While Microsoft's motion-sensing cam - code-named Project Natal - has been garnering buzz, Sony isn't staying out of the hive. Here's a video of a new 360 degree 3D image display from the company. Gamers are already imagining what kind of new experiences can be rendered with such a device - as if it's the holographic chess board from Star Wars made real. Between innovations like this and Natal (and of course the Wii and iPhone), the game industry is going through a period of explosive transformation. Slowly but surely, the whole idea of the screen is breaking apart. Gaming is becoming more immersive, more fluid, more mobile. The Holodeck- the virtual world imagined in Star Trek - may be closer than it seems.
David Kushner is the author of many books, including Masters of Doom, Jonny Magic & the Card Shark Kids, Levittown, The Bones of Marianna, and Alligator Candy. A contributing editor of Rolling Stone, he has written for publications including The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, Wired, and The New York Times Magazine.
