Slashdot Mirror
A Computer Display in Ordinary Sunglasses?
DonaldP asks: "I've been making head-mounted displays for wearable computers for a couple or three years now; I think my latest and greatest 3rd Generation display is a big step ahead! It fits inside a normal-looking pair of sunglasses. Why would I do something like this? As far as I know, this is one of the only ones available out there - the only others that come close are made by MicroOptical Corporation, but it's been years and you STILL can't actually BUY any of their products. With large companies like Xybernaut holding plenty of patents on wearable computers and going strong, is there a place for my little one-man company? Any tips for making it on my own? Or is my best hope to hook up with a giant?" I've been waiting for a nice and portable HMD for years, and this has the advantage of not making you look like a Borg reject (although some of you might like that look). HMDs still have a way to go to be practical for everyday use (many still require perfect vision or contacts because they are clumsy with glasses) but I'm sure these drawbacks will be fixed with time.
Start small. Make a few of 'em by hand, make sure they all work, and sell them on EBay. Create a nice business oriented web site and link to it in your EBay listings. Research traditional marketing priciples and apply them. A catchy domain name helps, too.
This is something you could start now for very little $$. Trying to find someone to manufacture these things en masse would be a pain in the ass and likely require a huge investment. I say, make them all by hand for a couple of years until you are so flooded with orders that you just can't keep up. Then take it to the next step.
-Ryan, with the unoriginal sig
In 1987, I saw an Apple video (taking place in the future, intended to be a nostalgic review of Apple's past) where Woz wore a paper of MacGlasses, complete with tiny disks that inserted into the side of the frame (shades of the MMC/SD crads) - pretty cool, too bad it didn't happen. (The video also had a newsacst where IBM announced their latest main frames were compatible with teh Apple 3000 series mainframe.
I'm a consultant - I convert gibberish into cash-flow.
When i think of wearables, I usually think of high tech VR interfaces to new, unheard of apps... But it's nice to see PINE running on these glasses!!!
;)
As cool as these kinds of displays are, how do you input data? I mean voice recognition is nice, but there is the problem of privacy, annoying other people and if I recall most people don't think as effectively while speaking outloud (heh kind of obvious).
Solve the man/machine interface and you won't need to make the displays.
-- Button up, your ignorance is showing
Disregard anyones advice that includes "Don't get a patent, open up the design so that anyone can manufacture these glasses. You can make a lot of money supporting them. After all, you designed them, you are the go-to-guy for support!"
So I can,
so I can,
read Slashdot and other nerd websites.
I wonder if the US goverenment would have a need for sungalsses with small displays in them.
;)
If not them, then at least Holywood
No man is an island, But if you take a bunch of dead guys and tie them together, they make a pretty good raft.
You should try and contact Steven Mann. I think he was a one many army and pioneered some of the first wearable computer components.
- There are two things in this world, Windows and Gates.
and we thought it was bad when all we had to deal with was bad drivers and cell phones...
"Alot of people don't know what they are doing...and most are pretty good at it." -George Carlin
Didn't IBM have a commercial with this guy in a park ordering stocks with something like that? It could just be a concept/prototype or total bs from them, but I liked it... Looked like one of those eye things the Dominion use.
"Why would I do with something like this?"
Hmmm, I have private investigator friends (insurance fraud, they don't get to carry guns and drive Ferraris) that would love a pair of completely innocuous shades that would let them point say... a video camera in a suitcase one way while they are looking elseware.
We actually had a discussion about this the other day, wondering if you could do it wireless and have the antenna and power pack/receiver disguised as a "sports loop".
I would like this same rig because I am just plain a Bad Person ;}
Is there an optometrist on /. who can answer this question? (year right!) Staring at an object so close to your eyeballs can't be good. Wouldn't it strain your eyes a lot more than conventional monitor?
___
If you think big enough, you'll never have to do it.
I like the Xybernaut's design, yet it's price is beyond my means (and I'm usually an early adopter of geek chic). If you could offer just a few more components for sale, or a construction service, that's competitive with the big guys, I think you could make a decent living. As a previous poster mentioned, Ebay works.
"Avast! Prepare for the rodgering!" THWACK! "Arrr.. me nards.."
Oh, I don't know.
