14 DAY TRIAL // Although fishing is one of the sports (or past-time activities) that typically requires people to actually leave their homes, it seems that Japanese company Takara Tomy has come up with a device that will enable fishermen to engage in some sort of “augmented reality” fishing, namely the Virtual Masters Real. This “highly realistic digital fishing simulation device”, as the company puts it, borrows the shape of an actual fishing reel, but comes packed with an LCD screen showcasing realistic fishing scenes and the fish ready to be caught.
Once a fish is caught, its details will be displayed on the screen and it can be saved into the memory.
What's really interesting to mention here is that the device offers two functioning modes, namely a Select Mode (that lets users choose from the available virtual fishing environments) and the AR (or Augmented Reality) mode, that uses the Virtual Masters Real's built-in 0.3 megapixels camera in order to “augments any location shown on the screen with fishing opportunities.
In other words, you'll be able to see fishes just about anywhere, whether at home, at the office, or in the street, while the device will also be able to deliver quite a realistic fishing experience, by offering some physical feedback from the rod and reel (vibrations, sounds, etc.).
However, we're most likely talking about a fairly limited amount of special effects, given the fact that, after all, the Virtual Masters Real is powered by 3 x AAA alkaline batteries, not really able to sustain the LCD display and vibration engine for too long.
The Virtual Masters Real from Takara Tomy is set to go on sale in Japan in July, via the company's usual retail channels (in other words, toy stores, mostly) and will sell for around 6,279 Japanese Yen (or roughly 77 US dollars).