Categories: Tech

Leak Confirms that Sony will Debut XR Headset this Year

This week, Sony became the latest firm which faced leaks regarding its upcoming XR headset. Following recent leaks from others in the headset market—such as Meta and PICO—recent information from a SIG certification emerged suggesting that Sony’s forthcoming XR headset will debut later this year.

Sony confirmed earlier in the year that its XR headset will debut in 2024; however, the recent SIG listing appears to confirm this speculation. At this point, delays will be unlikely. This listing does not reveal any further specifications or details on the device, however previous unveilments earlier in the year paint a clear picutre of the device.

Sony unveiled the new XR device at CES 2024. It features an XR head-mounted display with high-quality 4K OLED microdisplays, MR passthrough functions, and controllers optimized for interacting with 3D objects and digital twins. Sony will release more information about its specifications and launch dates later in the year. Notably, Sony collaborated with Siemens and Qualcomm to develop the XR device, making it ready for enterprise-grade XR content creation and distribution.

Speaking on the enterprise abilities of Sont’s upcoming XR device, Cedrik Neike, Member of the Managing Board of Siemens AG and CEO of Siemens Digital Industries, noted:

Siemens is partnering with Sony to enable immersive engineering, a critical building block for the industrial metaverse. Together, we are creating an environment where it will be possible to experience the realities of physics without the bounds of time to profoundly improve how our customers work and collaborate.

The device is equipped with Qualcomm’s latest Snapdragon XR2+ Gen 2 Platform. The processor powers the 4K OLED microdisplays and provides user and space-tracking features. Sony claims that the chipset ensures that the user’s XR experiences are seamless and immersive.

Said Bakadir, Senior Director of Product Management at Qualcomm, also added:

We designed our Snapdragon XR2+ Gen 2 to deliver 4K display resolution, cutting-edge graphics, and unparalleled performance to enable creators to build innovative spatial content that will transform all industries for the better. It’s exciting to see Sony enter the enterprise space with their spatial content creation system and utilise Snapdragon XR technologies to unleash more realistic, detailed, and precise Mixed Reality [and] VR experiences that will help developers and creators push forward an even more immersive future.

The head-mounted display is equipped with high-definition 1.3-type OLED Microdisplays featuring 4K resolution and a wide colour gamut. This allows for detailed and realistic rendering of textures of 3D objects and facial expressions of human characters with high accuracy. It also lets creators review the entire modelling process while wearing the display.

When using the system, users can access a ring controller that allows for seamless manipulation of virtual objects. Additionally, a pointing controller is included to ensure steady and precise pointing in virtual spaces, with optimized button layouts and shapes for efficient operation.

To model 3D objects, creators can use controllers and a keyboard while wearing the head-mounted display. Simply holding the pointing controller in the dominant hand and attaching the ring controller to the fingers of the other hand will facilitate an immersive experience

Terron Gold