PlayStation inventor Ken Kutaragi shrugged off the metaverse as the tech industry\u2019s next big undertaking and head-mounted displays as the portal to that destination, describing them as dividing rather than unifying the real and virtual realms.<\/p>\n
\u201cBeing in the real world is very important, but the metaverse is about making quasi-real in the virtual world, and I can\u2019t see the point of doing it,\u201d the 71-year-old entrepreneur told Bloomberg News in an interview.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou would rather be a polished avatar instead of your real self? That\u2019s essentially no different from anonymous messageboard sites.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kutaragi, who created Sony Group Corp.\u2019s video game business in 1993, now serves as the chief executive officer of Ascent Robotics Inc., a Tokyo-based artificial intelligence startup that just raised 1 billion yen ($8.7 million) from Sony and SBI Holdings Inc.<\/p>\n
The goal of Ascent, which Kutaragi describes as his life\u2019s mission, is to blend the real world with cyberspace in a seamless, gadget-less fashion akin to Star Wars holograms.<\/p>\n
Tech companies including Apple Inc., Meta Platforms Inc. and Sony\u2019s PlayStation unit are stepping up development of virtual-reality headsets amid a race for what they anticipate will be a metaverse bonanza. But Kutaragi is not a fan.<\/p>\n
\u201cHeadsets would isolate you from the real world, and I can\u2019t agree with that,\u201d he said. \u201cHeadsets are simply annoying.\u201d<\/p>\n
The technology that Ascent is developing for its robotic systems will help transform real-world objects into computer-readable data. The idea is to create smarter, more versatile robots that\u2019ll be able to perform various tasks and produce more than one kind of product. Ascent\u2019s gear is aimed at retail and logistics customers, freeing up human labor from simple tasks.<\/p>\n
The new funding will accelerate the development of a robotics platform that includes software, sensors and machines, all designed internally by Kutaragi\u2019s team.<\/p>\n
Using off-the-shelf hardware wasn\u2019t going to lead to a meaningful breakthrough, in the PlayStation pioneer\u2019s judgment, so he\u2019s reprising the approach he took in crafting the original Sony video game console from scratch.<\/p>\n
\u201cCurrent robots do not have software and sensors that can match humans in understanding the real world and reacting to things they see for the first time, and our short-term goal is to offer a solution to that,\u201d he said. \u201cBecause you want robots to be able to create a variety of things, not just countless units of the same thing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Beyond industrial robots, Kutaragi wants to utilize the visual data gathered by Ascent\u2019s robots and sensors to reproduce digital scenes in the real world.<\/p>\n
He envisions a revolution in e-commerce, which is still rooted in decades-old web technologies, as hologram representations of products provide a whole new shopping experience.<\/p>\n
Or the tech could be used to recreate a distant meeting place in the real world, allowing people to socialize remotely without having to resort to cumbersome headgear.<\/p>\n
Ascent doesn\u2019t presently make consumer products and is secretive about the details of its long-term plans.<\/p>\n
Kutaragi will start sharing more of his vision publicly this year and also look to form an open-collaboration group just as he did when making the PlayStation business, the CEO said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t plan to spend a decade or two on making my dreams a reality. I\u2019m 71 and time is short,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
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