3DV's depth-sensing camera

[ music ] ^M00:00:04 >> I'm Ina Fried with CNET news.com. I'm here with Tomera Barall [assumed spelling], the vice president of 3DV Systems, which has a camera that lets you quite literally get in the game. Tomera tell us about the product. >> So this camera understands the depth dimension. In addition to color, it also measures the distance between the camera and whatever is in, in the field of view, whatever object, including myself. And this enables the camera together with color or without color, understand reality like we do with our, with our eyes, and separate, with the help of software separate objects in the video. So if you, if you look at the, at the video here, this is the real output of the camera, you can see that it's very easy to separate whatever objects you see in front of you, things that are very difficult to separate in a color, with a color camera. And this enables you to control applications using gestures. So you, you can, you can box. ^M00:01:20 You can also use your fingers to control, or hands to control other applications. For example, I can roll over the Vista 3D mode with my fingers. I'm just using this for operating, and my thumb to roll through the screens. You can think about all sorts of hand gestures, whatever you would like, and whatever you would choose, to control with any application you choose. >> Obviously this could be used in a wide range of applications. What areas are you guys going after? >> Well our initial focus is the gaming industry and the PC applications area. We feel that in the past few years, especially since the release of the Wii, it's clear that the gaming market is gearing towards natural interface, or changing the way gamers are interacting with games. And we feel that the gaming market is mature and ready for such an interface that increases the level of freedom you have in controlling games considerably. And we think there's a lot of room for controlling applications using gestures in other PC or lingrum [assumed spelling] devices and applications, like TVs, like media centers. >> Now PC and gaming, those are pretty consumer applications. This requires a special camera. How expensive do you expect it to be? >> Well we, we have worked in the past few years in reducing the cost of, of the product considerably, and it's now well in the range of similar peripherals for games, or similar web cams. So you'll, when you find it eventually on the shelf in Best Buy or in Fry's, or wherever you buy your stuff, it's gonna be at the similar price level as other peripherals or web cams. >> And when, when will we be able to get our hands on this? Or when might we be able to get our hands on this? >> Well we will eventually partner with a bigger company and brand the, the product accordingly, and I cannot comment on the scheduled time table for that. I can just say that the camera, which is currently at a prototype level, is gonna be ready and manufactured in mass numbers next year. ^M00:03:54 [ music ]