself after each of the levels that I'd move onto something else on the show floor.

While Trials of Topoq may not ultimately result in a fully featured experience, most EyeToy game players probably don't expect epic, motion controlled games anyway. It's conceptually and graphically simple, but still kind of fun. Later levels require great patience and can lead to frustration.

Regardless, it's yet another interesting proof of concept title for the USB camera and should at least be given a fair shake by anyone looking for something a little bit different.

Like many of my peers and colleagues, the introduction of a tabletop card game built on the next-generation of the EyeToy for the PLAYSTATION 3 seemed like a stroke of genius. This blend of digital and real world visuals spawned memories of Chewie and Threepio playing the stop-motion animated space chess game that one whiles away time with on the Millennium Falcon. The Eye of Judgment was supposed to be fantasy meeting reality, with archers, demons, wizards and dozens of fantastical creatures solving whatever conflict they have with magic-filled violence on your kitchen table.

Unfortunately, The Eye of Judgment—admittedly, a very solid game at its core that might appeal very strongly to CCG fans—impressed upon me that it was a fantastic proof of concept that asks too much of the player in the name of selling some booster packs.

If you're not familiar with the concept of The Eye of Judgment, it involves pointing the PlayStation Eye at a cloth mat with a three by three grid. On this grid, you'll lay down physical cards. Thirty of those cards, as well as the camera, stand and mat are included in the base package (Sony reps did specify that there will be a package without the camera, for anyone who might have picked up one with Singstar). There will be 110 cards total, sold in random booster packs of 8.

The cards you'll place will perform actions like summoning warriors or casting spells with each card containing a number of attributes such as mana cost, elemental alignment, direction of attack, counter attack, potential blind spots and attack damage.

The object of the game is to control five of the nine squares on the grid. You'll take turns against the CPU or another human player laying down cards trying to dominate spots on the grid and attacking spots your opponent has already occupied.

The game's core elements are solid. There's little question about that. You'll have to strategically plan your moves based on the number of cards you have in your hand. Being a collectible card game newbie, it was a bit daunting at first, but the game's mechanics soon clicked.

What didn't resonate with me was the time and capital investment one will have to make simply to play a game that couldn't have been done—and done quite well—without the PlayStation Eye and card game gimmick. To play the game, one will have to set up the camera, align it with the mat, register your current deck by showing your cards to the camera (up to four at a time), then go through the currently slow process of laying down cards, waiting for the camera to read the card and watching the game's battle animations. These animations are currently somewhat lengthy and turning them off is not yet an option. They're pretty to look at but will soon become a chore to watch by veteran players. Interacting with the game's display—allowing you to hold monsters in your hand or flick already placed characters—felt like little more than a cool gimmick.

While The Eye of Judgment is a great concept, one that shows promise for the camera peripheral and thinks outside the bounds of traditional control schemes, it feels like a bear to play. There are some players who may be very interested in keeping a semi-permanent set up of their Judgment mats in place, as the peer-to-peer multiplayer may catch on with a niche crowd. Sony's development studio should be lauded for creating something genuinely interesting as a concept, but the game surely could have been accomplished using digital cards, even allowing for booster pack purchases via the PlayStation Store.

The game is scheduled for release this fall, so we'll soon now how well the concept clicks with PLAYSTATION 3 owners.

ThreeSpeech, Sony's quasi mouthpiece, has posted a short-ish Q&A about the recently announced Eye for the PlayStation 3.

In a nutshell, the Eye is way cooler than the EyeToy, though you can use the PS2 camera on the PS3. Specifically, the Eye is "superior to EyeToy in nearly every way: four times the resolution, two times the frame-rate, two times the sensitivity and no compression artefacts. It has two fundamental new features: a two-setting optical zoom lens, and a built-in microphone array."

That microphone has the ability to separate human voice from other noise like the sound of fans, vacuums or wild hyenas.

