CES 2012: PS Vita's Augmented Reality Transforms Table to Arena

[PS3 News]

Today Sony's Senior Social Media Manager Jeff Rubenstein has shared some video footage from CES 2012 spotlighting PS Vita's Augmented Reality, which transforms your table into an arena!

To quote: A couple of months ago, http://www.youtube.com/psvita#p/u/14/X_cZQp9yqos that showed off some cool-looking augmented reality apps running on PS Vita.

Since then, it's been confirmed that Vita will come with six AR Play Cards and a voucher to download a handful of free augmented reality mini games via the PSN.

Today at CES, we were able to see one of these games in action: Table Football (it will be called Table Soccer in the US, because we already have football).

Backstage, Sony Santa Monica Sr. Manager Dave Thach dealt the AR Play Cards on a table, and a soccer pitch sprung to life through the window of the PS Vita's luscious OLED display.

The actual game is kind of like a turn-based soccer match - it reminded me of a 2012 version of paper football. But enough talk, let's see it in action:

Bonus points if you spotted the Men in Black 3 alien who walked through the frame. Vegas is weird.

Table Soccer is just one of the augmented-reality games you'll be able to play for free if you pick up a new PS Vita on February 22nd.


More PlayStation 3 News...

[DaedalusMinion]

This was so epic I almost died.

[Tidusnake666]

Oh, this reminds me of a PS3 title Eye of judgement, it also utilizes some kind of augmented reality elements

[LKJHGFDSA]

Embarrassing.

[GrandpaHomer]

No AR cards in Japanese Vita's though ... However cards aren't in any way that complex like for example already mentioned EoJ (actually - they're pretty ugly and I was expecting a little bit more from Sony than that) so it's not a problem to print out your cards - you don;t even need to scan then, simply reproduce them manually in Paint and print or I bet it would even work by painting the black squares on paper.

[jesterking1]

Interesting concept. But I don't like how you are tied to one location, or that you have to carry around these cards as markers for your game. Vuzix is coming out with a similar Augmented reality glasses in about a year or so.

[zyo]

So its a portable gaming device that requires a large flat space to play... good idea.

[Bartholomy]

Uhm no. As much i understood, you need Sony's AR cards or will not work.

[DaedalusMinion]

I'll be getting a Vita soon for review. I'll try this printing thing lol.

[GrandpaHomer]

I've made the cards myself (can provide templates if anyone is interested) but the test results with Mina Golf 6 and AR Combat are not conclusive as it works but it also works just fine with my spotted duvet cover ... But definitely there is no need for "original" Sony cards - it just reads the black and white square patterns on the cards, the same way EoJ did.