Ok I'll reply to my own question :

I followed those steps :

1. sudo apt-get install guvcview mercurial
2. hg clone -r ee9826bc7106 http://linuxtv.org/hg/v4l-dvb # this gives you a version of v4l-dvb before the changes to ir which are flagging an error but still after the patches to the ps3 driver
2.5 cd v4l-dvb
3. make # do make -j2 for dual core processors, -j4 for quad core

at this point the make will flag an error about firedtv or something like that. However, it will also have created the .config file we can now change so that firedtv is no longer built:

4. sed -i 's/CONFIG_DVB_FIREDTV=m/CONFIG_DVB_FIREDTV=n/' ./v4l/.config
5. make # will make without firedtv. use -j2 or -j4 again if appropriate
6. sudo make install

now check to see if you have the right gspca-ov534 driver:
7. modinfo gspca-ov534
and if that appears right, unload the old and load the new:
8. sudo modprobe -r gspca-ov534
9. sudo modprobe gspca-ov534


and now my pse3 eye works like a charm on ubuntu karmic, using the opencv lib in processing.

E