Sony (SNE, Financial) never ceases to amaze with its extraordinary gadgets. Every year it tries to put forward something entirely new in its vast array of electronic appliances or upgrade them to mark its concrete presence in the market. This year once again, Sony Corporation has decided to shift its attention towards the gaming zone. As a result, its virtual reality handset has been upgraded to offer more features and to enhance its performance.
Virtual reality handset gadget
Last week in the Games Development Conference most commonly known as GDC, held at San Francisco, Sony announced a new version of “Morpheus.” The PlayStation 4 gadget is expected to get officially released in 2016. The updated software now allows users to experience the environment of a game as if they are playing within the game themselves. The LCD will be replaced with OLED that has a 5.7-inch large screen. A gamer will be able to get a 100 degree view of the entire field, and the image rendering goes up to about 120 frames each second. Some of the coolest features expected to be released in the new version are:
- 9 LED lights to cater the needs of improved movements.
- Display of 1080p instead of 60p of previous gadget.
- Latency rate of around 0.018 which was only 0.04 seconds previously.
- To easily take the helmet off a “quick release button” has been introduced.
One more striking feature is that its virtual reality handset uses camera of PlayStation 4 for keeping track of movements. The exotic light panels are already built inside in the headset and can be controlled with controllers of PlayStation.
Competitors of Sony in virtual reality handsets
Where Sony is all set to give final touches to its virtual reality headset, other companies have also realized the promising potential that virtual reality systems seem to offer. The HTC vive is also not far behind in the gaming arena, and this hat-like appliance is about to get released later in 2015, during the end of the year. A special lighthouse tracking technology has been used in this system to provide more high quality and resolution to the users. Though it also gives no less than 1080p video quality, the image turning rate comes to only 90 frames per second, which is much less than Sony’s Virtual reality headset. But, both provide 3-D audio sound, too.
Samsung is also planning to enter the scenario with Gear VR which runs on the sophisticated Oculus (OCLS, Financial) technology. Hololens, Microsoft’s (MSFT, Financial) augmented virtual reality gadget has been announced to make the completion a bit more complicated for every participant.
The “big motion sickness” –Â i.e. the disorientation or dizziness felt by users after playing virtual reality games –Â has not been solved by any of the corporations yet, though.
Concluding thoughts
With so many virtual reality gadgets being released by top notch companies, one can anticipate a vicious marketing war in the electronic appliances market. The prices have not been disclosed by any of the companies, but it is almost certain that they will choose to compete on brand rather than on price. Consumers will definitely be at the ultimate advantage, experiencing virtual reality features outside the cinema goggles. Though Sony has introduced the fastest image turning rate and high quality of virtual reality but still it needs to do more to remain in competition.