Hit the site for all of the nitty-gritty. Brian Crecente

Playstation Eye Q&A [Three Speech]

Early this morning we reported that the sexy new Playstation Eye for the PS3 is hitting Europe this Summer. We just got news that the peripheral will also be hitting North America this Summer as well.

In fact all of the details are the same for North America including not releasing the price for the thing yet. Hit the jump for the American-flavored press release. Brian Crecente

FOSTER CITY, Calif., April 26 /PRNewswire/ — Sony Computer Entertainment America (SCEA) today announced the arrival of the next-generation PLAYSTATION(R)Eye camera. Scheduled for a Summer release, PLAYSTATION Eye is an essential accessory for voice, video chat and online gaming that will enable gamers to enjoy their PLAYSTATION(R)3 (PS3(TM)) Computer Entertainment System experiences like never before.

Designed specifically for PS3 and featuring huge advances in USB camera and microphone technology, PLAYSTATION Eye is set to revolutionize the experience of both interactive gaming and online communication on the
PLAYSTATION(R)Network. Expanding on the market-leading heritage of EyeToy(R) USB camera for PlayStation(R)2 computer entertainment system, the sophistication of PLAYSTATION Eye naturally complements the advanced features and capabilities of PS3 — all in one intelligently designed, unobtrusive
unit.

Designed specifically to work with the next generation of social gaming titles and new services being developed for PS3, key features of the PLAYSTATION Eye include:

* A sophisticated microphone with the ability to reduce background noise and focus on spoken word for smoother, more accurate speech recognition
* Engineered to perform in low-light conditions
* Faster frame rate for improved tracking, responsiveness and smoothness
* Two position zoom lens for close-up and full body options
* Free EyeCreate(TM) editing software, which allows users to save, edit and add cool visual effects to photos, video and audio clips
* EyeCreate also enables user to capture videos and audio clips directly to your PS3's hard disk drive and access a range of different capturing modes, including slow motion and time-lapse.

"With the release of PLAYSTATION Eye we will be able to dramatically enhance the consumer's PS3 experience," said Richard Marks, research and development at Sony Computer Entertainment America. "Beyond audio/video chat
and the ability to save videos to your PS3 hard drive, PLAYSTATION Eye opens up a whole new world of entertainment options and adds a new dimensions to games across multiple genres."

EyeCreate software
The free EyeCreate editing software, allows you to save photos, video and audio clips to your PS3 hard disk drive and apply eye-catching visual effects to your images. Different capture modes like time-lapse and slow motion open up a world of possibilities to be explored further in EyeCreate's editing suite, where you can turn your media into professional-looking movies.

New microphone functions
An all-new four microphone array, incorporating multidirectional voice location tracking, enhanced echo cancelling and background noise suppression allows for clear audio chat in even the most noisy of environments, without
the need to hold or wear a headset.

Next-generation camera features
A frame rate of up to 120 frames per second allows for super-smooth video and sophisticated low-light operation means that the room doesn't have to be brightly lit for the camera to deliver crisp, perfectly exposed video. The
adjustable zoom lens features a 56 degree field of view to capture head and shoulders action for close-in audio-visual chat, and a 75 degree field of view to capture the whole body for a fully physical gaming experience.

Technical Specifications:
— 4 channel audio input:16 bits/channel, 48kHz, SNR 90db
— 56 degree or 75 degree Field of View zoom lens
— 2.1 F-stop, < 1% distortion, fixed focus (25cm to 8 at 75 degree FOV)
— 640 x 480 at 60 frames/second
— 320 x 240 at 120 frames/second
— USB2 high-speed data transfer
— Uncompressed video or optional JPEG compression

• A sophisticated microphone with the ability to reduce background noise and focus on the spoken word for smoother, more accurate speech recognition and transfer
• The ability to capture videos and audio clips directly to your PS3's hard disk drive
• Engineered to perform well even in low-light conditions
• A range of different capturing modes, including slow motion and time-lapse
• Faster frame rate for improved tracking, responsiveness and smoothness
• Two position zoom lens for close-up and full body options
• A range of eye-catching visual effects to apply to photos and videos
• Bundled with EyeCreate editing software, which allows users to save and edit photos, video and audio clips

Hit the jump for the press release in full. Brian Ashcraft

PLAYSTATION Eye Camera Brings Next-generation Communication to PLAYSTATION 3 20/4/2007

Sony Computer Entertainment Europe (SCEE) have announced the arrival of the next-generation PLAYSTATION Eye camera.

