Your Face in the Game

Posted on September 14, 2006

Gamasutra reports that Digimask's face rendering technology will be available on some future Xbox 360 titles. The software takes pictures of a person from multiple angles and renders it for use in the game. The player's head will be placed on the game-character's or avatar's body. The rendered image is capable of showing different emotions. An animated head can be seen on Digimask's website.

Digimask's face rendering technology has been used in a number of applications, including cell phone greetings, a promotional campaign for the Hulk feature film, television programs, and, yes, video games.
In fact, Digimask's middleware technology has been utilized in a number of PlayStation 2 titles, using Sony's EyeToy accessory, under the name of "Eyetoy Cameo." Published titles include EyeToy: Play 2 (Sony, 2004), Karaoke Party Revolution (Konami), games in the Tony Hawk series, and various sports franchises, released by both Sony and Electronic Arts.
At the Gamefest Expo, we tested out this technology - which will be utilized in at least two upcoming titles - running on Xbox 360 hardware. The following photographs show internal demonstration software, and are not indicative of what will be seen in-game.

It is a little weird but could be fun for some games like action, adventure and sports games.