Who knew Sony made a virtual reality camera, years before the PlayStation VR ever existed?

Sony VRVJ product image on a white background

The Sony VRVJ never saw the light of day, but it was one cool-looking device! (Image credit: Obsolete Sony)

Long before the PlayStation VR and Apple Vision Pro, Sony worked on a virtual reality prototype called the Sony VRVJ, which stood for Virtual Reality Video Journalist. That’s according to a post on X (formerly Twitter) from Obsolete Sony.

Very little information is available online about this curious creation, except that it was developed in the Nineties and was an “all-in-one digital recording suite” intended for use by journalists.

As you can see from the product imagery, it features a headset, camera and microphone. The same source refers to the headset as a Glasstron, which was a line of VR-style headsets developed by Sony. The first Glasstron headset was released in 1996, which suggests that the VRVJ was developed around the same period.

A post shared by @the.neon.wolf
A photo posted by on

What turned me onto this forgotten device was an Instagram post from @the.neon.wolf (above). Despite the Obsolete Sony Tweet dating back to February 2024 and there being literally no other images I can find on the internet, it would appear a series of very small lifestyle product images has been unearthed.

They show a person using and wearing the Sony prototype, as well as what looks like a mock-up of a police crime scene, with the camera positioned on what seems to be a specialist tripod – perhaps indicating that accessories might have been conceived, too.

The entire ensemble looks very Eighties / Nineties sci-fi, if you ask me. I can imagine a journalist wearing the headset, holding the shoulder-mounted camera in one hand and the microphone in the other. It’s all a bit RoboCop.

Ultimately, I can only assume that Sony decided against the idea. Virtual reality has always been a hard sell; the Glasstron series itself only lasted a few years, with the final release being in 1998.

Something else I couldn’t help but notice is that the VRVJ product imagery’s two-tone grey coloring and bright yellow and red buttons look very similar to the color palette used on the original PlayStation, which was released in 1994… good to see that some good ideas don't go to waste!

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Mike studied photography at college, honing his Adobe Photoshop skills and learning to work in the studio and darkroom. After a few years writing for various publications, he headed to the ‘Big Smoke’ to work on Wex Photo Video’s award-winning content team, before transitioning back to print as Technique Editor (later Deputy Editor) on N-Photo: The Nikon Magazine.

With bylines in Digital Camera, PhotoPlus: The Canon Magazine, Practical Photography, Digital Photographer, iMore, and TechRadar, he’s a fountain of photography and consumer tech knowledge, making him a top tutor for techniques on cameras, lenses, tripods, filters, and more. His expertise extends to everything from portraits and landscapes to abstracts and architecture to wildlife and, yes, fast things going around race tracks...

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