Sony, the Japanese electronics and gaming giant has unveiled a prototype virtual reality headset to be used in conjunction with its PlayStation 4 video game console. This was revealed during a Tuesday talk at the Game Developers Conference.
The president of Sony Computer Entertainment Worldwide Studios, Shuhei Yoshida showed off the slick black-and-white headset at the annual gathering of game designers. He said Sony has been working on the technology for more than three years.
It is codenamed Project Morpheus and features a head-mounted display with 1080p resolution and a 90-degree field of view. Sensors built into the headset can track a wearer’s head movement in concert with a PS4 camera.
“This prototype is by no means final,” said Yoshida. “We will continue to work on this to improve it, but we believe it’s a good representation of how PlayStation will deliver VR.”
Anton Mikhailov, a senior software engineer working on Project Morpheus, said the current version of the technology must be attached to a PS4 console with a cord that’s about 15 feet long, and users’ virtual perspectives can be simultaneously broadcast on a television screen.
Users will be able to interact with the virtual world displayed on the headset with the gesture-detecting PlayStation Move controller, as well as the standard DualShock 4. He declined to specify when the headset would be released or how much it would cost.
It will be available for demonstration beginning Wednesday for conference attendees on the conference’s expo floor with four games: diving cage simulator “The Deep,” medieval combat game “The Castle,” sci-fi dogfighter “EVE: Valkyrie” and a VR rendition of the stealthy action-adventure title “Thief.”
Source: AP
