For decades, many have dreamed of getting lost in a realistic virtual world. The popular Sword Art Online novels and anime feature a brain-linked virtual-reality headset for full immersion. While not as advanced as its fictional counterpart, IBM Japan has announced a new VR game titled Sword Art Online: The Beginning, which is controlled by moving your body rather than a controller.
A special event will be held March 18-20 in Tokyo where a lucky selected 208 people will try out the game. Sign-ups are open now until March 4 on the official website. Each person will have their body scanned into the game to use as his or her in-game avatar.
SAO: The Beginning will utilize IBM’s Cognitive Computing "Watson" for decision-making, while its SoftLayer cloud-based performance system creates the ambiance of a living, breathing world.
The Sword Art Online games released so far on the PlayStation Portable, PlayStation Vita, and PlayStation 3 have been single player affairs and not a true VR or MMO experience some would want. Perhaps this is about to change!
Are you a fan of Sword Art Online? Ever thought about having a real NerveGear on your head and using your cognition to do actions within the game world? The future doesn’t seem all that far away.
Source: ASCII