LAS VEGAS—If you've been thinking that the Oculus Rift is the future of immersive video and gaming, Sony would like a word with you—and it has the hardware to prove it.
At its booth at the Consumer Electronics Show, Sony showed off two pieces of hardware: the Sony Smart Eyeglass prototype, and a head-tracker upgrade to its $999 Head Mounted Display (pictured above), which began shipping a short time ago.
Part of the sizzle of the Oculus Rift is that it lets you turn your head, and see the display change accordingly, giving the illusion that you're surrounded by a 3D space that you can pan around and explore. With the Rift, that imagery is all virtual.
Sony, however, filmed actual ground-level video of a motorcycle as it raced through a road course, complete with "surround" audio. Just the camera perspective is exciting enough, but the ability to turn your head left and right, as well as up and down gave it a subconscious feeling of reality that only added to the tension.
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