Sony Corp. is well-known for introducing the latest technologies to the market. In many cases, this allows the company to force them to become industry standards, in other cases the firm fails to popularize its tech. According to a market rumour, at present the company mulls support of virtual reality and/or augmented reality helmets. Moreover, the console may not be called the “PlayStation 4”, but carry “PlayStation” Omni” name.

Sony originally wanted its next-generation PlayStation game console to be able to support rendering of video games in stereoscopic 3D mode in 1920*1080 (full HD) resolution at 30fps ~ 60fps depending on the type of a game. Additionally, Sony wants its future console to output video in 4K-class resolutions (3840*2160, 4096*2160, etc.). Such requirements demand a lot of performance and probably the graphics chip inside the next-gen PlayStation is extremely powerful. Apparently, Sony decided not to stop there.

Sony Computer Entertainment is at least mulling to include, or at least support, special head-mounted displays that should work either as virtual-reality helmet, or like augmented reality (Google Glass-like) glasses, reports DualPixels web-site. The information in general looks too blurry at the moment, but the OmniViewer is projected to track the users head and hence act like a controller. It is also reported that it will be able to show movies in high resolutions, but at the same time feature semi-transparent AMOLED screens, which is generally impossible.

Even though the information about virtual reality or augmented reality add-on devices bundled with the PlayStation 4 (which may be called Omni or Orbis) seems to be rather odd, given the cost of such glasses and helmets (Sony’s own TMZ-H1 helmet costs $799 these days), Sony may add support for such devices into the machine and then offer appropriate glasses/helmets as optional add-ons for games that support their functionality. Many games would be even more immersive when played in virtual reality helmet, therefore, a feature could be appreciated by hardcore gamers, who are the key buyers of game consoles.

Sony did not comment on the news-story.

Tags: Sony, Playstation, Orbis, Omni, Stereo 3D, UHD