HEADPLAY Personal Cinema System

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How about a visor that has a built in video system that makes it look like you are viewing a 52” screen. Well, that’s what “HEADPLAY” is, a virtual 52-inch screen built into a visor. We’ll have to get one of these for [H] Consume or [H] Console to test out, they look pretty damn cool.


HEADPLAY the system, is a Personal Cinema System; your traveling video gaming arcade; your exclusive window into the sprawling canvas of cyberspace. HEADPLAY is all that, and more. It’s an entire universe packaged into an easily transportable unit you can take anywhere… and access anytime.
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I'll believe it when I see it though. Starting with real pictures of the product would be a good opening, right now those are obvious Phantom Console concept art shots. :p
 
Display and Graphics:
Field of View: 34 degrees diagonal
Virtual Image Size: 52” diagonal at 6’
Display Technology: LCOS
LCOS Refresh Rate: Up to 120 Hz
Color Depth: 18 bits
Native Resolution: 800 x 600 pixels
Supports Resolutions up to: 1024 x 768 pixels
Video Output: 360 color fields per second
Audio: Stereo Sound
3D video; built in

I see that as a limiting factor for gaming ... maybe ok for consoles and movies but not PC.
What do they mean by 3D video? Is there one display for each eye?
This looks like a "close but no cigar" situation.
Call me back when it's at least 1024x768 native and 16 million colors.

I'd still like to see some reviews of this though.
 
Like looking at a 52", non HD, big screen built in the mid 90's. Resolution has been the biggest problem of any of these 'wearable screens' such as the glastron and it looks like Headplay hasn't done much to combat that.

Give me 1280x720 native and I'll take a peek.
 
I like how they count 6 bit color sub pixels as 18 bit color depth.

Resolution is bad, color depth is bad, and I bet you can plainly see the pixel structure too. Still not even close.
 
If they ever get the things (head mounted displays) working it would be cool if they had some motion sensing abilities. You could look, aim, and move in different directions. Maybe even some rumble action.
 
I see we have a lot of naysayers here. :eek:

Try the product before you bash it because of it's specs.

I would love to try it, I am just wondering what the price is on this thing and where I could try it out! :D

MH Knights said:
If they ever get the things (head mounted displays) working it would be cool if they had some motion sensing abilities. You could look, aim, and move in different directions. Maybe even some rumble action.
Click to expand...

I don't think aiming and moving with one of these things would work very well.

And I don't see how a rumble would work, especially since it is only being held on by a single strap. I would think it would slide off too easily. Also, I think a shaking screen like that may make people extremely dizzy.
 
Rumbling would make people sick.....but in a FPS game that should be the point, cuz I'm sure real combat make ppl sick too. :D
 
MH Knights said:
If they ever get the things (head mounted displays) working it would be cool if they had some motion sensing abilities. You could look, aim, and move in different directions. Maybe even some rumble action.
Click to expand...

HMDs are around, and do work. I had (Still have, somewhere) a VFX1 HMD system. It was an ISA card that connected into the "VESA" connector on a graphics card (So S3 Virge or Matrox Millennium II era cards), which I guess tells you just how old it was. It had a native res of 640x480, supported head tracking in all 3 axes, and had a seperate "Puck" controller that also (and independantly) supported 3 axes of tracking. It was fully compatible with Quake, Descent, DN3D and many other games of the time, and worked very well, though it was difficult to actually play with it (Getting your head around the 3D space was the main problem. It's not near so easy to spin on the spot and take aim when you have to physically spin yourself on the spot and look around to find your target! You could still look and shoot in one direction and move in another very easily indeed).
 
I don't get what makes this anymore interesting than any of the trillion other identical failed devices from the last 10 years.

My prediction:

It'll be stupidly over-priced.
The picture quality will suck

In fact, given the release date, I'm not sure that this is a real product at all.

Sooner or later someone will make a HMD that doesn't suck, because it is a fairly cool idea, but based on the specs, this isn't it.
 
EXreaction said:
Try the product before you bash it because of it's specs.
Click to expand...
I have tried it before. Not this model, but ones with pretty much the exact same specs. The biggest factor is the resolution, it always has been with these kinds of displays. It is like looking at a large, low res tv, very close up where you can see the lines in the pixel structure. In other words, shite.

At the price, they aren't worth it. Like MartinX said, sooner or later someone will make one that doesn't suck. When that happens, it could become a very trendy item. Apparently the tech just isn't there yet.
 
Anaerin said:
HMDs are around, and do work. I had (Still have, somewhere) a VFX1 HMD system. It was an ISA card that connected into the "VESA" connector on a graphics card (So S3 Virge or Matrox Millennium II era cards), which I guess tells you just how old it was. It had a native res of 640x480, supported head tracking in all 3 axes, and had a seperate "Puck" controller that also (and independantly) supported 3 axes of tracking. It was fully compatible with Quake, Descent, DN3D and many other games of the time, and worked very well, though it was difficult to actually play with it (Getting your head around the 3D space was the main problem. It's not near so easy to spin on the spot and take aim when you have to physically spin yourself on the spot and look around to find your target! You could still look and shoot in one direction and move in another very easily indeed).
Click to expand...

LOL, I remember seeing one of those in a medium-sized local computer chain that's no longer around's store :)... looked pretty darn cool at the time, but I never did actually try it/buy it.
 
Anyone remember the VFX-1 or the Virtual I/O glasses of the mid 90's? :D Those didn't exactly sell like hotcakes...
 
They have had these out for the longest time. The military buys them from a small private vendor who is on backorder and selling them for $600 a pop. My buddy bought one, it's pretty damn neat.
 
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