I had to check the date on this. You can never be too sure that you haven’t mistakenly slipped through a temporal anomaly and found yourself back in 1991. With Sony sending around images like the one below, I’m still trying to load up Teletext to get the exact time right on my Casio calculator watch.
Sony is going to sell these, in Japan initially but we’ll keep our fingers crossed for US and EU releases. It’s a 3D display, which is roughly equivalent to a huge 750 inch screen, that hangs off your ears and nose. It displays in HD at 720p and includes 5.1 channel surround sound headphones. So, you put it on your face for total, huge 3D, booming 5.1 total immersion. You probably won’t even hear the rest of the world laughing at you.
The price works out to be around the £500 mark, after a rough conversion, which is a small price to pay to look like you’re preparing to meet the GamesMaster.
gaffers101
I like the idea as a concept. Assuming the price and weight come down a bit over time, I can see these doing really well. They won’t suit everyone but neither does a normal 3D TV or 3DS.
RocketSOL
Looks like someone has been watching Jurassic Park…
RocketSOL
But they do look pretty cool.
ron_mcphatty
I’m getting major deja vi, haven’t we seen a pic of a Sony gadget like these before? Or maybe it was a Timor article? They look ridiculous either way, might aswell counter balance the weight with a ps3 on the back.
hazelam
it’s probably not all that heavy.
not like those old virtuality headset they used in the VR arcade machines years ago.
ron_mcphatty
I remember them, I had a go in some sort of Red Baron sim, then in what I’m sure was Afterburner in a spinning seat that made me vom haha!
hazelam
i’d love to try it.
and it’d be cool if it had head tracking for a proper vr experience, and it doesn’t seem to have that, at least i’ve not seen any mention of that feature anywhere.
but that price.
i could buy a new hdtv for that.
if it had head tracking, maybe that would explain the price, but as a basic head mounted display, it’s a bit pricey.
and with so many people having a phobia about even wearing glasses for some reason, i can’t see many being a fan of something like this.
deepmenace
cant wait for proper VR to make a resurgence….
i find it weird that VR kicked off when everything was flatshaded polygons then just died.
i remember a 4 player VR mech game in the trocedero…was insanely fun even with that old tech. Done again, properly and i’d be back in the arcades brandishing my 2 pound coins!
hazelam
you talking about the virtual geographer thing?
that had a mechwarrior game and a red mars racing game thing.
it had big sit in machines that closed up with sliding door.
it wasn’t vr with a headset, as you just looked at a screen, but in the machine all you saw was the screen and the control panel and joysticks in front of you.
it was great fun.
the best tactic for the mechwarrior game was to shoot the enemy mechs in the groin area.
that was where the legs joined the torso, and was the quickest way of taking them down.
you could blow off one leg and they’d keep going, but destroy the groin area and they went down like a sack of spuds.
Galiophaurus
Are you talking about this?
http://www.arcade-history.com/?n=dactyl-nightmare&page=detail&id=12493
this one marked me forever … will never forget about this one …
Foxhound_Solid
Wow. Imagine playing ps3 on those. Day one.
yogh_wayne
I want one :) Although it will probably make it difficult to drink coffee while playing. Maybe with a straw… yep, that should work ;)
This also reminds me of the official Bluetooth keyboard that was released in Japan recently. Are there any news if that’s coming to Europe?
http://www.thesixthaxis.com/2011/06/07/japan-getting-official-ps3-keyboard/
Reality Check
I love SONY when they do mad stuff:D I WANT 1! ! ! ! :P
Dimpoc
Could warm to the idea of this if the experience is worth it.
MXZ
This is the future right here, a truly portable 3D immersion experience.
but it raises the question, do we want the future?
For years now we have been hoping (perhaps even praying) that one day, the future we admired in movies and fantasy books would become a reality.
This would also save room for most people as TVs nowadays can be fairly large and take up a fair chunk of space.
and to be perfectly honest, i love space and would love something like this to replace my TV.
The only thing this needs would be a camera so you could truly record everything you see with your own eyes (don’t bother aiming, just look and capture)
onlookers could just assume your playing a kick ass game and be none the wiser.
Plus, just imagine this becoming the norm in entertainment.
your walking down the road and you see a few people with these devices on their heads, or Ipads in their hands.
it would look pretty freaking futuristic eh?
The success of this device could determine our true futures, either this becomes the norm and we get the chance to see life however we want or this fails and we all go back to thinking what the hell were we thinking?
Crocadillian
I think the reason this kind of technology fails is because of the businesses that produce it. I kind of imagine this like a comparison between a PDA and a iPad. PDA’s because of their design were niche and way overpriced, but the iPad has a similar feature set and even a similar price tag and yet Apple has made it a highly desirably, mass market product.
The reason VR and 3D dropped in popularity was because of business abuse, the sooner these technologies and ideas are treated with some respect and dignity, the sooner we can start seeing these widely used.
colmshan1990
The biggest things holding these back are price and weight.
A TV serves multiple people, but these things can only do one.
Therefore, the price should go down.
The worst thing about them is the weight. I tried something like this on before when it was in a shop and it was way too heavy to be comfortable. And it looked to be about half the size of the one pictured here.