Live the Sword Art Online experience in real life with this IBM project

One of the famous Japanese anime shows with an interesting idea Sword Art Online presented us with the concept of a virtual MMO world where a device called Nerve Gear would capture all of your senses while you’re fighting virtually. Even though we’re still far away from a game that utilize similar technology, but the introduction of VR recently made this IBM project a huge step towards that goal.

Sword Art Online: The Begining is an IBM project that will take place in Japan for the purpose of experimenting with the idea in the real world. This is made possible using the Oculus Rift, Kinect and other technologies. Only 208 people will have the chance to try out the experiment that more than 100.000 persons signed up to between March 18 and 20.

Bodies of participants are scanned and inserted inside the game where they interact with the virtual world and between each other. The experiment is hands-free as it uses body movement capture via Kinect and other motion sensors. Watch some pictures below, we sure hope this works so we are one step closer to a full game in the future.