-
Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.
Sony to show off HMZ Prototype AR HMD at TGS ( teaser video)
- Thread starter onQ123
- Start date
Shao Kahn Brewing a Stew
Banned
Oculus Rift-esque?
Castor Krieg
Banned
Read the article mentioned here a few days ago, about the decline of Sony in the last 10 years - the company is ruled by engineers obsessed with designing the next "Walkman" with no attention to budget restraints. This product is up there with 4K $40 000 TV set they debuted recently - great engineering feat that nobody besides a small group of enthusiasts will give a shit about. In the meantime mobile gaming revolution will continue, and Microsoft with content-lead XBL is miles ahead of Sony.
Not to mention their television division didn't turn profit in 10 years. But hey, let's design more TVs for $40 000!
I also find it funny how you mention I "insulted an entire engineering team" when mocking businessmen and managers is daily occurrence here on GAF.
It's just a prototype. Just like Google Glasses.
Microsoft showcased Surfaces table, when it costed $20,000 a unit. They also showed the Courier concept notebook a few years ago.
Many companies demo prototypes all the time.
EDIT:
There is nothing wrong with $25K or $40K 4KTV if they are targeting the riches for those sets. My friend sell $100K speakers to the super riches. What can you do about it ?
shamo42
Member
I don't understand. How is that different from just showing the same image to both eyes? Isn't same lens -> same perspective -> same image?
That's what I thought too but it wouldn't work well in a dark room. Maybe there will be something like the wii bar with 2 IR-Leds to help recalibrating.
plagiarize
Banned
the reason we've got this HMZ prototype is because the HMZ-T1 sold better than expected. that was a sub $1000 product that represented good value for money and was pretty cool tech. i don't think you can put this in with the 4K TV set (which is no different to the first 1080p sets by the way).
until you know that this isn't at a consumer friendly pricepoint like the T1 was, i don't think you can use a follow up to a product that surpassed expectations as evidence that Sony are out of touch. they took a risk with the T1, but it was one of their gambles that actually paid off.
not_so_special
Banned
get used to it
Well about this whole vr will be the next revolution thing,i dont think so.
I have a generation 1 HMZ and its a cool gadget but using for a long space of time makes a dent on you,isolation,etc etc.
Its no the ergonomics ( i have the thing modded) its the whole isolation issue,spend 2 hours on skyrim and u will have problems,believe me,my broken english can find words to convey that feeling.
they had a real product out on the market for nearly a year before rift was even announced. No other HMD comes close to the quality of the experience as a media viewer (ergonomics not withstanding). As a CE company, releasing a new model every 12 months is normal, not glacial.
They are in a good place to work with or in parallel to Occulus in this area
The technology potential here if Sony and Oculus Rift just came together would be humongous.
The best in AR and VR mended together and released day 1 as an optional product with the PS4 next Christmas... It would be insanely cool and the biggest technology jump since the PS1 brought 3D graphics in bulk to the living room.
This headset could do both though.
From a tech requirement POV, VR is really a subset of AR (in hmds anyway).
plagiarize
Banned
exactly. anyone who isn't buying shares in Oculus should be excited that we're going to be looking at a two horse race at least. that'll help drive innovation and help drive prices down. if Sony have listened to all the complaints Carmack levelled at the T1 then Sony could absolutely make a really good product in the VR space.
it's a lot more than just 2 horses in this race. Canon , Google & MS & maybe more are already working on AR Glasses.
This VR tech could be interesting because it's a new display method. But contrary to new gameplay methods such as DS, Wii, Kinect, Move I see the involvement of a console manufacturer (and so possible platform exclusivity) as a bad thing. I'd prefer this kind of tech is handled by Valve/Carmack (Occulus).
plagiarize
Banned
VR man. VR. I don't see Canon or Google being big players there unless they start announcing big partnerships with game developers. MS obviously could be a big player... but AR's use for gaming is much more limited than VR. AR has massive implications in day to day situations though.
or as Palmer put it, AR is going to be huge for casual, but VR is what the core want.
I don't care who does it. Some people/companies have to be there to first try things out, and even though this might not be immediately viable, at least it's a step to commercialisation of AR and VR for the future. Much like many 3D system are right now, not proper for mainstream, but every step is closer to a breakthrough. The HMZ-T1 headset is a nice peace of tech, but needs improvements.
Got to win that lottery...
Got to win that lottery...
Sidewinder
Member
Do you think it has anything to do with the fact, that you have a screen glued to your eyes following you everywhere even if you move your head around?
Maybe a VR helmet could alleviate this feeling of "isolation", because when you move your head the "Virtual Cinema Screen" would not follow you around, or in a game the actual perspective would change like in real life?
plagiarize
Banned
I tap out after about an hour and a half max in my T1, although it only takes me five or ten minutes to recompose myself to go back in for another hour and a half. it's definately that view follows you around for me.
Palmer can apparently wear the Oculus for 10+ hours at a time. i'm sure that'll take a lot of building up to, but i'm also sure we can all adjust. when they add positional tracking to the rotational tracking its going to be even less disorienting.
they aren't pursuing any entertainment/consumer solutions from the sounds of things, and that's what we want. VR has been a thing that has had continued use for the last decade or two, it just stopped being about entertainment a long time ago. the Oculus is exciting because it's a VR device that is geared towards gaming and is going to be at a consumer friendly price point.
high end engineering / science / military simulation things are nothing new, and while they're still very cool, it's the consumer level products like the Oculus, like the HMZ that are worth getting excited about from a gaming perspective. Sony and Oculus are clearly closest to market with such technology. MS haven't announced anything to my knowledge. Google are prototyping AR that may or may not be suitable for VR. i hope they all come through, but i want VR gaming. pending any major delays, i'll be getting VR at home THIS YEAR. i want this all to scale up from things like the T1 and the Oculus where you can really start seeing the potential to something that realises it. i want to buy that for less than $1000 in 2013, and i think such a thing will happen.
and i fully expect it to either say Sony or Oculus on it.
