Introducing the Sony HMZ-T1. Sony’s new personal 3D head mounted display. No, I am not in any way sponsored by Sony to promote this thing (I wish I was, maybe then I’d pick up one of these babies for free!). The reason I am writing about this now is for the mere fact that I have been waiting a long, long time for this day to come and I am more than excited to check this piece of kit out. Sure, this isn’t the first try at glasses-like screens for the eyes but these are a completely new beast and I believe, worthy of our attention. Here are the reasons why…….

What sets this headset apart from all other vomit and headache inducing versions released in years gone by, is the simple fact that it has two high quality 1280 x 720 0.7 inch OLED screens in front of your eyes (one for each). This is no LCD screen that ghosts when it moves and has you reaching for the nearest bucket. These are crystal clear. Weighing in a just a tad under 500grams, reports are that it gives the impression of viewing a 750 inch screen from 20 metres away. Other reports say it’s akin to looking at a 150 inch screen from a couple of meters away. Either way, the viewing angle is huge to say the least. Accompanying the massive visuals is a set of built in headphones delivering virtual 5.1 surround, rather than actual 5.1 from separate tiny speakers within the headphones. The sound can be tweaked with four different modes for Standard, Cinema, Games and Music. The Head Mounted Display will need to be tethered to a quite large processer unit so you can forget about wearing this thing on a long trip. Word is you can only hook up a second headset to the unit, so don’t expect you and all your friends to join in on the action. This is definitely a more personal experience to be had.

Sony first showed this off at this years CES 2011 expo (Consumer Electronics Show) in January but mentioned at the press conference that they had no plans to release this as a consumer product. Now they’ve done a 180 degree turn and will be releasing this in Japan on November 11th. Reports also coming in that it’ll release before Christmas in Europe and America, so far, no love for us Australians but we’re such a small market that we’re always last in the pecking order of countries.

Yes, these appear to be some serious quality goggles made by a serious company but unfortunately for some has a pretty serious price tag to boot. Coming in at about $800US give or take, I can see many people turned off by this prospect but I am still unwavering about getting one, even with the price, though I haven‘t told the Wife yet. I don’t see the price as being too much of a deterrent personally. This thing apparently delivers 3D better than any 3DTV or Cinema and you won’t have to wear the eye-straining shutter glasses that go with them. This 3D image is delivered much the same way as Nintendo’s new glasses-less handheld 3DS system (which is pretty damn impressive), where sometimes you can have the two images get out of sync because you tilt it the wrong way and lose that sweet spot, this unit from Sony is strapped to your head and the sweet spot is always the same. Perfection. Don’t ask me about the science behind it, I have no idea. All I know is that it reportedly works and works well from various industry professionals who’ve played with it.

Simply because of all the reports over the net that this thing actually works well has me excited and feeling like my hopes were justified after walking out of “The Lawnmower Man“ at the cinema all those years ago. Shit film yes, but the prospect it delivered with those Virtual Reality headsets had me rabid for one and I can’t believe we’ve had to wait this long to finally get to play with something at least close to it.

Now lets get one thing straight. This is purely a high quality screen in front of your face and nothing more. There’s no head tracking involved, meaning, if you’re playing a racing videogame and move your head to look sideways, you won’t be looking around within the game, the screen will move with you. This will come in time if these prove to be popular. You also won’t be wearing any kind of special gloves that will allow your hands to be seen within the games or anything. So it’s not really Virtual Reality but it’s the best you’ll get for now and I’m sure if these things pick up some steam, then we may have an entirely new revolution in cinematic and gaming immersion never before seen. I personally hold out hope that Sony sees some success with these as it will drive a completely new market that I have an incredible interest in. I love immersion, and this is THE purest form of it.

Speaking of immersion, I was discussing the finer points of this device with the Wife and it was interesting to find that what she took out of it as being negative, I found as being positive. She doesn’t like them because it would encapsulate me within this world that everyone else is blocked out of and I say I want them because it encapsulates me within this world that everyone else is blocked out of. For instance, occasionally my Wife goes to bed early, leaving me to my own devices which is usually chucking on a flick but keeping things pretty quiet so as to not keep her and the kids awake with noise. This shits me to no end but is fair enough from her point of view. I guess I could have gotten onto headphones in the past but I just never did. Now with this thing coming along, I can’t help but feel so incredibly excited that I could be setting myself up for a major fall but like I said earlier, reports are good and the idea that my entire vision will be of a film alone and nothing else, along with some roaring sound is just too cool. My interest is seriously piqued and I hopefully will be getting onto this Tech as an early adopter. POV porn, here I come!!!

I’m usually afraid to adopt early with new technologies due to the fear of the developers dropping support for it but with this device it is different. There are no proprietary cables found here. Everything is universal HDMI connections and unless HDMI goes the way of the dodo, which I highly doubt, then you’ll be alright. Even if the unit fails commercially, the one you buy will still be able to be used with whatever HD device you want it to, so for this fact alone I’ll be willing to venture down this road providing Sony sees fit to release it here……though I always try before I buy. Motion Sickness is an issue I need to check out with this thing before forking over that kind of serious cash.

If you’ve read this far, I’d like to know if this unit interests you? Would you pay that much for it? Do you think it’s too much of an insular experience and detracts from the social aspect of watching film? Or maybe you’re looking for total immersion, as I am. Are you interested in even checking it out at all? Let me know what you think about this possibly incredible device and whether you too are excited about it. Whether or not this sort of technology is going to take off is interesting to me. I cannot judge which way the public is going to go with it but I can only hope that it’s enough to warrant companies taking it much, much further in the future. I’m excited, I believe you should be too.