Microsoft joins the VR contenders with HoloLens

As Many of the worlds biggest tech giants join the VR market (excluding Apple) Microsoft made an announcement today that implies that they too would be joining the train.

In this vision of a future shared experience enabled by Windows Holographic, one user is wearing HoloLens within a room scanner/communicator (left), another joins via a VR headset (middle) and the third initiates the session from a HoloLens at a remote location (right).

At the Computex trade show in Taipei, Terry Myerson (Executive Vice President, Windows and Devices group) was joined by Nick Parker and Alex Kipman (HoloLens Architect) to announce that Microsoft would be widening the scope of their mixed reality headset by incorporating VR.

 

At the announcement, Terry Myerson stated :

"The market for virtual reality devices is expected to be 80 million devices per year by 2020. However, many of today’s devices and experiences do not work with each other, provide different user interfaces, interaction models, input methods, peripherals, and content. And most virtual reality experiences can’t mix real people, objects, and environments into the virtual world, making creation and collaboration difficult. This is because they lack the human, environmental and object understanding that is already built into Windows 10."

On the unveiling of HoloLens, Microsoft had also released Windows Holographic, which is a platform to allow Windows 10 developers design apps for the device.

 

Sony releases new VR headset called "Project Morpheus"

Finally, Sony has come out with a new toy, actually something i'd call a gamer relic.Its a virtual reality headset called "Project Morpheus" (catchy).


According to Shuhei Yoshida, president of Sony's Worldwide Studios, Sony had been working on the technology  for three years. He also said, in a blog post, that "We believe VR will shape the future of games," and he couldn`t be more correct.

He also said, "At GDC 2014 this week, attendees will be able to check out Project Morpheus in action at the SCEA booth through a handful of technology demos."

Its actually still a prototype, made available to only developers, and a commercial release date has not been announced.

The project Morpheus is a head-mounted display with 1080p resolution and a 90 degree field of view.

It has sensors built into the unit that can track head orientation and movement, so that when a user's head moves, the image of the virtual reality world moves with it.

Sony's move into virtual reality was actually induced by a product released by a crowd-sourced group called Oculus Rift.


It unveiled its prototype headset "Crystal Cove" at this year's Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas
By: Ezekiel.T.Ogidan