Sony's Project Morpheus makes big bet on body tracking ~ by Nick Statt

En garde! Sony's Project Morpheus headset, teamed with two PlayStation Move controllers, gets ready for a sword-fighting demo called The Castle.

(Credit: Josh Miller/CNET) 

 

There's one pivotal difference right now between the two most promising, best developed virtual reality headset prototypes, forming a simultaneously technical and philosophical barrier.
Oculus VR, while exclusively focused on smooth tracking and optics, has made an open-source darling out of its Oculus Rift headset, turning a radical crowdfunding idea into the face of an emerging industry. Its openness has spawned a movement with a wide breadth of third-party spinoffs, from the Virtuix Omni to countless motion-tracking suits and handsets. Its final, relatively affordable development kit -- announced Wednesday at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco ahead of its official release -- will continue to accelerate the growth of that community.
Sony's Project Morpheus, in the works since 2010 and unveiled at GDC on Tuesday, has crafted an equally amazing and immersive experience. Not only is it just as comfortable -- in some respects more so for a glasses wearer I noticed -- but it's also a smooth experience almost on par with Oculus' Dev Kit 2, which has had a more thoroughly field-tested development approach this past year.

 

  (Credit: Josh Miller/CNET)

More importantly, however, Sony has baked in from the get-go a promise to make virtual reality (VR) a full-body affair, using PlayStation Move controllers in conjunction with the PlayStation Camera to get you moving around the room and swinging your arms like a madman. The results, still as early and limited as prototype demos can get, are both breathtaking and hilariously fun.
The catch: Morpheus looks locked to the PlayStation platform, with no foreseeable exit from that proprietary strategy.

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