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Wii Remote Plus joins Kinect and Vuzix shades for 2011's weirdest VR shooter yet (video)
The natural evolution to Nao_u's impressive Kinect- and Vuzix-infused already impressive virtual reality simulator? Guns, of course. A Wii Remote Plus has been added to his project, joining Microsoft's sensor and VR920 LCD glasses for a VR shooting game that involves, well, lobbing paintballs out of a P90 rifle towards flying disembodied anime characters. Make no mistake, it's a great technical demo chock full of aesthetic eccentricities. Full details via the developer's diary, video after the break.
Vuzix dips toes in augmented reality, makes video eyewear cool again
Nintendo ain't the only company making waves at the Game Developers Conference this year -- oh no, we've also got Vuzix gettin' down and dirty with a brand new addition to its video eyewear segment. Said outfit has teamed up with metaio in order to showcase a new Augmented Reality Accessory Kit for the VR920 head-mounted display. The bundle will include the CamAR -- a clip-on USB camera that is designed to accurately track objects and the user's position in three-dimensional space -- along with the PhasAR wireless augmented reality input controller. When these are used in unison, users are able to simultaneously see what's going on in the Matrix and in the display. For instance, imagine reading a book that's tied into a program on the VR920; as you read along, images can pop up and complement the text. Far out, right? The full release is after the break, and we've been told that the attachment should sell for around $100 on top of the $399 VR920 when it ships around mid-Summer.
Eyes-on impression: Icuiti iWear
Roaming around the North hall expo floor, we stopped by Icuiti to check out their iWear 3D goggles. Although Marketing Rep Adam Travers explained that their primary audience was not necessarily gamers, for demonstration purposes they were running the headset with Unreal Tournament 2004. (For clarification purposes, Travers explained their audience would also be business people conducting and attending interviews in a virtual environment akin to Second Life.)There were two models at the floor: the AV920 and the more premium VR920, which is being touted as the "first interactive Video Eyewear for gamers." The difference between the two models was $50 (as quoted by Travers, at least), a microphone and an accelerometer for motion tracking. The 3D portion when playing UT 2004 worked on multi-floored rooms where you could see all the floors, though the impact does not compensate for the price. Wearing the headset was surprisingly comfortable. When we added our glasses to the mix, the headset dropped a bit but still managed to work decently. At all times we could divert our eyes downward and clearly view the keyboard and mouse.
