Sony invites itself into the metaverse with a surprising gadget, and it’s not a VR headset

Sony wants its share of the metaverse, and while the company is set to launch its PSVR 2 headset early next year, that’s another proposition it has in mind with its Sony Mocopi.

The metaverse still has a lot of problems to solve today. Among them, there is the problem of the restitution of the user within the virtual world: the movements are particularly unrealistic. While progress has been made in recent years in hand, game and head tracking, for the rest of the body, we are still a long way off.

We know it, Meta is already working on the subject for the future of its Meta Quest helmets. This is not surprising, since Mark Zuckerberg’s firm is investing a lot (too much?) in the future of the metaverse. But other companies are also working on the issue: among them is Sony.

Sony Mocopi is a set of sensors that is intended to improve the tracking of a person’s movements within the metaverse. THE six modules must be positioned on certain parts of the body: the head, hips, ankles and wrists. Each device weighs 8 grams for 3 cm in diameter and they are fixed on brackets allowing them to be fixed in the right places.

Thanks to a Bluetooth connection, movements are identified and faithfully reproduced in virtual reality applications. he is also possible to use them outside of any VR experience : one can imagine a use for playing musical games like Just Dance, or in fitness programs which require reproducing the movements of a coach, for example.

In mixed reality, the potential is greatsince the Sony Mocopi system can faithfully reproduce the movements of the user’s whole body. By adding advanced hand tracking, which is already starting to appear on commercial VR headsets, we can imagine having more immersion in the years to come.

An advanced virtual tool soon available

Mocopi will be commercially available from January 2023, but for the moment, its use is mainly intended for professionals wishing to develop its use in their services and applications. The development kit should make it possible to open up a vast field of possibilities, including in the field of “amateur” motion capture.

It will take about 350 euros at launch to acquire the Sony Mocopi kit. It should be noted that, for the time being, the marketing of this set is only planned in Japan. If success is there, and especially if partners from the general public decide to appropriate this technology, it is more than likely that it will quickly cross the borders of other territories, including Europe.