When it comes to gaming, there’s nothing quite as cool as literally seeing yourself in the game. There are a growing number of game developers that are giving gamers the chance to put their head on virtual avatars in games ranging from EA Sports’ Tiger Woods PGA Tour Golf 08 to Ubisoft’s Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Vegas 1 and 2. The Vision is much more than just a camera; it offers VGA 640H x 480V video at 30 frames per second and still photos at 1.3 mega-pixels. It’s a window for gamers into the virtual worlds they spend endless hours exploring.
The Vision camera, which offers plug-and-play functionality and requires an Xbox Live Gold membership (standard for any online game playing), offers game makers different ways for gamer interaction. Online casual game players can see their opponent’s faces in real-time with games like Chess. Anyone who plays EA’s Burnout Paradise and owns a Vision will get his picture taken at the exact moment an opponent knocks him out with a takedown and said photo is immediately plastered on the game screen of both players. But the most intriguing use of the camera is its ability to capture a real face and map it onto a 3D avatar, which adds a whole new dimension to online games like Rainbow Six Vegas.
