EyeToy and Digimask put their heads together

EyeToy owners could soon be finding a brand new use for the peripheral - with the possibility of creating full 3D models of their own faces for use in games, thanks to a deal announced today between Sony and Digimask.

The deal will see Digimask providing the technology to allow gamers to take a couple of snaps of their own head with EyeToy and have them magically remodelled into a fully animated 3D head for use in compatible videogames.

The Digimask technique has been around for a while, but this is the first time it's been put to use in such a way, and it could help push EyeToy even further into the sales stratosphere - it's already notched up more than 2.4 million units worldwide.

With gamers able to save their 3D heads to a memory card, it won't be long, Sony says, before developers start supporting custom noggins - allowing players to put their own face onto a player in a football game, or to fight against digital reproductions of their friends in online games of SOCOM.

Although the technology is obviously not backwards compatible with existing products, Sony claims to have several titles in development that will take advantage of it, the first of which could be launched in July.

Of course, there is the eternal concern that mischievous gamers will take pictures of, well, other body parts, giving the "Personal Head Creation" technology a bad name. However, Sony seems unworried by the prospect - as evidenced by its decision to promote EyeToy video communications in online games to its developers, which we revealed earlier this month.

Additional reporting by Rob Fahey