Since its reveal back in 2014, the Project Morpheus virtual reality (VR) head-mounted display (HMD) has largely been showcased alongside Sony Computer Entertainment’s (SCE) motion controller, the PlayStation Move. You’d be forgiven, then, for thinking that the controller will be the primary way of interacting with VR videogames when the kit launches in the first half of 2016. But the PlayStation Move might not be the only way to play VR videogames; SCE has also confirmed that it is ‘looking at’ hand-tracking.
PlayStation Magic Labs’ Richard Marks confirmed as much this week at the 2015 Silicon Valley Virtual Reality (SVVR) Conference and Expo. “One of the really interesting ways to break [forms of input] down is from abstract to literal,” Marks said on a panel focused on VR input. “So abstract, maybe the motion would be something like a keyboard where you press a button and some action occurs. A very literal interface would be something like a treadmill where you walk and expect to move through the world at a walking pace.”
He continued, talking about types of control that fit in between these two concepts. “You have the traditional game controller, which is fairly abstract but, then, you could add some tracking to that and it becomes a little bit more literal. The PlayStation Move is somewhere in between there, where you have this very literal motion that you can do but then the buttons give you an abstraction of grabbing or shooting or something like that. And then you have hand-tracking, we’ve been looking at that too, so there’s all these different kinds of ways you could do input and i think really depending on the experience you’re trying to enable, it depends on which one choose.”
Could SCE be working on a hand-tracking peripheral to complement Project Morpheus? Perhaps this could be announced at this year’s E3 in June, where the company has promised to talk more about the device and compatible videogames.
VRFocus will continue to follow Project Morpheus closely, reporting back with ant further updates on the device.
Personally, I would love to see PM include a hand tracking feature. I think would add a great deal to the overall immersion of the system, but I think it's more likely that we see it farther down the line. Possibly with PM2.
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