Maybe to make money and not scare off the chicks when they notice that you've got a webcam on your shoes?
--- Will in Seattle - What are you doing to fight the War?
With the guy sitting outside with pigeons on the ground and he talks to himself with his sunglasses? I am not sure if the commercal was made by IBM.
Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
And they only cost $1500 US and take 4-10 weeks. Not bad considering they aren't even mass-produced!
Purchase a 3rd Generation HMD
Just be carefull not to market your glasses as generation 3. I believe Apple has a G3 trademark, and would be more than happy to sue you.
The focal point is actually far in front of you. On my unmodified M1, I have to wear my glasses (I'm near-sighted) to read the display.
--The more you know, the less you know.
My experience wearing a computer was not very comfortable. That 19 inch ViewSonic was a real pain in the neck. The backpack frame holding the Dell Dimension dug into my shoulders. Also, I kept tripping over the keyboard and mouse cables while kicking along the Honda generator.
what if you sold a conversion kit for turning your own sunglasses into a HMD?
Also see this paper at wearcam.org.
Toronto-area transit rider? Rate your ride.
While the covert HMD is a really neat spiffy product, the bariers to entry into the hardware market are quite high. In order to compete you'll need to be able to finance production operations (the easy part) and incur substancial legal expenses to insure that none of the many wearable computing patents - mentioned as being held by large players in this market - apply to your hardware, and in the event that some can ce construed to apply, you'll need to handle licensing which will probably be at great expense as well. Furthermore, although the SSSCA will probably not add requirements to your hardware but given the current legislative enviroment, similar legislation that would apply, might appear at any moment. As we all know - the wearable computer maker has not reached mass aceptance yet so without sufficient customer base for the computing hardware, the market for the display hardware - normally some percentage of the market for the compute platform - will be extremely small, regardless of how cool the hardware is. For these reasons I'd recommend considering licensing your hardware to a larger player in the market. While you won't derive nearly as much revenue as if you marketed the product yourself, the revenue you collect will be predictable and will be recieved within a timeframe (and I'm making an assumption about Anubis Enterprises) acceptable for small businesses to maintain solvency.
--CTH
--Got Lists? | Top 95 Star Wars Line
Although I think this technology is very cool, I think a key thing missing is the lack of a video camera. While he does mention that this drastically increases the size, it would make this technology MUCH more useful.
There is some usefulness for these sorts of displays (heads-up current information like current stock quotes for example), without some new input device to control such a radically different gadget from what we are used to. Somehow I don't see people 10 years from now running pine off to the side!
While perhaps some kind of hand-pad would be a good short-term compromise (What do people think should be hooked up to one of these, maybe a Handspring Expansion?), the most intuitive and relevant inputs would be voice and/or sight recognition.
Imagine searching a crowd for a friend. You say aloud, "Where's Paul?" and this baby runs a face-pattern recognition algorithm to help you... Just a thought ;-)
oh my god this guy is going to make a million dollars
Just thinking aloud, what does everyone think would be the best operating software to run on an interface like this?
Personally, I think the coolest thing would be if the glasses implemented an immersive translucent 3D workstation sort of like the ones in the Final Fantasy movie. Then place little sensors on your fingernails as described here. Some kind of radio sensor network (I know it's not a trivial thing to do) could detect when you pressed a certain virtual button, and run programs, display data, etc.
I think playing with something like that would be sweet. The funny thing would be that all the people walking or sitting would be waving their hands around like they were conducting an orchestra. :-)
It's all about publicity. The first thing you need to do is dupe^H^H^H^Hconvince Slashdot editors that your idea is cool, real, and one VC funding round away from changing the world as they know it.
Kevin Fox
Three questions:
I wear prescription glasses. Would this cause any problems?
Is it possible to use this with a Windows-based computer? (Don't freak out - I have my reasons and they are valid ones)
Can you drop the price a hair?
Seriously, I can foresee a great number of uses for this. I would suggest you go for it, but hire a patent lawyer to do some research for you. There's probably a ton of prior art on this by other companies, but there might be some government research you can base off of.
Anyway, good luck and all.
To celebrate the occasion of my 1000th post, I will post no more forever on Slashdot. Goodbye.
Those are sweet, now all I need is a comp that will fit in your pocket - and run a decent amount of time between charges, and internet that will go anywhere that is affordable...
