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Eyeballing the Future of Retina Scanning Lasers

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the blast-my-eyeballs-already dept.

robsmith writes "Microvision is releasing a wearable monitor this fall named Nomad. Check out the article from the Seattle PI for more deatils, 'Eyesight of the future is here'." Its still expensive, but its getting more and more real each day.

9 of 100 comments (clear)

  1. Even neater/cheaper technology by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4

    It looks like these guys are actually well behind the cutting edge. There are several already-announced and soon-to-be announced devices that surpass this quality for significantly less money. Perhaps this is their first pass at a lower cost, larger market production device, but this isn't much to write home about.

    Arkinstad and BiVideo are two competitors that come to mind ... both which at least claim higher specifications at a similar or slightly lower price point. Check out www.afb.org.uk/public/5steps.html. It's quite interesting how these companies got started - one from the medical retina scan buisness, the other from the CCD industry. Neat.

  2. Two questions from the article by First+Person · · Score: 3

    But back in reality, a bevy of local scientists has discovered that humans can also use lasers to stamp holograms onto the eye.

    In what way are these holograms? Holograms use interference patterns to store information. This seems like simple vector graphics.

    The Nomad's release this year will be the first commercial introduction of the retinal-scanning technology, which does not block the user's vision.

    Yet the prototype from the article does seem to block out most of the wearer's vision. I'd appreciate confirmation or a denial from anyone who has played with one of these units.

    For more information, I tried http://www.microvision.com but that only leads to an unrelated Tampa Bay, Florida, US company.

    --
    Given one hour to live, the student replied: "I'd spend it with professor FP who can make an hour seem like a lifetime."
  3. 60,000? by Viking+Coder · · Score: 3
    If you look at the inset you'll see that it says that it can do 60,000 pixels per second. That's not good.

    At 30 frames per second, that's roughly 44x44 pixels.
    At 10 frames per second, that's roughly 77x77 pixels.
    At 1 frame per second, that's still only 244x244 pixels.

    Keep in mind that all pixels are transparent or red only.

    You won't be playing Quake on this thing, any time soon.

    --
    Education is the silver bullet.
  4. Re:Only one color? by Fencepost · · Score: 3
    For $8,000 - $10,000 I'd like to see RGB lasers painting triplets on the backs of my eyes.

    Sure Hefner's "girlfriends" are nice if your tastes run to blondes, but that's a lot of money to spend on always-on porn....

    -- fencepost

    --
    fencepost
    just a little off
  5. Not going to wait. by Rei · · Score: 3

    The amount of light is undoubtably far less than even houselight, let alone the sun (remember, your brain measures light on a logarithmic scale - sunlight is exponentially brighter than houselight. This logarithmic measuring is why lights appear to dissapear only with linear attenuation, not quadratic as it actually is.

    I, for one, wouldn't have the least worries as long as they had the most basic safety measures put in to prevent overloading. And, I don't care what they say, I'd still wear it in public (though, I'd probably look like I'm from Lain ;) heheheheeee)... which reminds me... I bet you're going to see a lot more people, if this ever takes off, talking about how "we're turning into vegetables" like they have with TV.. because, well, you can stare off into space like a zombie, but be browsing the web or watching a show :) I bet there would be a lot of cultural resistance... with people like me being the ones who are being resisted against ;)

    I'm sorry, this just sounds like too much fun if the quality is high. ;)

    - Rei

    --
    You know when it's okay to shout fire in a crowded theatre? When it's on fire.
  6. MicroVision safety links by tim_maroney · · Score: 3
    I couldn't find much in the way of specifics on the web about MicroVision product safety. It appears that the company considers it sufficient to demonstrate that the power output of its lasers is below established safety maximums. However, this does not seem an adequate level of testing for an entirely new product category, which involves by its nature long-term exposure and a unique retinal rastering effect.

    Here are some of the links that I found.

    International Ophthalmology Expert Joins Microvision Advisory Panel

    Eye Safety FAQ about Retinal Scanning Display Technology

    Quarterly Report -- "Our products may be subject to future health and safety regulation that could increase our development and production costs. Products incorporating retinal scanning display technology could become subject to new health and safety regulations that would reduce our ability to commercialize the retinal scanning display technology. Compliance with any such new regulations would likely increase our cost to develop and produce products using the retinal scanning display technology and adversely affect our financial results."

    I wish I could report that the company was taking the possible health risks of its product seriously, but that is not the impression that I get from my web search. There is no word on controlled clinical studies of the product's effects on people with normal vision, for example.

    Tim

  7. Nomad is the wrong name for this by typical+geek · · Score: 4

    I know if I see someone walking around in public with a laser on thier head, pointing into their eye, I don't think Nomad, I think No Date.

  8. Wrong icon by return+42 · · Score: 3

    Should've used this one: http://images.slashdot.org/topics/topicms.gif

  9. Blindness a thing of the past? by raygan · · Score: 3

    My thought is that a lot of you guys are being a bit harsh. They say it isn't going to cause blindness I am willing to suspend my disbelief for a while. The thing that really caught my attention was that on there somewhere they said that the images projected onto the retina could be seen by some legally blind people. They certainly don't need to worry about it blinding them, and can you imagine a blind guy being able to see with something like that? I mean, it would probably have to sense where everything was with some kind of sonar type thing, and display in wire-frame, but that's better than nothing I say. Hmm, there are some limitations though, would it work inside a car? What kind of range? Anyway, this idea interests me because I have had a friend who was legally blind and I wonder if he could be helped with some kind of "bionic eyes"...