Sony to ship VR-style 3D headset in November The 3D headset Sony showed off at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas this past January will finally go on sale in November - though only in Japan. Sony 3D BD specs Each pair sticks a tiny 1280 x 730 OLED before each eye, and they also incorporate a set headphones linked to on-board decoding to simulate 5.1 …
good to see sony re-entering the eye display market - their glasstrons were some of the best out there at the time (2000 ish).
I have 4 pairs of eye glasses
- the olympus eyetrek (low res but great optics)
- a cheap chinese LCOS 640x480 pair (crap contrast, and now cannibalized to give me a monocle display for vewing the gopro video output when I am flying my paramotor
- a pair of VUZIX VGA jobs - good to use with PC, but optics not great.
- a set of eyetop monocle jobs built into a set of shades (good but bulky cables/control unit)
The market has been crying out for a good set of HD glasses with quality OLED panels and excellent optics. If sony can do that, I'll be in the line.
No mention of motion/gyro support which is a pity for gaming support. :-(
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There have been a few such headsets around in recent years, but they all seem to simulate a screen viewed at a distance, much as one might watch a television - a field of view of 20-30 degrees. This is a far cry from the 110-120 degree view required for the immersive experience that VR is supposed to be.
I have long wished for such an immersive display - but have never found one. Of course such a field of view would not be suitable for watching a film on, (even IMAX is only 70 degrees or so) - which perhaps puts manufactureres off. Still, games could work well - as long as the accelerometer tech is REALLY tightly coupled with the view direction!
Unless the VR visor is VERY accurate in following the movements of your head on all three axes, your eyes will start to conflict with the rest of your senses because the information fed by your eyes won't match up with, say, your ears. The end result is the dreaded "simulation sickness": motion sickness while standing/sitting still. That's a big reason most VR visors don't completely obscure your outside view; with at least a reference to reality visible, the eyes have a chance to recognize the VR image for what it really is (a simulation) and ignore it, keeping your eqilibrium intact.
I have two sets of Sony's previous venture into HMD displays, the Glasstrons; PLM-A35 (a paltry 266x225 res.) and some PLM-S700's (a respectable 832x624 res.).
Aside from the crappy resolution of the A35's, both are comfortable to wear for long periods of gaming/film watching, have good audio and most importantly - superb optics, unlike the Rimax range, the i-Theater range and the (3D capable) Zeiss Cinemizers which all suffer from 'rainbow' ghosting and dark corners due to poor optics.
So here's hoping that Sony do things right again and produce some affordable video glasses that give the competition a run for their money. Competition being the likes of the ageing Magin Z800 3DVisor, a lightweight 800x600 res set which cost a whopping $1500.
And knock a third of the price and I'm interested - as long as your view shifted with it using gyroscope sensors or something - otherwise it's going to be pretty disorientating moving the head and the image staying as is.
Definitely stop the other guy in two player looking at your screen.
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