At the center of the PS2's internal hardware is the Emotion Engine, a chip originally said to be so powerful it could, for the first time in the history of video games, convey the emotions of in-game characters in real time. While the name "Emotion Engine" might seem like just a case of exaggeration by nomenclature or a marketing ploy, it seems Sony Computer Entertainment America has other, more innovative plans for emotions in games.
A patent uncovered by Silconera shows laughter being picked up by a program via a microphone and camera hooked up to a PS3. Body gestures and interactions between multiple people are also mentioned and emotions ranging from joy and interest to sadness and anger are possible to detect. The software is apparently able to be used for movies and TV shows along with video games.
It's a neat sounding application, but with all unconventional control methods like this, we wonder how practical this really is.
