A Little Too Real?

To stay dry last weekend, we took Elliot to the Westfield San Francisco Centre's rotunda, one of my favorite spots for rainy-day loitering.

It turns out Sony had taken over the floor to demonstrate the new PlayStation Move, which uses motion-activated controllers and cameras to create an augmented version of reality on screen.



It's pretty cool, but only served to make a 2-year-old and 37-year-old feel equally incompetent. Elliot mainly stared at the wrong screen and occasionally tried to put the controller in his pants.



When I tried to play, I thought the object was to hit a dog with a racket. But then a 10-year-old ambled up and explained that the dog just keeps you company. The idea is to use the controller to squirt water at targets (or something). He took over, and while I still wasn't quite clear on the point of the game, I had to admire his skills.

Suddenly, I felt wetness on my feet. Wow, I thought. This virtual-reality stuff is amazing. It actually feels like I'm being sprayed with water. It turns out the kid got overzealous with the controller and accidentally dumped out his Sunkist soda.

He quickly handed me back the controller and ran off, leaving me to take the blame.