Sony Reveals Virtual Reality Headset ‘Project Morpheus’

March 19, 2014— -- Nintendo first tried its hand at virtual reality nearly two decades ago with its lackluster Virtual Boy gaming system. Now, Sony is looking to pick up the torch with its own VR headset, codenamed Project Morpheus. Shuhei Yoshida, president of Sony Computer Entertainment, revealed a prototype of Morpheus at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco on Tuesday.

"I have long dreamed about VR and the possibilities it brings in regards to game development," Yoshida said in a company blog post. "This new technology will deliver a sense of presence, where you as the player actually feel like you're inside the game and your emotions feel that much more real."

In addition to a 1080p display, as well as the gyroscopes and accelerometers that track head movement, Sony is also planning to incorporate three-dimensional sound for a more immersive experience. Project Morpheus will also work with the PlayStation 4's own controllers and camera, Yoshida added.

But there's more than games in Morpheus' future. Richard Marks, a Sony engineer who spoke at the conference, said that the company has also partnered with NASA and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory to recreate the surface of Mars through the headset.

"VR is going to be pervasive. ... It's going to be used for all sorts of things you might not think it would be used for," he said.

Sony did not announce a price or a release date for Project Morpheus. However, a software developer kit is in the works for game and software designers to tinker with.