Sony EyePet
REVIEWED BY SIMON TSANG IN SYDNEY
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Wiggle your fingers in the air and the little furry creature starts running in circles. Tap on the floor and it jumps around excitedly.
Scratch its back and it squeals with delight. It can even be trained to play games. Children will love it.
The only problem is, it doesn't exist – not in the real world anyway. It's a video game where you use your hands – not a game controller - to interact with a virtual pet. The EyePet, for Sony's PlayStation3, is the first in what will soon be a new wave of augmented reality-based games that blend the real world with digital objects.
Watching our five-year-old tester interact with the digital pet, you could be forgiven for believing the whole thing was real, if only for a moment. The EyePet is a four-legged creature that looks like a cross between a cat and a pygmy marmoset. OK, that sounds hideous but it's not. It's designed to be irritatingly cute while mirroring human characteristics.
You feed it, clean it, dress it, play with it and teach it new things like drawing - all with your bare hands. A camera included with the game "sees" what you're doing and interprets the movements into commands on screen. In the game, you see yourself sitting on the floor from the camera's viewpoint and the EyePet scurries about as if it belongs in your living room.
There is no contact between you and the virtual pet except for what you see on the screen. We couldn't help but feel a twinge of guilt watching our young tester completely engaged with the EyePet while her very real guinea pig sat unattended in a cage. But then again, the EyePet doesn't leave a trail of droppings on the carpet.
EyePet endeavours to make you "own" the experience. From visiting the high-tech lab/store from where you bring the pet home (as an egg) to helping it hatch, to feeding it with a bottle for the first time. You raise it from infancy, so it's yours. A guy in a lab coat pops up every now and then to spout some new instructions or announce that a virtual pet toy is on its way to you. These are rewards for completing challenges or performing a task as simple as giving your EyePet a health check.
A special card transforms into a range of tools and devices when held up in front of the camera. Like other augmented reality-based interactions, this one relies on a printed QR Code that the program recognises and overlays a virtual object on top. For example, when feeding the EyePet, you hold up the card and it becomes a feeding bottle or biscuit jug, which the creature responds to. In cleaning mode, the card transforms into a shower head, shampoo bottle and blow drier.
The card even doubles as a menu; leave it laying on the floor and a holographic 3-D menu projects from its centre. It can also turn into toys for the animal to play with.
The EyePet is far more intelligent than your average house pet and some could argue that it sends the wrong message to youngsters about the way animals learn and the patience required to teach even simple tasks. It's a point certainly worthy of debate and one previously raised with robotic pets such as Sony's now discontinued Aibo.
The EyePet game contains a mixture of both structured and unstructured play. There is a series of challenges designed to help you learn how to teach the creature new tricks. Prizes (mostly in the form of new pet clothes and toys) are thrown in as incentives to complete the challenges.
You're advised to give your EyePet regular health checks, which consist of using a high-tech "scanner" (the printed card, that is) that reveals whether the animal needs more exercise, food, nurturing or activities.
Just when we thought our young tester wasn't learning anything really useful, she suggested teaching the creature to draw when a scan revealed the pet's brain activity was weak. We doubt she would have learnt that from her guinea pig. – Sydney Morning Herald
- © Fairfax NZ News
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