[onQ123]

http://youtu.be/77oCTRIUCk8

Sony just posted a teaser for a prototype head mount display they will be showing at TGS http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=77oCTRIUCk8

Credit to Danhese007

[KillerTravis]

Probably for Xbox 360.

[TTP]

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:

People, how far immersive? It experiments explore the possibility of new entertainment "Institute immersive pleasure HMZ" head mounted display Has been developed for the open experiment, models with head tracking system / live camera Tokyo Game Show head-mounted display "PROTOTYPE-SR" Limited 2012 Specifications ※ jointly developed with RIKEN team Fujii New 360 degree immersive entertainment sensation World of the music of the movie world flew in to the real world Experiments conducted public 9/22, 23 (Deadline September 13, 2012) in recruiting an experience You will witness the future of entertainment

[Sidewinder]

Anybody care to translate?

AR, meh don't really care about that stuff, VR ftw!

Edit: They're showing it @ TGS? Maybe they listened to my advice to bring a HMZ with motion tracking to save the PS4 and this is the first step.

[El_Chino]

Seems like Microsoft and Sony are going to be all about Virtual Reality.

[Canis lupus]

This thing really needs head tracking!

[DieH@rd]

What does it say along with "360?"

Probably something about "freedom in 360 degrees".

[endresults]

Oh, interesting :) But why is the camera so "big"? I'd assume smaller cameras like those on the iPhones are good enough?

Looks like it has optical zoom, which necessitates a larger size lens.

[Castor Krieg]

Seems like Microsoft and Sony are going to be all about useless gimmicks their engineers love to design.

Fixed that for you.

At least Microsoft has managers to keep the nerds in line. Sony on the other hand - oh boy...

[luffeN]

But it still has the uncomfortable head band :P

Edit: They also announced the HMZ-T2 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XMEtXlaZ56M but probably old news. Did not see a thread on gaf.

[TheBioLover]

disgonbegood.gif

I'm very interested in this.

[Shining]

Excite! I had the HMZ-T1 but sold it beacuse it was a pain in the ass to wear. With head tracking, and if they fix the ergonomics, i might get tempted to get one of these again.

[amar212]

EDIT: Ok, Google-translated the description:

If this become a full production model at time PS4 comes out and it gets game-support regarding FOV and such it will sell as hotcakes.

[orioto]

But as long as it's that expensive and bulky.. there is no way they can use that as a mainstream accessory for a console...

[danhese007]

[Sidewinder]

But as long as it's that expensive and bulky.. there is no way they can use that as a mainstream accessory for a console...

Yes, but they need something like that to turn the Playstation brand around and kick everybody's asses. I don't think they'd manage to launch it with PS4 at a reasonable price, but 1-2 years down the road, who knows?

[orioto]

Yes, but they need something like that to turn the Playstation brand around and kick everybody's asses. I don't think they'd manage to launch it with PS4 at a reasonable price, but 1-2 years down the road, who knows?

Problem being the thing is an optical hell to build i think, and that makes it a really bad candidate to lower price... They need a tech that has a different approach.

[endresults]

I wonder if you could use them as glasses, with the camera acting as your eyes? You lose binocular vision and are virtually guaranteed to be mugged within five minutes, but you gain that sci-fi hacker look the ladies LOVE and you get to look like the monocle combine from HL2.

[Sidewinder]

Problem being the thing is an optical hell to build i think, and that makes it a really bad candidate to lower price... They need a tech that has a different approach.

Something like Rift would've been cheaper, but they don't seem to go down that road.

[thuway]

Fixed that for you. At least Microsoft has managers to keep the nerds in line. Sony on the other hand - oh boy...

You have no idea what you are talking about, and you've insulted an entire engineering team for trying to be forward thinking. Good work man.

[thuway]

Something like Rift would've been cheaper, but they don't seem to go down that road.

A bunch of Gaikai guys are in the Oculus Rift video. It wouldn't surprise me if Sony is working with Lucky to create a consumer version.

[gofreak]

Pretty interesting they're showing this at TGS. I would love to try this. I'm fairly convinced Sony will have a VR/AR peripheral for PS4. Not packaged as standard, of course, but available as an option.

I wonder if this demo will be using some of the Vita AR/SLAM stuff on the software side.

I also wonder what happened to this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nT_txWXezFY

Less immersive, perhaps, more expensive, perhaps...but it was interesting tech.

[orioto]

Something like Rift would've been cheaper, but they don't seem to go down that road.

I guess they need something like Rift but with better tech. And even for the classy home theater thing, i'm more interested in a big fov with a mapped screen that would be still in a virtual space (meaning it would move relativly to your head like a real theater screen would), using 3D to make it far and biiiig.