Winter 2010: With Glowing Hearts
I've been looking at these for awhile now, and decided after following that link to purchase one.
But I got a bit nervous when I checked the security certificate information for their SSL connection like I always do, and noticed it was some other webiste I'd never heard of.
Well that could just be their purchasing service, but just to be safe I decided to call their listed phone number (631) 474-4405 and that turned out to be no longer valid. I didn't call the new number given yet; I know I'm paranoid, and frankly I like it that way, but does anyone know if this is the legit link?
Perhaps something of this nature could be used to instruct a large group of people....i could see a refined version of this used by the government to inform agents in real time in certain operations....
as far as where to go with something like this...if you really wanted to take the idea commercial, and you have a lower cash flow, you may want to consider "partnering" with a company that can either benefit from your product, or a company that can make your product better(or vice versa)....
ben
=-=-=-=-=-=-= phil thompson is my dad.
I think it's called "Retinitus Pigmentosa."
A friend of a friend of mine is gradually losing his sight to it. Apparently he can still see just a limited area at the center of his former field of vision. But he still uses the comuter (and watched the WTC collapse).
If the "eye strain" objection cited elsewhere isn't a factor, something like this might at least return a full view of the computer screen (and then, movies? live video feed?
does anyone know if this is the legit link?
Try this. Apparently they're moving right now.
Something I have considered for quite awhile (Back in '94!) is how to get around in virtual worlds. The solution I came up with is by no means 'true VR', but instead aims to be natural. The idea is that you have a platform a couple inches thick by about 8 feet square. (The size could change depending on what is most comfortable for the majority of people.) The platform would then be divided up like this:
/|
<code>
________
|\
| \___/ |
| | | |
| |___| |
| / \ |
|/_____\|
</code>
The user would normally stand on the center square. Each of the divisions ahead, behind, to the left, and to the right represents a direction that the user may wish to go. While in the virtual world, all the user has to do to move forward, is to take a single step forward onto the division in front of him. Similarly the division behind him would cause him to back up. The left and right would strafe.
The left and right could potentially be a 'turn' as it is in most FPS, but I fealt that the turning should rather be handled by the HMD (say via a Boom Tracker) due to the fact that side stepping is a more natural result to taking a step left and moving your head is a more natural 'turn' motion.
Anyway, that was my idea and since I don't have the time to build it, I'm sharing it with everyone here. A tip on building tho. It would probably be easiest to take a cheapo gamepad and strip it out for its interface. That way the electronics and software will be compatible with existing and future programs.
If anyone builds one of these things, I'd love to hear about it. Shoot me a mail at: jNOSPAMbanes@techie.com
Just remove the NOSPAM.
Javascript + Nintendo DSi = DSiCade
I never know that NES made a pad similar to the design I laid out. I'd always known about the 'twister' style pad, but all that had was a 'sprint race' game and an arobics game. Of course the NES hardware was always way ahead of its software with the Power Glove being the crowning example. (I still have the RS232 interface I built for that thing.)
I've seen the dance pads in the arcades and I assume that those are similar to the PSX ones. The problem with the 'plunger' design is that you have to make sure you hit the target. When you are in a VR world, you would have trouble with such a design, whereas actual platforms would provide both a large target and feedback by dropping a little (either a 1/2 inch drop or a satifying click like on a mouse).
Javascript + Nintendo DSi = DSiCade
RP and many other diseases of the retina are very good reasons to keep an eye (no pun intended) on this and similar projects. Here are a few good resources for other types of low-vision coping technology:
autofocus eyewear [lowvision.org]
the Jordy [enhancedvision.com] (yes, trek-inspired!)
wire a camera to your brain [artificialvision.com]
artificial retina [mit.edu]
I have been looking everywhere for an HMD I can connect to my Palm. does anybody make something like this?
Google Cache to main page (not all about the glasses)
Related
Front Page of Glasses page.
This is a third generation covert HMD display. Through these sunglasses, I have a monochrome 320x240 VGA display superimposed right in front of me. I can see normally. If I were looking at you, I would see a computer screen floating over your face, centered on your nose.
My first generation displays were crude and bulky in comparison - but many of my first generation displays also contained a video camera in addition to the display.
