Ubisoft Motion Tracking Camera

The Ubisoft Motion Tracking Camera is a USB camera, originally bundled with the exercise video game Your Shape for PCs and the Wii in 2009. Developed at Ubisoft Barcelona, the device adds full-body motion tracking to the platforms, to allow the Your Shape game to detect the player's movements. The camera is also supported by Ubisoft's Racquet Sports.

The sequel of Your Shape for Xbox 360, Your Shape: Fitness Evolved, does not use the camera—instead using the Microsoft Corporation's motion tracking accessory, Kinect.

Development

Ubisoft's design team in Barcelona began developing the camera after they had seen a prototype of motion tracking technology developed by PrimeSense, a company who would later provide the motion sensing functionality for Microsoft's "Project Natal" two years later. The development of the camera also led to the development of a fitness video game to go with the camera, which spawned Your Shape.[1][1]

Supported games

As of January 2013, only three games support the camera, Fit in Six, Your Shape, and Racquet Sports, both developed by Ubisoft. Bundles with the camera were released for both games.[2]

Title Developer Publisher Bundled Required Release date N. America Release date Japan Release date Europe Release date Australia
Your Shape[3] Ubisoft Ubisoft Yes Yes Nov 24, 2009 - Released as Your Shape featuring Jenny McCarthy Nov 28, 2009 -
Racquet Sports[4] Ubisoft Ubisoft Some No Mar 9, 2010
Fit in Six[5] Ubisoft Ubisoft ? ? ? ?

Reception

GameSpot felt the camera's inclusion in Your Shape was one of the few positive aspects of the game, as it removed the dependency on other accessories for the Wii to track motion for this purpose, and did a favorable job at judging the player's movement, but noted that it required a large-enough room to function correctly.[6]

The camera's use in Racquet Sports was met with negative reception, however; Joystiq panned the camera's functionality in the game for having motion detection with little correlation with the resulting actions on-screen, and noted that it was a poor substitute for then-upcoming products with superior functionality, such as PlayStation Move and Kinect.[2]

Technical Specification

David Darnes [1] explained that even though it looks like a simple USB WebCam, the Ubisoft Motion Tracking Camera allows for a wider 85-degree angle of view that enables users to be relatively close to the TV screen. The gamer can be less than two meters away from the camera. Important details such as lighting and body movement had been considered for its design.

The Ubisoft Motion Tracking USB camera is labelled "Hercules USB Camera WC04". 5V - 100mA. Made in China. Some models show WD19 on the label and this model has a microphone built into the unit. When connected to Windows 7 it is recognized as "USB Composite Device" and "USB Camera." The driver is installed automatically from Microsoft Windows since it is a PNP device. The Ubisoft Motion Tracking Camera works like a normal webcam on Microsoft Windows on applications like Skype and others.

USB Hardware ID: USB\VID_057E&PID_030A

References

  1. 1 2 3 "El Mundo - Spanish Article - Ubisoft Studios Barcelona crea una tecnología de 'motion tracking' para Nintendo". 2009-10-23.
  2. 1 2 "Hands-free: Camera-controlled Racquet Sports". Joystiq. Retrieved 18 June 2012.
  3. ↑ "Ubisoft Your Shape featuring Jenny McCarthy". Ubisoft.
  4. ↑ "Ubisoft Racquet Sports". Ubisoft.
  5. ↑ "Ubisoft Fix in Six". Ubisoft.
  6. ↑ "Your Shape Featuring Jenny McCarthy (w/Camera) Review". GameSpot. Retrieved 18 June 2012.
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