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Hello everyone
The purpose of this video is to examine how the PlayStation Move copes with different
light conditions.
To do so I'm using a demo version of the Move enabled EyePet game
spoiling its augmented reality tech as a testing tool.
Since the internal sensors of the Move might disrupt the test by taking care
of the tracking even when the sphere is not properly detected by the camera, I'm also using an
handy functionality of the PlayStation Eye which has its red LED turn on
whenever the camera loses track of the sphere.
This way we are sure the sphere is not being detected
even if tracking appears to be fine on screen.
Let's begin this test by checking out how the PlayStation Move behaves in a normally lit environment.
The only light source here is the mid-day sunlight coming from a window.
as you can see the Move is perfectly detected whenever I move it
even on the bright spot here.
Now let's add some diversity to the environment behind me.
Here I've opened the door behind me to let some extra light in. Again, no issues
with the Move detection.
Here I'm pointing a small flashlight towards the camera
in an attempt to confuse the system.
But still the Move sphere is the only object being detected.
But that's a very low powered flashlight to be honest
so let's add something more powerful to the mix.
A relatively strong blue LED light is now pointing to the camera as well
and yet the Move is being tracked normally.
So let's see how it deals with an even stronger light source by adding a little spotlight.
Now the camera has some issues detecting the sphere when I cross the spot light.
Up to this point I've changed the light conditions of my room
without re-calibrating.
So let's see what happens when I do so.
To calibrate in most games you need to hold the Move still
pointed towards the camera or the screen, and then hold the Move button
for a couple of seconds.
Which is what I just did here.
It doesn't seem like much has changed
but that looks like the glare produced by the spotlight has been reduced a bit.
Despite that, the PS3 still has trouble detecting the sphere as it passes
over the glare.
Now comes the interesting part. Let's try to re-calibrate
but this time we place the Move sphere near the spotlight glare.
See what happened?
Basically the PlayStation Eye light sensitivity was reduced
in order to reduce the size of the glare itself.
Of course there are still issues when moving the sphere on top of the glare,
but at least the glare is smaller.
But let's move on and try harder to confuse the system. This time I'm using
an extremely powerful spotlight. So powerful indeed I need to wear glasses
because as soon as I turn this on a little and extremely hot sun will basically spawn in my room.
Yeah... it's THAT hot in here now.
Anyway...
as I'm getting cooked inside the ball of fire, you can see the camera has
stopped detecting the Move completely
as it is totally blinded by the supernova behind me. So let's try to re-calibrate
and see what happens.
Again, the PlayStation Eye light sensitivity was reduced
in an attempt to detect the PlayStation Move.
And it works, unless I move the sphere over the glare.
Out of curiosity let's see how much the PlayStation Eye light sensitivity was reduced
by just turning off the spotlight.
Total darkness.
That's the lowest the PlayStation Eye can go in terms of light sensitivity I guess.
Any lower than that it would be unable to see the Move sphere
which is now tracked perfectly by the way.
Re-calibrating now brings light sensitivity back to what it was
at the beginning of this video.
Up until now we've tested light conditions which are unlikely to be normal in anyone's
game room or living room.
So the issues we have noticed here are unlikely to affect your gaming experience.
Unless of course you play with a portable sun over your shoulder
or a window without curtains behind you.
If that's the case, you're doing it wrong to begin with
as you don't really want your HDTV to face a direct light source for the sake of avoiding reflections.
So now let's finish this off by testing the Move under a more plausible light condition.
Let's see what happens when the room is completely engulfed by sunlight.
Sadly, my window is too small to recreate such an environment.
So I will use the spotlight we have seen before as an artificial sun facing me rather than the camera.
Let's turn it on.
As my sunglasses liquify over my face, you can see the Move sphere
is not being detected anymore.
So let's re-calibrate under this new light condition to see if the PS3 can fix it.
Again, I point it toward the camera, hold the Move button for a few seconds and...
voila, light sensitivity is reduced
and the magic wand is now accurately tracked by the camera.
There is still some very minimal jitter going on from time to time, but it's perfectly usable nevertheless.
In THIS light condition this is nothing short of amazing actually.
So, to sum it up, I'd say the Move calibration copes effectively with light conditions
that don't involve too much underexposure
like having a window behind you.
Those of you using projectors shouldn't have any issue either
because you probably have them located high above and behind you
in a place you will unlikely be able to reach when rising the Move.
This is assuming the projector glare is within the camera frame to begin with.
If it's not, the better.
All right! I need to take a shower now.
Thanks for watching!