[Zaptruder]

Interesting Sony. I guess their engineers were thinking about this stuff after all... but why launch the Z2 as a personal media viewer? It was sent to die!

[Canis lupus]

Wishlist for T3:

Headtracking
Both oleds are 1080p
Weight and size down a lot

T2 seems like a minor upgrade, but hope this opens a new market.

[thuway]

Interesting Sony. I guess their engineers were thinking about this stuff after all... but why launch the Z2 as a personal media viewer? It was sent to die!

The Z2 is purely a money maker. It will be used to fund the project which is to follow. The cool thing on GAF is to be contrarian and hate on everything, but I can see Sony working on a monumental leap in the coming years.

The Z1 was fuck awesome. Most people on GAF who have tried it will admit it to its cool factor. It's downfall lies in its ergonomics.

The Oculus Rift will be awesome, but even Luckey admits to the expense of a quality display.

[gofreak]

Interesting Sony. I guess their engineers were thinking about this stuff after all... but why launch the Z2 as a personal media viewer? It was sent to die!

Everything's a tradeoff. There'll be room for hmds that are strictly media viewers, for a while. People might want that, without the cameras and cost of VR/AR stuff, if they're not interested in interactive entertainment.

[Nibel]

Finally Famous, onQ123

[Zaptruder]

Everything's a tradeoff. There'll be room for hmds that are strictly media viewers, for a while. People might want that, without the cameras and cost of VR/AR stuff, if they're not interested in interactive entertainment.

It's a superniche market. Personally, I think they tapped it out with the excitement of the T1.

Like... T1 was this product that simply hadn't existed at that quality and price level ever - the first promising sign of a new VR/AR revolution, albeit somewhat undercooked.

T2... is the same damn thing as a 1 year old product, with headphones removed, and slight ergonomic tweaks (doesn't look like it's enough).

[gofreak]

There's a bit more info on this page:

http://www.sony.jp/hmd/info2/20120911.html

It's a 15 minute demo. 44 people will get to try it over the two days of TGS - you have to enter a lottery to win a ticket.

I think this might also be the group they developed the demo with...this guy works on brain/machine interface research:

http://www.brain.riken.jp/en/faculty/details/6

[thuway]

There's a bit more info on this page: http://www.sony.jp/hmd/info2/20120911.html It's a 15 minute demo. 44 people will get to try it over the two days of TGS - you have to enter a lottery to win a ticket. I think this might also be the group they developed the demo with...this guy works on brain/machine interface research: http://www.brain.riken.jp/en/faculty/details/6

Sony should be in touch with Palmer and Carmack :-/.

[Zaptruder]

Sony should be in touch with Palmer and Carmack :-/.

Seriously... this field is about to be set on fire (in a good way)... but the pace they're working at seems glacial by comparison. If they're really serious about it, get in touch with the people leading right now, and get some interplay and interaction happening.

Include some sort of support for it head tracked, head mounted displays in the PS4 (both rift and HMZ-TX) - that would be ideal really.

[TTP]

Seriously... this field is about to be set on fire (in a good way)... but the pace they're working at seems glacial by comparison. If they're really serious about it, get in touch with the people leading right now, and get some interplay and interaction happening. Include some sort of support for it head tracked, head mounted displays in the PS4 (both rift and HMZ-TX) - that would be ideal really.

Yeah. Perhaps working on a common standard that would ease cross-compatibility would be nice. I mean, something that allows devs to support both the Rift and the HMZ-SR (Super Reality? LOL, 4D is coming) with a flick of a switch.

[gofreak]

Yeah. Perhaps working on a common standard that would ease cross-compatibility would be nice. I mean, something that allows devs to support both the Rift and the HMZ-SR (Super Reality? LOL, 4D is coming) with a flick of a switch.

Yeah, an agreed software standard for feeding images to hmds and getting data out of them - something like HDMI - would be a good idea.

I'm not sure I agree Sony's pace is glacial, though. They're the only party mentioned who's actually marketing and selling HMDs. Their move to a VR HMD will likely be timed around Playstation schedules though...that might 'slow' their marketing of such a device vs Oculus, since it'll probably be tied into PS4.

[Man]

Mods should put VR or Oculus Rift challenger in the title. I wouldn't know without reading it on twitter first.

[Zaptruder]

Yeah, an agreed software standard for feeding images to hmds and getting data out of them - something like HDMI - would be a good idea. I'm not sure I agree Sony's pace is glacial, though. They're the only party mentioned who's actually marketing and selling HMDs. Their move to a VR HMD will likely be timed around Playstation schedules though...that might 'slow' their marketing of such a device vs Oculus, since it'll probably be tied into PS4.

It's glacial because this isn't a real product - it's a prototype... and all they've done is stuck a camera into a HMD.

