An exciting alternative to multiple (expensive) monitors

So after watching updates from IFA 2011, the one piece of new hardware coming out this year that excited me more than anything was Sony's HMZ-T1 Head Mounted 3D ready display.



I can still remember as a child playing on of those old Virtuality VR games as a kid and in college I actually bought one for an arcade route I was running.



The big downside of these HMDs (head-mounted displays) was the very low resolution of the screens inside. They also had head tracking but it wasn't very responsive and the hardware obviously had a long way to go.

Fast forward to today. This headset has 2 OLED screens running at 1280x720 resolution. They simulate a 750 screen at 20m away. The headset also has virtual 5.1 channel surround sound. I'm sure most of you are aware that a display with faster response time will generally have less smearing in a moving picture. A good gaming monitor for example will usually boast a 2ms response time. Pretty impressive. The OLED displays in this HMD have a response time of 0.01ms. And to top off the great picture quality, it also does stereoscopic 3D. This would be the perfect display for a Driving/Flying simulator. But one thing is still missing, the head tracking

http://www.naturalpoint.com/trackir/products/trackir5/

This head tracking accessory boasts 6DOF tracking at 120fps sample rate. I have one and used it on some racing sims and flight sims. It works great but turning your head isnt ideal when you still have to keep your eyes looking straight at the screen. But attach this to one of Sony's new HMDs that come out in November and you sir have yourself one kickass VR setup. So let's talk about cost

Sony's HMZ-T1 $799 US
Track IR 5 $149 US (can be found for cheaper on eBay)

Total Cost $948

This would be all you would need for display and sound. I have been planning on building a motion simulator for awhile now and originally was going to wait for some LCDs with super thin bezel to come down in price, but to have a full VR setup with 3D and full head tracking to me sounds like a much better experience. What do you guys think?

This sounds very cool. I'd be eager to see it in action

trade that track ir for a kinect sensor to add full body tracking... now that would be a kick ass vr setup...

Here is a video showing the TrackIR in action. It is very responsive and I think would make for a very exciting experience in flight and racing sims. I'm definitely planning on getting the HMD when it comes out in November, so I as soon as I get it in I can post reviews of the overall experience.

http://youtu.be/9wXx3vMy_AQ?t=1m42s

Also a hands on Gizmodo did with the Sony HMD. You'll see why I'm excited

http://gizmodo.com/5835977/sonys-hmz+t1-is-an-awesome-oled-3dtv-that-you-wear-on-your-head

this could really be the way forward .

Resolution is awesome, but 45deg FOV isnt that immersive still.

Still waiting for flexible foil displays to attach to a racing helmet, covering full FOV....

Regards

This one was my big hope until i`ve seen whole details. Resolution and FOV drops me down. Great improvement tho - compare to last one which i`ve seen. It wont replace surround display system or big screen projection in case of 3D immersion but i still think that this one big step forward in upcomming Virtual Reality (it means Sony is into it so they will make it all run faster).