Sony's Vita AR technology demonstrated at GDC

One of the most impressive and promising things I have seen in GDC conference reports so far is this (see video below) report of Sony's R&D demo of augmented reality technology with the Playstation Vita. The tech (called Magnet) uses the in-built camera on the mobile console and then overlays virtual objects (in a markerless way, though Vita can of course do AR with markers too), creating some very cool conditions that can be exploited for very imaginative and new gameplay setups.

There are more demo videos of this doing the rounds on YouTube which are also well worth checking out. Whether this translates well to any engaging and successful titles remains to be seen but AR is a concept that has remained relatively unused in gaming so far and perhaps the Playstation Vita, coupled with Sony's R&D, could change that in the near future.