Scheduled for a Summer release in Europe, PLAYSTATION Eye is an essential accessory for voice, video chat and online gaming that will enable gamers to enjoy their PLAYSTATION 3 (PS3 ) experiences like never before.

Designed specifically for PS3 and featuring huge advances in USB camera and microphone technology, PLAYSTATION Eye is set to revolutionise the experience of online communication on the PLAYSTATION Network. Expanding on the market-leading heritage of the EyeToy USB Camera for PlayStation 2, the sophistication of the PLAYSTATION Eye naturally complements the advanced features and capabilities of PS3 - all in one slickly designed, unobtrusive unit.

Designed specifically to work with the next generation of social gaming titles and new services being developed for PS3, key features of the PLAYSTATION Eye include:

A sophisticated microphone with the ability to reduce background noise and focus on the spoken word for smoother, more accurate speech recognition and transfer
The ability to capture videos and audio clips directly to your PS3's hard disk drive
Engineered to perform well even in low-light conditions
A range of different capturing modes, including slow motion and time-lapse
Faster frame rate for improved tracking, responsiveness and smoothness
Two position zoom lens for close-up and full body options
A range of eye-catching visual effects to apply to photos and videos
Bundled with EyeCreate editing software, which allows users to save and edit photos, video and audio clips

David Reeves, President of Sony Computer Entertainment Europe said, "PLAYSTATION Eye is a great example of how we have moved forward so significantly with our technology. PLAYSTATION Eye has four times the resolution, twice the framerate and double the sensitivity of its predecessor EyeToy USB Camera. With the technology that we now have at our disposal we will be able to dramatically improve the communications experience enjoyed on PS3".

EyeCreate software
EyeCreate editing software, bundled free with PLAYSTATION Eye allows you to save photos, video and audio clips to your PS3 hard disk drive and apply eye-catching visual effects to your images. Different capture modes like time-lapse and slow motion open up a world of possibilities to be explored further in EyeCreate's editing suite, where you can turn your media into professional looking movies.

New microphone functions
An all-new four microphone array, incorporating multidirectional voice location tracking, enhanced echo cancelling and background noise suppression allows for clear audio chat in even the most noisy of environments, without the need to hold or wear a headset.

Next-generation camera features
A frame rate of up to 120 frames per second allows for super-smooth video and sophisticated low-light operation means that the room doesn't have to be brightly lit for the camera to deliver crisp, perfectly exposed video. The adjustable zoom lens features a 56 field of view to capture head and shoulders action for close-in audio-visual chat, and a 75 field of view to capture the whole body for a fully physical gaming experience.

Technical Specifications:
4 channel audio input:16 bits/channel, 48kHz, SNR 90db
56 to 75 Field of View zoom lens
2.1 F-stop, 1% distortion, fixed focus (25cm to 8 at 75 FOV)
640 x 480 at 60 frames/second
320 x 240 at 120 frames/second
USB2 high-speed data transfer
Uncompressed video or optional JPEG compression

Press Release Here

PLAYSTATION Eye enabled PS3 game THE EYE OF JUDGMENT has been dated "Fall" for Japan and apparently the rest of the world. Nothing more exact than that at the moment. The card-based game was demoed at last year's E3 and takes advantage of Sony's new HD "Eye Toy," dubbed the PLAYSTATION Eye. The camera has a frame rate of 120 fps and allows for low light operation, and there are four mics that include background audio suppression, making clear audio chat possible without the need of a headset. Actually curious to see how this game does. Brian Ashcraft

THE EYE OF JUDGMENT Dated [Famitsu]