The second generation displays were much improved and incorporated a beam splitter (half-silvered mirror) into the design rather than a front-silvered optical mirror. The main lens was also customized.
The third generation design fits well in my sunglasses and is more rugged, smaller in overall dimensions, and has custom parts for everything - including the backlight for the display itself.
The third generation covert display is also a leap forward in appearance. Previous generations either required oversized safety glasses to house the display, or had pieces or wires very exposed. The third generation display looks almost completely normal from the front as well as from the side that houses the display. The single thin, flexible black cable - easily concealed - is the biggest hint there is more than meets the eye!
A look through the glasses
This is what it looks like to look through the glasses. Here you can see the "pine" mail program running while I look at my good friend Jack Daniels. This is an actual unedited (but cropped) picture taken with a digital camera through the display. It sees what your eye would see. (The white bar at the bottom is a video artifact due to the modeline I was using to supply the video signal)
The display itself uses a beamsplitter to reflect the image into your eye. The unique properties allow it a "see-though" effect (demonstrated in the following links with a second-generation display) that makes the reflector display an image when the unit is powered on, and appear transparent when the display is off.
Fourth-Generation?
So, what is next? Right now there is no immediate path forward to a fourth-generation display, but it will doubtlessly incorporate one or several of the following advances:
Color
Higher resolution
Even smaller optical assembly
re-intruduction of embedded video camera
The ultimate display would be able to fit unnoticed in a regular pair of untinted eyeglasses.
YES! I build third-generation displays for people! I don't have the info on the web yet, so please email me if you are interested!
You can also take a quick look at my For Sale page, where I currently have services listed for building Second-Generation displays.
This looks great for a nice wearable SSH2 session, but the bulk of my time (and that of the majority of people using computers, I'd think) is spent digging around the web or using tools of fairly high resolution demands in Win2k (3D Studio MAX, Photoshop, MSDEV, etc.).
If you manage to get it to 1600x1200x32x85hz and retain the general physical characteristics of current models, I'll pay as much as/kill whomever you wish for one. Using an RSI 'cast' to gauntlet-mount a Half Keyboard on one hand and a 4D mouse on the other in combination with one of those tiny stripped down Celery 700 boxes, I'm pretty much set.
--SB
Do you want the video camera put in the 4th gen so you can pick up eye signals to control the computer? Blink twice rapidly to close window...
Have you fscked your local propeller head today?
Ummm this is older than my grandma and she codes in cobol! I was working with stuff smaller and better than this 2 years ago. DUH! :B
Absolutely.
+5 Correct
A good market for this could be security. Combine a HMD with some form of wearable PDA or 'small' laptop (It doesn't need to be anything high tech, a secure strap/backpack), set it up with wireless networking and you could beam images from security cameras to the users sunglasses/goggles. A 'button', 'pad' or custom trackball style device could be used to navigate between cameras. This would be a niche market admittedly, but I'm sure various uses could be thought of for such a device.. Open for thoughts..
Most of those pattents are only legal in the US, you could come to Europe, produce them and seel them in a web site.
Listen you! You've got a *great* application for cell phone usage. Think - Cars & Cell Phone = Accidents. Whats the solution? Use a Monitor Glasses to help a person dial a number which is the most difficult part of the conversation.
Also, Japan is coming out with Video Cell Phones. What about that? Plug the glasses into a cell phone!
Yes, you were. And you (if you actually paid for your toy and it wasn't company property) paid at least $6k for it.
;)
There are, unfortunately, very few wearable HMD systems that are discrete and don't make you look like a reject from the Collective.
You should also try and figure out a way to get your page posted someplace where it'll be seen by about a quarter-million geeks who've been dreaming of something like this for at least ten years.
Seriously, at $1500 a pop, limited to 320x240 greyscale, and with a 2-month waiting list (and that was presumably before today), I'd guess that you're not quite at the point where every single one of us will buy one, but even so, you probably did just secure at least a few orders. (It'd be interesting if you'd post back in a few days with the results.) The sweet spot would probably be if you could hit 640x480 and at least 8-bit color without going too far over $600.
Still, this is already pretty nice -- I'd call myself "tempted", but not quite "seriously tempted", as it is; definitely interested enough to keep an eye on your progress. The price point is probably more important than the features: I'd be more likely to buy it as it is if you got the price down than at the current price if you got the features up.
