Sony Corporation debuted a mixed reality headset “aimed at supporting creators in sophisticated 3D content creation.” The Sony XR HMD includes “an XR head-mounted display with 4K OLED Microdisplays and Sony’s proprietary rendering technology” to enable real-time, high-definition “rendering of textures of 3D objects and facial expressions of human characters,” Sony announced at CES. The electronics giant disclosed plans to “collaborate with developers” of 3D production software, “including in the entertainment and industrial design fields.” At launch, Sony is exclusively partnered with Siemens to develop a collaborative product design solution.

The partners will use software from the Siemens Xcelerator open digital business platform. Further details including specs, launch date, pricing, distribution and software compatibility for the system — which will be “available later in 2024” — are said to be forthcoming.

The XR HMD spatial design system includes “a video see-through function, and a pair of controllers optimized for intuitive interaction with 3D objects and precise pointing, allowing creators to craft in virtual space with controllers and keyboards, all while wearing the head-mounted display,” Sony’s announcement explains.

The XR HMD is the first announced product that uses the Snapdragon XR2+ Gen 2 platform, Qualcomm’s new XR processor,  unveiled this month. The new Qualcomm chip “aims at enabling hardware makers to produce high-end XR devices to compete with Apple Vision Pro,” writes ZDNet, adding that most of the XR2+ Gen 2-powered headsets “will be powered by Android, and Sony confirmed to ZDNet that its headset is also running Android.”

The result is “a high-performance platform for their creative workflow,” according to Sony.

“The system will not only allow users to see real-scale 3D models in an Extended Reality (XR) environment but also to create, modify, and manipulate 3D models in it,” according to PetaPixel, which highlights inclusion of “two different controllers. The ring controller allows users to manipulate objects in virtual space. The pointing controller, as the name implies, allows for accurate and stable pointing in those virtual spaces.”

The pointing controller, PetaPixel says, was designed “for the dominant hand and the ring for the other hand, allowing users to utilize other controllers and keyboards while wearing the display.”

ZDNet got a private demo of the product, calling it “the biggest surprise of CES 2024,” adding that “it will not be sold as a standalone device, but as part of a product package with Siemens NX Immersive Designer.”

Ultimately that product will help “engineers, designers, and product leaders accelerate development by creating ‘digital twins’ (virtual versions of real-world products) to streamline creation, collaboration, and approval” for products destined for the metaverse and “Vision Pro, Meta Quest, and other headsets and smartglasses,” per ZDNet.