The research and development wizards at Sony have developed some impressive image processing tech called "PlayView". And now it could help you become a better gamer.
PlayView is high-speed image-scaling technology. Sony Computer Entertainment began development on PlayView with the goal of viewing images that are over a billion pixels with no delay. This allows Sony to, for example, magnify in on images in real time to show great detail and depth.
At a tech demonstration last month, Sony showed a still image of 3.2 billion pixels. Zooming in revealed a reclining woman.
It was possible to zoom in even further — in real time!
According to Japan's Nikkei, PlayView can handle more stills, but also movies, music and text. Sony is beginning to use the technology for electronic instruction manuals and guides. This enables the company to embed more than simply text, but also video in PS3 games to show gamers how to play.
The new service is called "PlayView for Games" and kicked off this month with an electronic game guide called "Monster Hunter Portable 2nd G Monster Data Knowledge Book". The guide is filled with tips on the in-game monsters as well as video clips of them in action. It is priced at ¥600 (US$7.39) and available on the Japanese PSN.
Kotaku is following up with Sony to see if there are plans to launch the service outside of Japan.
SCE Launches Service Using High-speed Image Scaling Technology [Tech-On!]