Good luck.
David Gould
main(i){putchar(340056100>>(i-1)*5&31|!!(i<6)<< 6)&&main(++i);}
The picture for wearable fans is getting steadily better. Consider an Ipaq with wireless package, pcmcia video card, IBM 1Gb Microdrive, a Twiddler2, and one of these HMDs. The specs to hook up a Twiddler2 are already out there. You run linux from here and you're all set.
:)
Well, maybe you might want another battery
Sure it has a redundant screen. I used to hate that idea. But now I realize that it just means I can still use the machine in situations where the wearable is not appropriate (like the beach) or when I've already taken it off.
Every year these little handhelds get more powerful and the peripheral market around them gets richer. I think this is the critical mass that will finally allow the normal (non-EE) person to put together usable and powerful wearables. The HMD is really the missing link.
Just as an aside, I wrote the author about modifying my own M1 to his first-gen sunglasses hack some time ago, and he refused to do the job (for money, I mean) because he felt that his current design required too much "tuning" for each person's ergos. I guess he's licked that problem, and it's nice to know that some people really aren't just in it for the money. He's a good guy.
Ok, it's getting late. Will stop there.
* gameshow, for those that don't know it.
Phillip.
Property for sale in Nice, France
How exactly does the display work? What would someone see looking at the glasses from in front of you? I have no knowledge in the whole beamsplitting, reflection thing so you'll have to excuse me :P but would it be possible someone could use a similar device directed toward the glasses that could "steal" or capture what's being displayed? or do the glasses have some sort of protective 'coating' (not sure on a good term) that would prevent this?
How about if you could figure a way to work this with a PDA? The resolution and lack of color would seem to work well with a Palm OS guy. You'd have to work on the interface a bit, but it'd be relatively cool to have your address book handy right where you could see it. You could scribble notes to yourself while walking down the street and what not. HMD+PDA+Expedia = easy navigation, or a quick car crash. (You get my point, though.) Combine your HMD with the black and white Clie's with the jog dial, and you may be able to sell some. Especially to those tech-crazy Japanese.
Where the wind blows, the tumbleweed goes.
glasses is as discussed above eye strain.
Imagine an standard but small LCD display in
front of your eye. To focus on it, is the same
as focusing on any object 2 cm away from you
eye, downright impossible unless your extremely
short sighted. This is easy to fix you put a
lens in front of the LCD so that to correctly everything
is focused at infinity or maybe 20 feet away,
i.e. your
eye has to focus as if the image was at infinity or 20 feet. But this is still is not good enough.
The eye (and brain) is built to be continously
focusing on different objects at different depths,
and keeping it locked at in single focal depth for
very long produces eye strain. Worse still is that
if your viewing a 3d image, the parallex clues the brain gets to what distance an object is
at, have nothing to with what depth the eye has
to focus at, and this could cause further problems
with eye strain, that you wouldn't normally get
just by staring somewhere for a long period of time.
True when you look around a room you don't tend to
notice objects coming in and out of focus, but this is
in fact because the Brain uses the eye
to update the model of your surroundings and it
is this model you normally perceive.
Until someone can design a system that has
different virtual objects at different focal depths, eye strain will painfully prevent such
displays becoming popular consumer items.
Although there is no "sales" page on their site, this is normal for a product in prototype stage which costs several thousand dollars. If you send them an email, they will be happy to inform you that their glasses are available, and range in price from $1500 to $2500.
I bought a Twiddler a couple years ago, and a Twiddler2 a few months ago. Chris George, the guy who basically IS Handykey, is on the up-and-up, and even went to a fair amount of trouble to support me...I dropped my Twiddler, and the cable started to get spotty. He took it back, and sent me a new one with no trouble.
Dave Storrs
A year or two ago, Newsweek did a feature on eBooks.
The chief lament was that they were more incovenient than real books.
Elsewhere in the same issue, there was a story about computer displays embedded in (albeit oversized at the time) eyeglasses.
EUREKA!!!!!!!!
and i thought parents used to complain that the gameboy screen being too small and that kids are looking at the damn things way too close and get really bad perscription on their eyes. now isnt it great to have something closer and have a shorter distance between your eye and itself!
my blog
Now, that's what I want.
