Sony’s Innovation Laboratory; The Wow Factory – Continued
If you didn’t get the chance to visit the amazing event that Sony hosted this year at SXSW, I am happy to have the chance to fill you in on all the cool technology they featured at their event in the Wow Factory here in Austin, TX.
The wow factory really was the perfect name and 99 Trinity really was the perfect venue. For those less familiar with the area, there has always has been an abandoned warehouse there and more than a few people asked me “why are you going in there? there’s nothing in there!” to everyone’s surprise that was the farthest thing from the truth. The Sony team entered the abandoned space and within a week turned it into a tech wonderland. See how they did it with this time lapse!
Below I will recap the remaining exhibits from “The WOW Factory,” you can find the rest in Part 1!
“Superception”
With the tagline “PLAY THE NEW HUMAN PERCEPTION” I wasn’t sure exactly what I was getting myself into…
As dumb as I look in this picture, I bet you’d do the same! Superception is 4D. Yes, four dimensions. Confused? Me too, still am. You can see yourself through everyone else’s eyes, which at first is wildly confusing! I could barely understand where I was in space when they asked us to play tag in a maze! Turns out the longer you wear the headset the more you start to understand.. its quite Erie, but definitely an experience I wouldn’t want to miss.
Xperia Open Style Products
In this station there were two products on display: an open ear style earbud and “make your own music” table. If you’ve ever tried to talk to someone with earbuds in at work then you know why they’re creating this…
https://youtu.be/CyZ8x3advvU
The Xperia music project was extremely fun to play around with – basically you can either swipe to draw a piano, or draw a series of different sized circles to generate different types of drums. Depending on how you drew your instruments, they each created different sounds. It was really incredible to create playable instruments with the touch of your hand! You can add any music you like along with lights to accompany the sounds you make. The crazy thing is when you walk away from the table, it all disappears, just like that.
Motion Sonic Project
The station in which they really showed me up was the sound project. I tried on this crazy bracelet and made some sounds that were cool.. but then they brought out an award winning karate black belt, to say the least the sounds I made did not compare.
Sony also had a dancer demonstrate and they both made very beautiful, very different sounds. The music and motion was so fluid it was incredible to witness. Check out some of their demonstrations here.
Gold Rush VR
The second VR game I played was one where multiple others joined me in competition to get the most gold in “gold rush” In the game you can see yourself, or rather your avatar, from your own perspective and move and interact with others within the VR zone (check out a quick clip here). To pick up gold you squeeze a trigger button to activate the vacuums that are in your virtual hands. You can pick up objects and throw them in order to knock objects over exposing more gold. You can also throw objects at each other, which my teammates and I did quite a lot.
There were three separate “rooms” within the game, all of which you travel to by boarding the trolly. Though it may have appeared silly on the outside, and cognitively you know the wind in your hair is an obvious fan right in front of you, it feels real. You board the trolly and though you know you are still in the same space, all your senses tell you otherwise. My grip on the trolly was one with white knuckles and I couldn’t get myself to relax! We flew through tunnels of gold mines and went way too fast for comfort.
Resident Evil Interaction Technology
As I was a little wobbly from the gold rush experience, I am glad they saved the interactive “Road to Raccoon City” for last as I doubt I would have put another VR set on my head after that. This game(see it here!) is inspired by the movie “Resident Evil: The Final Chapter” and is set up with the player defending against impeding zombies. The technology includes 3D sound technology that really gets in your head.. I really did not like it at least in this context!
The game also featured a specialized VR headset along with a vibrating vest that they strap you into. As the zombies attack or bombs go off your vest actually shakes you and sends vibrations to specific trigger points in your body. My heart was racing and I was genuinely scared! I personally feel like my fear was justified because initially as we were shooting video, the camera lights were in the way of my lazer which deflected my shots.. and those zombies were aggressive!! Even after we corrected my gun situation, I still was flinching as I FELT zombies taking bites out of my arm and then a zombie dog run up and attack me! I watched and felt the dog rip out my guts! Call me a baby but I seriously did not want to play again by the end of it, it was that realistic!
In all I was blown away by the imagination and innovation Sony brought to the Wow Factory. I think I may have been one of very few people to get to try ALL of the inventions because the lines were so long it would’ve taken days! None of the products I’ve reviewed here have actually hit production, but I really cannot wait until they do. As if all of the amazing technology wasn’t enough, they even had complimentary sushi! Big thanks to the Sony team, see original photos here.
If you got to experience the Sony Wow Factory, share your opinions and favorite exhibits below!
