At SXSW, Sony's putting people in digital hamster balls

Ever wonder how much fun it would be to roll around in a hamster ball?

It’s hell.

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At SXSW, my colleague Karissa Bell and I got to experience this fun activity at Sony's Wow Studio activation thanks to the power of cameras, projections, and a Microsoft Kinect sensor (RIP).

We weren't actually inside of any giant see-through balls, but it sure felt that way.

In one of the "Interactive Cube" installation's demos called "Roving Rover," two players compete head-to-head to roll through a lunar-like terrain to reach the end.

Projectors cast a see-through ball onto a transparent screen behind both players and the lunar terrain onto a wall in front of them.

Several depth-sensing cameras mounted overhead tracks body movements, along with the Kinect.

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To roll the ball you're "inside" you rotate both of your arms. Move left and right and the ball moves in each respective direction.

All the while, you're trying to dodge huge rocks and pass through portals that increase your speed (think the speed boosts on the tracks of Mario Kart).

It's a fun interactive game that lasts only a few minutes, but damn, it was tiring swinging my arms around and around. Someone who works out or swims may not have wanted to give up 30 seconds in like I did.

By the end of the workout fun experimental game, I came to three realizations: 1) Typing doesn't count as exercise, 2) I need to work out the rest of my body more, including my clearly weak, skinny arms, and 3) hamsters must friggin' hate it when their owners put them inside of plastic balls.