VR! Now With More Kinect, Wiimote, And Vuzix

Those of us that remember when you could actually go to a mall and play on a VR game machine, tend to remember it fondly. What happened? The computing horsepower has grown so much, our graphics now days are simply stunning, yet there’s been no major VR revival. Yeah, those helmets were huge and gave you a headache, but it was worth it.  With the 3d positioning abilities of the latest game crazes, the Wiimote and the Kinect, [Nao_u] is finally taking this where we all knew it should have gone(google translated). Well, maybe we would have had less creepy anime faces flying around squirting ink, but the basics are there. He has created a VR system utilizing the Wiimote for his hand position, a Vuzix display for head positioning, and the kinect for body tracking. Even with the creepy flying heads I want to play it, especially after seeing him physically ducking behind boxes in the video after the break. Long live VR!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZS33cENjyRs&w=470]

[via Engadget]

24 thoughts on “VR! Now With More Kinect, Wiimote, And Vuzix

  1. VR started out strong and was almost the next big thing in the 90s, then it got stomped out so the fat cats could sell big screen TVs. it’s about time VR makes a comeback.

    1st!

  2. fantastic merging of technology, so who finally wins in the console control wars? THE PC, ahahahaha :D

    @ walt, It does seem a bit poor that manufacturers can squeeze everything up and down in size to whatever sizes they want for mobile handsets, pico-projectors and 70″ TVs but can’t make a decently priced, decent resolution set of goggles. I’d much rather have some goggles than a power sucking TV on the wall.

  3. i am not sure what part of body tracking is used in the game, just jump and duck… i would love this thing to go full blown with a setup of omni-directional tread mill to walk on, and a bunch of prop cables to lift you when you make those gigantic jumps.
    now where can i get some money to setup all that…

  4. The Vocaloid made it twice as awesome.

    @Reggie: I’m waiting for clear-glass AR goggles myself. Samsung and Vuzix each have designs based on holographic projection, although Samsung’s seems more developed (I can’t freaking find Samsung’s Engadget article anymore).

  5. YES! YES! PLEASE BRING VR BACK!!!
    I HAVEN’T PLAYED A DECENT GAME SINCE 1996!!!

    (well flight sim’s with the car tires that spin you 360 degrees upside down sideways etc are pretty fun. I like to play the whole time upside down then flip back over right before I land, but can’t afford one for the house yet, so bring VR back.)

  6. Neat technologically, but gamewise it stinks. Towards the end when there are fewer bigger bad guys, he needs to have lots of little ones providing them support. He should probably have his own allies and what nots as well along with various offensive options (weapons, power-ups, etc…) Also wtf is up with paint balls? >.<

  7. Wasn’t there something about VR googles causing various health problems such as degrading real world reflexes, Strabismus, headaches and eyestrain?
    In that case the reason we don’t have cool VS systems is the same reason we are unlikely to have cars that drive themselves anytime soon — The bountiful crop of product liability lawyers our country produces every year.

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