SONY has unveiled a prototype for a new virtual reality headset that will allow users to feel as though they are physically immersed in a three-dimensional gaming world.
The headset, known as Project Morpheus, could "shape the future of video games", the president of Sony Computer Entertainment Worldwide Studios, Shuhei Yoshida, told crowds at the 2014 Game Developers Conference in San Francisco.
"Virtual reality has been the dream of many game creators ever since the first computer game. Many of us have dreamed about VR and what it could mean for the games that we create."
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The headset, which will be compatible with Sony's new PlayStation 4 console, has been in development for three years. No date has yet been given for its release, and experts believe that it will be beaten to market by the Oculus Rift, a rival virtual reality headset made for use with PC games and financed by crowd-funding, The Guardian reports.
Project Morpheus's head-mounted display will have a 1080p resolution screen and a 90 degree field of view. A user's movement will be tracked by an inbuilt accelerometer and gyroscopic sensors in concert with a PlayStation camera. The device will also feature Sony's 3D audio technology capable of producing stereophonic sound to add to the feeling of immersion in a video game.
The announcement follows rumours that Sony's console rival Microsoft is working on a suite of augmented and virtual reality devices of its own, the Daily Mail reports.
"This prototype is by no means final," said Yoshida. "We will continue to work on this to improve it, but we believe it's a good representation of how PlayStation will deliver VR."
Project Morpheus is currently being distributed to games developers so that they can begin to build software for the device.