Domain: 3dvisor.com
Stories and comments across the archive that link to 3dvisor.com.
Comments · 7
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Re:DigiLens?
Of course if you've a thousand dollars to blow there is always one of Emagin's products:
I remember when the eMagin Z800 was about 600$, but then they decided to market it for commercial and military purposes and jacked up the price to 1500$. There have also been no improvements made to it for the past 4 years it's been around.
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DigiLens?
Its not Hi-Res but its something people would wear more than some bulky goggles:
http://www.digilens.com/products.html
Its more for augmented reality than virtual reality.
Of course if you've a thousand dollars to blow there is always one of Emagin's products:
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Can we just swap displays?
Everyone's complaining about the resolution, so can we just swap displays?
Looking at Lumus-Optical's web site, it's clear that all they've done is fold the optics and are using a segmented beamsplitter embedded in an optically clear substrate to display the image on your glasses. Nothing new, just a slight twist on the low-obscurement transparent HMD designs. If you wear glasses, I see absolutely nothing keeping you from just moving the mounting bracket over to your own frames.
For what it's worth, you can buy similar microdisplays and electronics directly from Kopin ( http://www.kopin.com/commercial-display-products/ ). This can also enlighten you to the "cost" of those XGA head mounted displays. They're still not cheap, but they're also traditional active-matrix LCDs. It would probably be simple for the company to upgrade resolution, but the price is going to skyrocket, too.
I'd be FAR more impressed if they were using an RGB 2d MEMS scanner from Microvision ( http://www.microvision.com/ ). I actually believe that that a similar technology but using a segmented prism instead was to be used in ultra-flat rear projection TV's as an alternative.
Also, as far as I'm aware, only 3D Visor ( http://www.3dvisor.com/ ) is currently using OLEDs in a commercial product, but their work is with standard enclosed nausea inducing stuff. There are rumors flying of a $1000 XGA product sometime in the near future, though. -
Re:To hell with plasma and LCD
Like this?
(I'm not affiliated with them, just used tried one of them)
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Virtual Reality Goggles
I've been waiting for Virtual Reality Goggles ever since I saw the "Virtual Retinal Display" (VRD) on Tomorrows World in 1997. It's been nearly 10 years and they still haven't hit the high-street. One of the exciting things about the VRD was that they could potentially have a different focus for each pixel so it would be much more natural for your eyes.
However, things seem to be moving a bit more quickly now and I've seen a number of possibilities, of which this is just the latest.
Also relevant is the Scopo by Mistubishi (http://www.engadget.com/2004/10/15/scoping-out-mi tsubishis-scopo-wearable-display/)
And the Z800 by emagin http://www.3dvisor.com/faqs.php#Features
Particularly interesting is a UK start-up called light blue optics. They do not talk about video glasses, but their laser projection technology could obviously be adapted for that use. They have made a matchbox sized laser projector which works by bouncing a beam off a Fourier transform of the image to be projected. There is no mechanical raster-scanning of the beam as is the case with the Virtual Retinal Display.
With the amount of money flying about in the mobile phone market, I don't think there is any question that there will be affordable video glasses before long. Things that are now impractical to do due to the small size of mobile device screens will suddenly become possible. A portable big screen could open up new revenue possibilities.
Aside from mobile phones, I see more and more people on the train with PSPs, Archos AV500's and various other personal movie players. That seems to be a growing market and high-res large screen video goggles would attract more people to the product.
Another possibility is virtual desktop screens. You could sit at your PC with video googles on and conjure up as many virtual screens as you like, all floating around you (obviously you need some head tracking). When you look at a screen directly it would snap into view to give a perfectly crisp picture. -
Looks good for VR
Using the headtracking on my Z800 to full effect has been a challenge, since I have been largely stuck using the keyboard for FPS gaming. But this thing could really give me some extra freedom of movement. Just need a long enough USB cable and I should be able to manage the cables well enough to do a few 360 degree turns without getting too tangled.
I tried a wireless programmable controller, but the batteries didn't last very long and their seemed to be some latency. This thing should provide all the keyboard commands you could ever need. -
Actual link
Once we get past the blogdreck, the vendor site and the product site are more informative. The original article should have been titled "3DVisor head-mounted display now comes in low end model for Apple iPod." This is really a virtual reality display, originally with gyros for head movement sensing, that's been dumbed down for TV viewing.