Gemüsepizza
Member
I think there is a good chance that we will see a Playstation VR device in a couple of years. Sony already cooperates with the Rift/Oculus guys via Gaikai, and it seems to be promising tech.
Jesus Christ you have no idea what you talking about. You think making these prototypes has anything to do with Sony's problems? Do you even have the slightest clue how much money things like the HMZ Prototype cost (hint: not much)? And the 4K TV (which btw was only $25K) is based on future tech that will be in every house in about 10 years... are you seriously suggesting they should not invest in this tech? Btw: As far as I know they have already sold all units of their 4K TVs. And what the hell do you mean with "content-lead XBL"? It's a gigantic paywall for absolutely basic services, and you don't even get free games like PSN, smh.
Jesus Christ you have no idea what you talking about. You think making these prototypes has anything to do with Sony's problems? Do you even have the slightest clue how much money things like the HMZ Prototype cost (hint: not much)? And the 4K TV (which btw was only $25K) is based on future tech that will be in every house in about 10 years... are you seriously suggesting they should not invest in this tech? Btw: As far as I know they have already sold all units of their 4K TVs. And what the hell do you mean with "content-lead XBL"? It's a gigantic paywall for absolutely basic services, and you don't even get free games like PSN, smh.
GTP_Daverytimes
Member
Pulling numbers out of you arse ehh, last i checked the 84-inch 4K Tv was 25,000 (doesn't mean is for the mainstream anyways).
you can plug the HMZ-T1 into an Xbox too
Giant Panda
Member
It seems this stuff won't be mass market ready for quite some time. I doubt their will be anything but token support for AR and VR next gen.
phosphor112
Banned
Oh, interesting
But why is the camera so "big"? I'd assume smaller cameras like those on the iPhones are good enough?
What is the little box below for? Headtracking?
What does it say along with "360?"
EDIT: Ok, Google-translated the description:
Allow for a better lense and cmos-sensors to reduce ugly camera noise?
I should patent this but whatever. Whenever someone talks to you from the same room in real life then the camera feed should fade in slightly transparantly over the game visuals so you can see that person. This will be detected by a microphone array in the headset + facial detection in camera feed. No sneaking up on daddy while playing his games. Pausing the game should bring in a crystal clear camera feed so you can mix another drink etc.
I can only hope.
But 12 month cycle + 1 feature means we'll be waiting until 2016 for the kind of HMD that we actually want from them
(i.e. cameras, 6DOF head tracking, large FOV, high resolution).
Which doesn't sound far away... but it's slow enough to cede any advantages over to other companies. It's frustrating because up until 4 months ago... they were the single company best positioned to bring VR to the masses. Indeed, in many ways they still are. Their biggest problem is whether or not they can break down those internal walls and cross pollinate the tech that needs to be cross pollinated... and if there's anyone high up enough with the vision and understanding to realize how much of a game changer this tech is.
Of course. But I don't see why they would need that much better camera for "just" letting you see through the visor and apply some AR stuff to the video feed. How's the quality of the latest iPad camera? Wouldn't it be enough for the AR job?
The camera we are seeing on this prototype might be a cheap webcam for all we know.
Perhaps I didn't make myself clear. I'm not saying I'd be happy with a webcam. I'm wondering if that camera being so "big" compared to an iPad one hints at it being just that: a cheap webcam.
phosphor112
Banned
But this has head tracking, and I'm sure much less latency too. Let's wait and see though.
phosphor112
Banned
Sure. At the end of the day, without more facts, all I'm doing is moderating my own (and other's) expectations by playing the devil's advocate.
Like I said, I'm definetly interested to see what comes out and what the impressions will be.
Yes, the applications would be the most interesting.
While people are b*tching about 4KTV in 2012, and 1080p in 2005, the military in some country already bought huge order of 2KTVs way back in 1992 (20 years ago). It costed $15,000 each at that time.
But it's the military applications that make the whole package interesting. ^_^
I wouldn't be surprised if the expensive 4K cinema displays and TVs are used for professional purposes today. The military should already have tons of HMD-related projects for the past few decades too.
Mikey Jr.
Member
I'm getting laser eye surgery just for this machine.
Not really, but I am getting laser eye surgery. Probably not a good idea to use this machine after doing it.
People with glasses could use HMZ-T1.
Few things come to mind.
- Contact lenses
- Laser eye surgery (I got mine 2 weeks ago and it's fucking awesome)
- Carmack mentioned that it was theoretically possible to "correct" some vision problems through software. (When using an HMD like the Rift, of course)
- You could get a pair of cheap glasses, remove the lenses and stick em on top of the HMD lenses.
My eyes are really small and I have big veins in one of my lids so I can't really use contacts and I like the way I look with glasses. Laser surgery is super expensive and I'd rather keep glasses.
Enter The 36 Chambers
Member
I dont know a single person who actually wants, or would ever use a head mounted display/VR device. Utterly pointless.
Canis lupus
Member
I thought Sony would push VR instead of AR. I don't like AR, I find it too gimmicky.
Well if you're waiting for ExistenZ level of immersion then don't hold your breath... Meanwhile, if we're to believe the numerous people who've tried the Rift prototype using frickin' Doom 3, we're pretty damn close.
Where's the lol gif when you need it. It's the only appropriate response to this.