Sony's Fake Fish

2002-08-25

I was out in Odaiba a couple of days ago and Sony and HHStyle.com have a new Sony Style store with areas of Sony gadgets in various colors with matching furniture. The green area, the red area, the metal area.

But, the creepiest thing was they had this about 20 foot high half/dome showing a 3D movie every 10 minutes. It's an attraction to get you into the store. You wear polarized sunglasses and watch the movie. The creepy thing was that the movie is a documentary about the shark fish except it's 100% 3D graphics.

Of course I've seen CG fish simulations. There's a zillion screensavers of fish as well as games like Seaman and Sega even has a virtual aquaium at Joyopolis in Odaiba. But, they are clearly games. The Sega ones are touch screen to you can play with the fish. Sometimes the change into different fish, sometimes they make noises, etc..

What creeped me out about the Sony I guess display was that it was a documentary, not a game. Not a single image of a real fish anywhere in it. As I was watching I couldn't help think of some creepy future where kids go to an aquarium and just see CG generated dolphins instead of real ones.

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