Panasonic introduced the world’s first UltraHD VR glasses capable of displaying High Dynamic Range (HDR) content at CES 2020 this week. CES this year has been a busy hive of technology news, and all the major tech companies are there to show off their latest wares and services. These new goggles are being billed as a new evolution within the VR and AR spaces, with a major improvement in overall quality across multiple areas.
Panasonic is of course not the only tech giant on the floor at CES 2020 demoing new stuff. Samsung was also on hand to demo a new line of biometrics-secured SSDs. Dell and Alienware unveiled a new gaming tablet, dubbed the UFO Concept. And it looks suspiciously similar to a Nintendo Switch. AMD also revealed its new Ryzen 7 4000 series CPUs. Anyway, back to Panasonic and VR goggles.
The tech company is bundling in improvements in audio fidelity and the reproduction of high-quality audio, Panasonic also hopes to support this endeavor though innovation. By including support for HDR and Ultra-HD, Panasonic also wants to increase the intensity and immersion of VR experiences. This seems to be their big goal with this new project.
As they put it:
For the new VR glasses, Panasonic has developed a high performance display device in cooperation with Kopin Corporation, which is a leading manufacturer of display devices for VR glasses. In addition, Panasonic’s audio and visual technologies have been incorporated into this new device, including signal processing technologies cultivated through the development of video equipment such as TVs and Blu-ray Disc players, acoustic technologies of Technics audio products, and optical technologies used in LUMIX digital cameras. These technologies enabled Panasonic to achieve compact and lightweight VR glasses offering high-quality images and optimal sound that deliver realistic sensations drawing the user into the images projected before their eyes, while in the comfort of wearing eyeglasses.
The company isn’t aiming this at consumers though, and it really wants to stress that. Instead, Panasonic wants these glasses to be used a baseline prototype for future development within VR and related fields. The Japanese company is hopeful that the impending spread of full-scale commercial 5G services will aid in increasing consumer demand for more immersive mobile experiences, leading to an explosion in virtual reality and augmented reality development
Tech analyst/journalist Masakazu Honda was able to get some time hands-on with the prototype, check out his footage below.
