At the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, Sony recently unveiled Project Morpheus, which is the Japanese electronics giant’s highly anticipated entrance into virtual reality hardware. Shown off in prototype form, Sony’s futuristic head-mounted display represents the first real stab at virtual reality immersion from a mainstream first-party console maker according to the folks over at The Verge. President of Sony’s Worldwide Studios Shuhei Yoshida had the following to say regarding the matter:
VR has been a dream of many gamers since the computer was invented. Many of us at PlayStation have dreamed of VR and what it could mean to the gaming community.
Although Sony claims the final version of Morpheus will support 360 degrees of control, the headset shown off recently is tethered to a host machine by an HDMI and USB cable bundle. Sony said it hopes to make the device wireless before going to market.
Inside the headset is a 5-inch 1080p screen with a 90-degree field of view and a host of accelerometers and gyroscopes. As the developer kit unit on display was a prototype, the weight remains unknown but Sony claims the finalized design won’t be uncomfortable to wear.
Aside from gaming, Morpheus could represent a step toward the wider adoption fo VR systems in general. Not to say there haven’t been VR analogs in the past, but a truly responsive head-mounted device with serious developer support has yet to hit the market.
The Oculus VR rekindled gaming’s virtual reality ambitions with the Oculus Rift, a head-mounted device that can be considered a direct competitor to Sony’s Morpheus. Since its debut on Kickstarter in 2012, the Rift has generated a significant amount of buzz within the gaming industry and beyond, enough to net the startup nearly $100 million in venture capital financing. Despite developer support and the subsequent debut of an updated prototype dubbed Crystal Cove, Oculus VR has yet to announce a firm release date for the Rift. Current expectations put a launch of sometime in late 2014 or early 2015.
Apple too has shown interest in virtual reality and went as far as patenting a number of inventions covering optics, design and accessories. The company also owns properties dealing with head tracking and augmented reality though real-world solutions are unlikely to materialize anytime soon.
We’ll have to wait and see but it’s exciting to know that such technology is being worked on for a not-so distant release.
Source: Sony (PDF) via The Verge
Message