I have this idea too. You take a mat, and put two feet in the middle. Then you write a bunch of _conclusions_ all around the mat. When you have a question that you need answered, you stand on the two feet and JUMP. What ever you land on, is your CONCLUSION.
Get it? *Jump to Conclusions!*
errrr...I think somebody else must have thought this up before....
mr.
...but borrow money. the fed just cut short-term interest rates to 2.5%, which is below the rate of inflation (free money). find a lawyer who can incorporate you, so that if your business fails, you don't lose your house. borrow however much money you think is reasonable. i'm sure there are lots of talented people you could hire to help you run operations, since the economy is bad and lots of people have been laid off.
i know it's a gutsy move, but there is no great gain without great risk. give it a shot.
I mentioned square because it can easily be built out of plywood and contact sensors. When I think of a round version, I think of a professional high impact plastic version with nice arc wedges that make a satisfying click similar to that of a mouse button (only on a larger scale). Of course then it would look like a giant Simon. ;-) Keep in mind that I actually drew up plans to actually build this thing at some point, so I was looking at it from the perspective of how cheap and easy it is to build.
:-)
As for the re-defining of the controls, I thought of that too. However, you really need a round design in that situation. The reason is, what if you turn 45 degrees? You wouldn't really have a paddle in front of you. On the other hand, a round version would allow you to divide it into eight partitions instead of four. The eight would be close enough together that you will always have a forward, back, left, and right. As a bonus, you would also gain diagonal movement.
Javascript + Nintendo DSi = DSiCade
...but ACK! How would you balance on the ball? Anything large enough to be reasonable to stand on would also take up the better part of a large room.
Javascript + Nintendo DSi = DSiCade
Check out this site for an even more immersive (though theoretical) hardware. If you have the dough, looks like you can actually pick up something similar here.
Never never never smoke crack before geometry class!
I tried to make a paper kite to my son, but failed. And you, you make wearable glasses.
(Tekmage:) The focal point is actually far in front of you..
As a bonus with these displays, make the focus point of the text vary slowly over time, so your eyes aren't always set to a particular distance.
Hey, it's a selling point too.. Exercise for your eyes, while you work!
Seriously, it seems pretty obvious that it would be very beneficial for your eyes to not have to be set to the same focus all day, like it may be right now, if your work involves staring at your monitor all day long.
4 or 5 years ago a company called Virtual Vision had sunglass based consumer displays. They nearly went under when they found there was no market for them.
They are still around and they do mostly vertical market stuff now and they've become a subsidiary of eMagin which makes super small LCD displys (like 1280x1024 in less than 1 inch)
Since the sunglass thing they also make Borg like half sunglass attachements. The uses I've heard of are for example, a surgeon can wear one and have all your vital signs in his view (or just at a glance to the side of his forward view) at all times so instead of having to look up at all those machines hanging over the operating table he can concentrate on the surgery.
Another I've heard of is supposedly it takes a truckload of manuals to cover maintainence on commerical airliners. Well, they made a belt worn wireless networked computer connected to one of their displays with voice input so instead of having to bring the truck over and search through the paper manuals while trying to fix something the mechanic could just call it up on the display he's wearing and glance at it while he works on the problem area.
PS: My Father works for that company.
Imagine, you could have a database of faces of people you know, and have a little camera on those glasses which reconigses a face when you push the little red button on your pda.
..", and it pulls up all emails from that person last week from all their known account, and auto opens any that have that subject in that subject line, or reference to it in the body.
Then to the side of your vision (assumming higher res) brings up things like birthdays. Then you attach a mic listening for keywords like "..the email you sent me last week about
Sure, you need more computing power, better batterys, a mini camera, but the technology is not 10 years away...
So, some punk ass kid gets one of these things for his birthday. Its got a camera, OCR software, and a computer algebra package. All of a sudden he starts pulling A's in his math classes without learning a thing...
If these things get mass produced, and I hope they do, they will probably be treated by academia like the origonal pocket calculators. If you get caught with one, you get expelled. Watching this industry mature is going to be very interesting. Its just one step closer to the cyberpunk lifestyle in Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash. And damn, it is cool.
