CES 2024 officially opens its doors today and among the newly unveiled products is a surprise from Sony. The company announced its development of a new mixed-reality headset that it hasn’t gotten around to naming yet. Maybe it’s just a coincidence that Apple suddenly has a release date for its Vision Pro headset.
The “spatial content creation system”, as Sony calls it, looks similar to other wearable VR/XR/MR systems in that it’s got a bit you strap to your face and two controller-looking things that are “optimized for intuitive interaction with 3D objects and precise pointing”.
Unlike the Meta Quest 3, this one is less about gaming and more about “supporting creators in sophisticated 3D content creation”.
It’s Sony coming later
The company wasn’t terribly forthcoming about many details, those will come later. But a press release does mention that it uses Qualcomm’s new Snapdragon XR2+ Gen 2 XR chipset and it will be available later this year. From that, we can surmise this will be a standalone device that won’t necessarily need to be tethered to a PC.
The bit that goes on your head features dual 4K OLED microdisplays that beam your created content right to your eyes. It also contains six cameras and other sensors that allow for what Sony calls “video see-through”. Or users can just flip the display part up and out of the way.
The controllers are the real giveaway that you won’t be playing games – although we’re sure that won’t stop people from trying. There’s one that you hold, called a “pointing controller” and a “ring controller” you wear on a finger. Sony reckons creators will be able to use both and a keyboard together, thanks to the robotic Smart Sony 3rd Arm it’s also working on. /s
“By holding the pointing controller in the dominant hand and attaching the ring controller to the fingers of the other hand, creators can model 3D objects using both controllers and a keyboard, while wearing the head-mounted display.”
The only remaining question is what happens if you combine this yet-to-be-named system with Sony’s Mocopi system launched in 2022. Are there more pieces to Sony’s Voltron we haven’t seen yet? We’ll let you know as soon as we do.