Ok, it looks quite nice, but it's literally shown as a bolt on job on the HMZ-T2.

If they were really enthusiastic - this would've been the first thing they did with the T1 - clipped a couple of cameras onto the T1 and worked with the Vita AR team to come up with some really cool AR/VR shit.

[patsu]

Interesting Sony. I guess their engineers were thinking about this stuff after all... but why launch the Z2 as a personal media viewer? It was sent to die!

If you look carefully, the prototype is based on T2. They probably ran out of T1, and sent another batch of revised version to replenish the stock.

Prototype still looks too bulky, but perhaps it can zoom. What would be more interesting is actually the software. Wondering what they are going to show.

EDIT:
I wonder if the internals are revised to show a wider screen/view.

[Man]

The camera is a standout feature from Oculus Rift.
Oculus Rift field-of-view angle might kill this one on the other hand.

Competition is good! Collaboration might be better in this case though.

[TTP]

Yeah, an agreed software standard for feeding images to hmds and getting data out of them - something like HDMI - would be a good idea. I'm not sure I agree Sony's pace is glacial, though. They're the only party mentioned who's actually marketing and selling HMDs. Their move to a VR HMD will likely be timed around Playstation schedules though...that might 'slow' their marketing of such a device vs Oculus, since it'll probably be tied into PS4.

About that, I wonder if Sony will stick to the dual micro-display solution (adding new, fisheye optics to increase FOV) or put a single 4K OLED screen or whatever in there and screen-split it a la Rift.

[TTP]

I wonder if the internals are revised to show a wider screen/view.

Yeah, I'm wondering the same. I think it would be pretty pointless to show AR/VR stuff on a "small" screen.

[gofreak]

It's glacial because this isn't a real product - it's a prototype... and all they've done is stuck a camera into a HMD.

Yeah, but they have actual hmds on the market too...the only of the parties talked about here that does.

Now those hmds are missing motion tracking, and so maybe if we talk about the class of hmds suitable for VR, they're on a slower track (to market, at least)... on the other hand, though, if their first such hmd included AR / cameras, it would be a bit ahead of the oculus...if it were to arrive any time soon. Which it probably won't :P

Anyway, unless they have plans for a peripheral for PS3 I think they should take their time to refine a PS4-relevant model. They don't need to rush anything out to meet the oculus on the market.

[Man]

Love how it looks like something that belongs to the Portal universe.

[TTP]

Love how it looks like something that belongs to the Portal universe.

Blue led and all, indeed.

edit: ah wait, this one lacks the blue led at the front. Too bad.

Anyway, unless they have plans for a peripheral for PS3 I think they should take their time to refine a PS4-relevant model. They don't need to rush anything out to meet the oculus on the market.

Well, it's not like the Rift consumer model will ship anytime soon. I suspect it will materialize fall 2013 at the earliest.

[Man]

They need to add motoric eyebrows to the future stereo-cam version.



And I'm only half-way joking.

Sony design + Oled + Oculus field-of-view (slidable optics to enable normal movie watching) + stereo cameras with eyebrows (the latter making it a very eyeconic product!).
Edit: sort of fits the goofines of the Aibo project.

[Sidewinder]

A bunch of Gaikai guys are in the Oculus Rift video. It wouldn't surprise me if Sony is working with Lucky to create a consumer version.

I'm crossing my fingers.

[gofreak]

They need to add motoric eyebrows to the future stereo-cam version.

Ha.

Actually, though, is this front camera 3D? I wonder how your 'vision' of the real world around you will be. Presumably it must be 3D, or else it'll just look like a flat video image mapped around you..?

[TTP]

Ha. Actually, though, is this front camera 3D? I wonder how your 'vision' of the real world around you will be. Presumably it must be 3D, or else it'll just look like a flat video image mapped around you..?

I assume it's a mono camera feeding the micro-displays with the same image (no stereo).

What I do wonder tho is what feeds the HMZ with AR graphics...

[onQ123]

Finally Famous, onQ123

I've made it on Eurogamers , Engadget , IGN , VG247 , EMG , Gamespot & other websites a few times now.

but vg247 are not so Eagle-eyed themselves because they didn't give credit to the real person who found the video even though I said "Credit to Danhese007" right under the video.

[patsu]

Ha. Actually, though, is this front camera 3D? I wonder how your 'vision' of the real world around you will be. Presumably it must be 3D, or else it'll just look like a flat video image mapped around you..?

Looks like a 2D camera.

Perhaps just a simple 2D video backdrop for 3D content.

Or an embedded 2D viewport in a 3D world ?

[Vol5]

Sony don't fuck about with new tech. Of course they are developing a VR/AR head-unit. Let's hope it's not gimped.