How to choose your Head Mounted Display based on your Sci-Fi /Anime preference..

So we have our tablets , our phones , our ageing consoles , and uber pcs recently made irrelevant by cloud services like onlive and Gaikai and Facebook apps and Angry Bird Farming sims ,but where do we go from here ? Well the personal viewing device is set to make another comeback ...


HMDs are THE thing right now , how do we know ? Because anything that is the next big thing in the world of tech is out of stock or still rumoured to be vaporware and or receiving lukewarm reviews from confused tech reviewers  . Seriously when Sony announced their HMZ T1 concept at CES earlier this year even they thought they had a niche product , but fans , groomed on tales of Panther Moderns , girls with killer nails called Molly and Rastafari in space stations  , fans who also may have a cat or hamster named Wintermute...well those fans have just booted the HMD revolution . For Sony this could be a potential Walkman moment . Other pioneers like siliconmicrodisplay and Carl Zeiss Optics are also enthralling and exciting would be cyberpunks bringing  transparent 1080p and lightweight 720p  portable headsets later this year and early next year. 


But this is not a tech review, for thegameveda has yet to receive a Sony HMZ T1 ... so till then I will ponder how one chooses ones HMD and it is astonishingly beautifully simple : You do it based on your favourite Anime/Scifi allegiance: 




1. Sir or Madam opts for the Sony HMZ T1 :the choice of the Star Trek , Ghost in the Shell  , and DaftPunk/Tron Fan

The Sony offering gets you a : 


HMZ-T1 Head Mounted Display

A personal cinematic home entertainment experience

Dual OLED HD screens, virtual 5.1 surround sound, TruBlack Display

Watch movies and games in High Definition 2D & 3D

Bright, clear, dual OLED screens

High contrast and clear images with TruBlack

Virtual 5.1 surround sound





First and foremost all fans of this fellow need this :

and taking a look at the unit itself , not only does it give you that Laforge vibe , it actually looks like a Start Trek next gen ship....

which is what clinched it for me :

looks just like my STO ship....


only now I get to wear it !

The ultra cool amongst you will immediately be thinking of the delectable Major  Motoko Kusanagi:









thanks to the HMZ T1 you can go back and play Ghost In the Shell on the PlayStation , just like Major Kusanagi ...just don`t let anyone see you do it! 


and then of course we come to the Daft Punk /Tron fans you need a Sony HMZ-T1 if your walls are adorned with anything resembling the following :

Now Sony`s is not the only HMD game in cyberspace 

2.The most interesting challenge to Sony`s personal viewer , is siliconmicrodisplay`s ST1080 with true 1080p, see through and it`s greatest difference to the Sony HMZ T1 is it`s mobility , it`s weight being just 180 grams , and it`s power coming from USB.

there is a caveat to the 1080p claim , as no console can actually play 3D games at 1080p you are in fact still locked to 720p for 3D and 2D console games . Also how the LCoS 10% see through display stacks up to the Sony OLEDs is going to be very interesting.  But for personal wearable computing fans this is going to be a boon. 

In fact all these devices really shine with the power of a PC connected to them . 


The ST1080 of course will be the choice of fans of this fellow

3.Last but not least we have the Carl Zeiss Cinemizer OLED 720p 3D Glasses also announced at the same time as the Sony HMZ T1 , but with a release date slipping to next year 


here is one lucky cyberpunk testing out a prototype





Like the ST1080 the Cinemizer 720P is portable and can work off battery. 


this will be the HMD choice for Doc Brown fans everyhwere :

All 3 of these products have been promised before Christmas 2011 , Sony has actually delivered  , we will find out how the siliconmicrodisplay launch goes on Dec 2nd , and there is still nothing on  the Carl Zeiss site about the cinemizer . 


At present the HMZ T1s are the hottest tech globally this side of Christmas , of course you could argue they are nearer prototypes than the usual slick finished article the Playstation and iPhone generation are used to . But  early adopters of these devices know this , and it is intriguing why Sony`s HMD is so bulky , and expensive compared to the promised price of the the ST1080 and the Cinemizer OLEDs . 


Even if the ST1080 and Cinemizer OLEDS launch this side of Christmas they will not be able to do so internationally.


At this point I would have to say the fact that Sony are behind the HMZ T1 , and actually have had the product out for over a month , and incidentally sold out, swings it for now . The ST1080 sounds great , but 10% see through , and no option for total immersion, plus the fact that a lot of content is going to be limited to 720p any way , and most importantly this is a first gen product from a new company ,already making promises of a 2nd gen product whilst yet to release a first gen one , to most people makes the Sony option the safe bet at present. Likewise no one has actually seen or used the Carl Zeiss cinemizer outside trade shows , the above video and one with some nice German girls demoing it , or should I say modelling it . 


I am weary of new start ups , and long term announcements of hardware that does not show up ,so I wait for the ST1080 December 2nd outing with a little trepidation. And you can google the Cinemizer OLEDs all you like at present and just find vaporware previews and hopes of fans ...


So it is great to see a company as large as Sony take a chance on something like this,bring it , confuse the old tech reviewers and manage to channel your inner cyberpunk , this is not going to be for everyone , but for those people that have already caused the HMZ T1 to sell out , it really is the gadget of the year . 


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