Kan jeg få en pils, vær så snill?
On /. a few weeks ago there was a link to the wearable computers guy at MIT who's been doing the wearable borg thing for like 10 years--he had software that would show someone's name superimposed next to their face... combine that with these low profile glasses and you have something for forgetful people...think, no more:
"Hi, I'd like you to meet Anna"
"My name's Arlene."
"oh, err...."
...
I don't get it. In order to be focused properly on the retina, all the incoming light beams would need to be close to parallel.
Ususally this is achieved using mirrors that reflect the light one or more times, producing the same result as if it had followed a long physical path before entering your eye. (Right?)
This makes sense, as you can't focus on something 2-3 cm from your eyes. (Try your nose.)
Is there another way? Light emitting in narrow beams?
Judging by the look of the glasses, whatever it is, it must be done using coating and electrodes around the edges, since the glasses look perfectly normal.
So.. is this page a hoax or what?
..they just take silly-looking sunglasses from (insert leading vendor here) and pretend there's a screen on the inside. (Think M:I-2.)
That said, the goal here does seem to be glasses where it's impossible to detect the display technology, even with untinted lenses. I can't wait to see a fourth- or fifth-generation display from this guy mass-marketed for a reasonable price. (I'd pay the price of a high-quality 19" CRT, but not much more.)
-- If no truths are spoken then no lies can hide --
Intresting. Would be great use if they could be used in conjunction with the Ipaq with nowadays got WLAN, GPRS and Bluetooth integrated into one backpack module. And it can run fullblown Linux to and PocketPC 2002.
http://www.abnw.se/wireless_products/1/1.asp
How about this:
A pair of display glasses kept next to the copy machine. When it jams in location D2, the user puts them on and an animation of how to remove the jam is superimposed on the actual mechanism. The same applies to any kind of mechanical task (think fixing an automobile, or the advanced chapters of the Kama Sutra).
Or this:
A firefigter eners a burning building; it's smoky and nothing can be seen. Radar maps the suroundings and shows a wireframe model on his heads up display. (Actually, I think they have things already which can see through smoke, but perhaps they could be made lighter). Or maybe containers of hazardous materials would have a transponder that would alert the firefighter to its presence, display a red dot at its location, and show its material safety data sheet on request.
Or this:
A headset that gives a surgeon a heads up view of her patient's vital signs, displays plans she has made for complex operations, and integrates with advance sensors to give her the equivalent of x-ray vision.
Or this:
A pair of glasses that would allow people identifying rare plants or insects to compare specimens to the taxonomic databases. They could even be integrated with a video microscope so the user doesn't have to bend of a stereo microscope all day.
Personally, I'd like to get rid of computer monitors. They're an ergonomic disaster, and scaling them up in size creates all kinds of space and energy problems. But I could probably think of a hundred other applications for them in every day life. I believe computer enhanced reality has a huge potential.
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
Another thing you might want to think about is checking to see what information your site is displaying,especially when potential investors are heading over. For example, I clicked on the interactive script that lets me see your last 16 emails, and got this:
:)
--- cut here ---
10:12 am having trouble getting mail to domain
10:27 am works now
10:28 am what's the command to find an ip
10:31 am no replies yet from u? will re-send all mails
11:01 am i think you're emails broken
12:53 pm thanks for the replies - all works now
12:58 pm can't find your web site URL again - can you re-send?
1:00 pm found it in my bookmarks, nevermind
1:52 pm can you give me your phone # to talk now cause you don't
always reply to email right away like you should
7:02 pm Got your replies - reading them (Re: give me your phone#)
7:31 pm I THINK YOU GOT VIRUS PUTTING BAD WORDS IN YOR REPLYS!!1!
7:43 pm Bob here says he cant' see yahoo - is it down?
7:46 pm Nevermind - bob says it works (Re: Bob here says he can')
8:50 pm hope your email get's fixe'd soon
9:35 pm you replied!
9:38 pm whats "restraining order" ? is it my account name pls rply
--- cut here ---
Probably not the best thing for us to see. Though some of them show you have friends very similar to mine.
Random Musings
After making a few jumps this last summer, i noticed that skydivers are more or less obsessed with getting realtime data while in free fall. As far as i know, all the existing technology is audible only.
