Sony To Sell 3D Head Mounted Display HMZ

September 1, 2011 - 12:21pm

Come November 11th, 2011, Sony will start selling its "HMZ personal 3D viewer" device in Japan.

The HMZ is a head mounted 3D display which Sony hopes to sell to "people who prefer solitary entertainment." The device will retail for 60,000 yen (EUR 542 or USD 654) and will be able to display music videos, movies and games in stereoscopic 3D.

Somehow, HMZ stands for "Head Mounted Display" and it looks like a chunky futuristic visor that covers both eyes and ears (it includes a pair of earphones).

In the early 1990s Nintendo released a similar device called the Virtual Boy but it failed big time due to its bulky size and weight as well as the fact that it displayed images in red only. According to Sony, the HMZ is much more sophisticated as it gives its wearer an immersive experience equivalent to sitting in one of the best seats of a movie theatre.

The new headgear is not recommended for people under 16 years old as experts believe overly stimulating imagery is not good for teenagers whose brains are still developing, according to Shigeru Kato, a Sony vice president.

No release date has been announced yet for North America and Europe, but it is expected to hit those markets by Christmas.

Comments

I already have a gaming pc, a

I already have a gaming pc, a ps3, a wii, a 360, and a 3d tv, so i guess I have no choice. I don't have the luxury of being poor and favoring only one machine, all this damn money keeps getting in my way. I guess I'll have to get two of these.

You ppl need to go look up

You ppl need to go look up "vuzix" they make the same thing that plugs into pretty much anything and look alot more pratical.
and if its gaming you want them for then they do 1 with motion sensors to track your head movement.
i cant understand why its taken this long for sony/MS (or anyone else for that matter) to realise the potential of these glasses (them sony 1s look crap tho).

I mean why have people been bothering with 3dtvs all this time when we got vuzix which produce better 3d

The Vuzix Wrap 1200VR Specs

The Wrap 1200VR – the ultimate in virtual reality eyewear.

75-inch virtual screen as viewed from ten feet (approximately 3 m)
16:9 widescreen aspect ratio
Twin high-resolution 852 x 480 LCD displays
Supports display resolutions of:
640 x 480 (VGA)
800 x 600 (SVGA)
1024 x 768 (XGA)
1280 x 720 (720p)
60Hz progressive scan update rate
35-degree diagonal field of view
24-bit true color (16 million colors)
Weighs approximately three ounces
Independent left and right eye focal adjustment
Supports side-by-side 3D video for PC gaming
Connects to PC VGA or DVI port & USB2.0 ports
Head tracker with drift compensation
VR Manager software (digital download)

i dont think you understand

i dont think you understand how displays work.

if the resolution of the display itself if 852x480, IT CANNOT DISPLAY MORE THAN 852x480 PIXELS. it may ACCEPT THE INFORMATION OF UP TO 1280x720, BUT IT WILL NOT DISPLAY EVERY PIXEL OF 720p.

dumb ass.

No risk takers in here, you

No risk takers in here, you guys are boring. i guess you guys aren't really nerds, just posers that complain about anything that may move consumer tech to the next level.

Yes this tech isn't new, but neither is the eyetoy, but is now improved upon and look, we have wii, move, and kinect, its not like they are keeping the old technology, the only way to move forward is to improve upon old tech. but i guess there will always be complainers.

By your guys standards, we should still be using pda's and tube tv's.

tube tvs dont wear out lcds

tube tvs dont wear out lcds burn out plasma adds fade to a screen tube tv's can give you more rich color XD pda fuckin suck ill say that always hated a windows phone> oh and the reason i troll is cause im pc all the way and anything a console has is to make up for the fact that consoles suck you can play anything on a pc and guess what you can upgrade a pc too. GET OUT OF TOWN!! SHENANIGANS I SAY!! you can adda controller to a pc and there its a console, like the wii? get the razr motion sensing controllers then wii emulator BAM like ps3? dont care its a 8 core pc well guess what my pc is a 8 core with three video cards a 6 tbs of space just a matter of time till we emulate the ps3 and if someone goes "oh what about games made only for consoles?" well there is a reason they are only made on a console cause they are that shite and the company loves money and wont want to lose any to pirates which in fact they still do. seriously when are people gunna wake up and just build a small pc to hook up to a tv and play whatever they want? oh yeah they have go to [url removed] or whatever the hell gamestops one is you can play any game no matter how demanding it is on a laptop with a single core. ! you can even buy a set top box and play any game from there or gamestops blue tooth wifi controller allows you to play ANY GAME you have EVER bought from gamestop WITHOUT the console just a controller. think im kidding? look it up welcome to the end of consoles finally!!!!

Ipad wasn't the first tablet.

And this isn't the first wearable entertainment center.
Thing is as technology changes and people change with it, new markets appear for this stuff. No one in their right mind would have bought a tablet computer 8 years ago, but now...

Look Closer

you will notice that its size is partially for two reasons, and every device like this will be this size because of it.
1. they are allowing a bit of air room for people that already wear glasses, since otherwise, they would chop out a good portion of their custom.
2. they are distancing the display a bit from your eyes to produce the stereostopic effect, obviously with a way to adjust for those of us that have astigmatism, ro cataracts, or even just different eyes.

stop your hating bullshit, the console wars are over dude.

in fac theyve been over for a few years now, and sorry to tell you, sony stands on top of the hill . . . unfortunately

Look Closer

you will notice that its size is partially for two reasons, and every device like this will be this size because of it.
1. they are allowing a bit of air room for people that already wear glasses, since otherwise, they would chop out a good portion of their custom.
2. they are distancing the display a bit from your eyes to produce the stereostopic effect, obviously with a way to adjust for those of us that have astigmatism, ro cataracts, or even just different eyes.

stop your hating bullshit, the console wars are over dude.

in fac theyve been over for a few years now, and sorry to tell you, sony stands on top of the hill . . . unfortunately

wow is no one pissed?????

like seriously anyone remember when SEGA did this with the genesis i still have mine and it displayed in real stereoscopic 3d this is not new tech this is an old POS. all this is a ds screen in a pair of glasses not real 3d just play for 20 mins take em off cause your eyes hurt or your face is sweaty. oh well at least ill get to laugh at the dumbasses who buy it. sorry kids but this is old news by about 15 year for me

This dink is comparing it to

This dink is comparing it to the virtual boy, wow a real sony hater.

I actually own a pair of 3d viewing glasses (not sony), and they are great, it not only used for 3d, its like always having a big screen hdtv in front of you, i have it hooked up to my iphone.

I will assume sony will have done a much better job.

I already have a 3d tv, but the portability is nice.

Yes, because a monstrously

Yes, because a monstrously oversized and potentially very heavy piece of equipment that goes completely around your head is the exact same thing as a dinky pair of glasses. Great comparison. Based on that, I can go ahead and claim you are a sony fanboy (the same way you assume the writer is a sony hater because of comparing it to a VB).

i don't know if you know what

i don't know if you know what i'm talking about, im not talking about 3d glasses, im talking about a similar item that does exactly what this sony headset does. i actually own a virtual boy, and comparing the two is like comparing coffee to water. its not a gaming machine, it hooks up to anything with a video/line out option, for personal viewing. its not only for 3d viewing. and your damn right I'm a Sony fanman, they make great products.

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