:)
But I can imagine some people really getting a kick out of seeing their vertical speed, altitude, heading, and maybe even some big flashing messages when they get down to beakoff and pull time.
I know many people now jump with sunglasses, so if you can just find a reasonable small ic to read airpressure, and some more electronics to process it and output a VGA signal, this could be very cool
Plus people who spend thousands and thousands on gear wouldnt mind dropping 1500$ on some cool eye wear.
Just a thought,
Scott.
The actual display is built by The Microdisplay corporation.
http://www.microdisplay.com
You know those situations where you meet someone and they recognise you but you haven't a clue who they are... easy. Face recognition software and it prints up in your sunglasses... 'that's your mother'.
I'm old enough to remember when discussions on Slashdot were well informed.
What happened to the idea of using the refractive properties of the lens to reflect an image back to the eye?
How does the technology accommodate those with minor visual impairments (i.e., those that wear corrective lenses)?
Are you staring at my breasts? staring off into space? Are we, as a society, ready to accept the social interaction implications?
Some still find it odd when they encounter people who are seeming talking to themselves, but who are in fact talking via inobtrusive, wireless headsets.
If you're a rock musician and, well, I mean like, you know... When you're playing a really crazy gig and it's all at the stage where you can't remember the words? You could have your Word Man just roll 'em by while you rock! Cool.
Reports of my deaf have been greatly exaggerated.
OMG!!! Im Blind!! Everything just went BLUE?!?!?!
I can barely make out some words..."Windows Has Detected An Error"....Heeeeeellllp!
Not my idea, but I have never seen an implementation of it, so I wrote a how-to a long while back on building it:
Cheap VR Issue 3
Basically, it works like a joypad, only larger, where you "lean" in the direction you want to "go".
BTW, don't bother emailing the address contained in the issue - it don't work anymore, instead, email to phoenixgarage addy...
Reason is the Path to God - Anon
My first thought was "wouldn't you fall off?", but then I read your article and got a better understanding of what you were saying and it is really a good idea. The largest technical challenges I could see would be in the calibration of the switches to the resistence of the innertube. With the wrong calibration, you could accidently trip switches that you didn't intend to trip, or not be able to trip switches that you do want to trip. Other than that, your idea is extremely sound (and similar ;-)). Do you know if anyone has actually built one of these?
Javascript + Nintendo DSi = DSiCade
No, I don't know if anyone has, nor have I myself. It is one of those "back burner" projects
:-)
:-)
Just like mine, eh? The power glove was as far as I ever got.
Then, as you tilt and "mash" the piezo elements, varing voltages would be generated, which could be sensed and used to determine direction.
That could work, but I think we would end up with the same problem as the joysticks of yore. IIRC, most of them used piezo elements to detect joystick movement in liu of a (then expensive) analog to digital converter. The problem of course was that they needed to be very specifically calibrated (and as they wore out, recalibrated). With an "assitant processor" one could handle it automatically, but I don't think it would make a very good direct interface.
You could use gyros, but I think that would be more difficult and would probably require much of the same calibration. Probably the best way would be to put the switch on the base board, put a spring around the sensor, and attach a long piece of wood (or whatever) to the top board and also place it inside the spring. With a gap of say 1/2 inch to an inch you could probably have a reasonable reliable setup. The down side of course is that you would need a lot more "give" than your previous design, but calibration wouldn't be a problem.
Of course, I could be talking out of my ass.
Javascript + Nintendo DSi = DSiCade
All original PC joysticks used a timing system of a capacitor/potentiometer circuit that timed based on discharge rates (or something similar - there is more than enough docs on the net about this - look up "joystick programming" on google, heck, I might even have a link on the site), not piezo elements.
That isn't to say such elements were never used, but it certainly was far from common. Switches would be better to use, and your idea for a spring system might be workable. Some robotics projects have used similar systems for "whisker" sensors...
Reason is the Path to God - Anon
I have been curious about the availability of an aftermarket HUD for my car. This would be a great solution.
Of course, there would need to be other equipment to attach to your vehicle... and you would probably want to wirelessly transmit the data from your car to the glasses... but you could keep tabs on everything that is normally on your dash through your glasses... plus other things.
This just gets us back to the whole computer enhanced reality thing of course... but it would be cool!