Posted by
CmdrTaco
on from the it-burns-mommy dept.
squidgy writes "The BBC are reporting on a system that can superimpose images over your vision using small lasers beaming the images directly onto the retina. This is already being used in the car manufacturing industry. You too could soon have T101 vision."
The real innovation
by
andy666
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· Score: 5, Interesting
Is the use of adaptive optics for imaging the retina. This involves using deformable mirrors or micromirror arrays to sense how the retina deforms a wavefront.
Re:The real innovation
by
Glonoinha
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· Score: 4, Interesting
You guys miss the whole groundbreaking aspect of this? The HUD! This is what we have been waiting for - heads up display and it is finally (almost) affordable.
For those of you familiar with the feedback in the Star Wars Galaxies HUD, envision coupling this thing with a tiny GPS module - now you could superimpose a top down map of the surrounding area (zoom in / out), heading, speed, waypoints. Couple this with the RFID encoding every person is going to have in the next few years and it could actually accept data from the MCP and put every person's name over their head, plus make available a quick lookup of statistical information (age, date of birth, relatives, occupation, phone number, etc..) Be able to interact with Google, MapQuest, etc in real time everywhere you go.
Re:The real innovation
by
Knetzar
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· Score: 5, Funny
Finally, the people who do nothing but play MMORPGs will feel comfortable in the real world.
Re:The real innovation
by
Anonymous Coward
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· Score: 2, Funny
But will they realize when they've stopped playing and re-entered the real world? As I'm walking down the street, will some teenager try to cast a fireball at me or chop my head off with his zirkonium katana of +5 damage?
Apparently SF is not read anymore. Only "SciFi" like Andromeda and Star Trek stays in the collective memory, it seems. And those are derivative of much older and far more literate work.
Heinlein, Asimov, DeCamp, Pohl, Anderson, Campbell. Kuttner, Clarke, Stephenson, Gibson... all that history, all that work in vain? No one reads anymore?
This is OUR history! I grew up reading stories from the 30's, 40's and 50's. The source material for the people who grew up and built the present world. Snow Crash pretty much predicted the present so well that it doesn't even read like fiction.
I guess I'm spooked because I can't find people of a certain younger age who read SF anymore. A culture is built on stories, and geek culture is losing its own.
I used to read SF stories from the 50's - we used to go to down to the second-hand bookstores/jumble-sales and buy up stacks of books real cheap. If I had the time, I'd build an online website listing these stories, characters and plots so they wouldn't be forgotten. Also because, I'm trying to track down a few stories I remember reading at high school.
> Anyone else immediately think of the old "set refresh rate to zero" hack that used to be able to burn out monitors?
Yeah. Someone else has done all the hard work. All I wanted was for you to set the refresh rate to zero, turn the thing around 180 degrees, and mount the frickin' thing on a shark. Is that too much to ask?
The only important question
by
triptolemeus
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· Score: 3, Funny
One will I get X-ray vision?
-- The site where: "I'm right, as long as you ignore the things that prove me wrong", became a valid method of debate.
Re:The only important question
by
Analogy+Man
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· Score: 3, Interesting
In effect for instances were you are looking at something of known shape you get just that!
Suppose you are trying to put a small screw in a small threaded hole..but there are other parts as well as your arm and hand in the way. With this system you could see the hole virtually.
The trick would be having the system generate the geometry for the screw...or your fingers.
-- When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty.
Cool - now I can have a "You've got mail" banner scroll across my field of view and cool rotatey vector envelope icon will appear at bottom right of everything I look at...
Re:"You've got mail!"
by
Lumpy
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· Score: 5, Funny
Nahh more fun is to run 30 copies of Xeyes and start running around screaming "STOP STARING AT ME!"
-- Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
Re:"You've got mail!"
by
Analogy+Man
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· Score: 2, Informative
I was really excited about this technology until they started onto application to cell phones. The track record of that industry to make something useful (a mobile phone with a list of names and numbers) into a convoluted hodge-podge of features hiding the useful features 4 layers down in the menus makes me shudder considering how they would implement this.
-- When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty.
I have a hard enough time descerning reality as it is.
-- Forget thrust, drag, lift and weight. Airplanes fly because of money.
Does this work for everyone?
by
AtariAmarok
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· Score: 2, Insightful
Does this work for everyone who has vision? Or will it only work for some, like traditional 3D, or those few who could actually play the Nintendo Virtual Boy without getting a headache?
-- Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
The first pattern you'll see
by
unfortunateson
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· Score: 3, Funny
I think this system, or one just like it, was on/. a year or two ago. I remember the obligatory messages from people who thought that laser light in the eye automatically meant you'd go blind.
laser light in the eye automatically meant you'd go blind
Yeah... laser light in the eye, chronic masturbation... it's easy to get those two mixed up.
-- I find your ideas intriguing and I wish to subscribe to your newsletter.
This isn't new...
by
boomer_rehfield
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· Score: 3, Informative
There was a company from Seattle IIRC that was working with this around 5 to 7 years ago. It's an extremely cool technology though and I was bummed that I never heard anything else beyond that. Glad to hear it's still around.
I'd be more interested in using it as environment space.
I want my nice 19" full color display in front of me, then I want to put on one of these and with a head position sensor, so that I can have the area around me be an extended destop visible only in monochrome. I could leave windows lying all around outside the bounds of my monitor.
Bonus perihiperial, some kind of machine vision system that will let me slide those windows around using my hands.
Am I the only one who thinks the image of the device looks suspiciously like the Dragon Ball Z scouter device used by the Saiyans?
Steve Mann has been doing this for a while
by
Willard+B.+Trophy
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· Score: 5, Interesting
This looks exactly like Steve Mann'sEyeTap device. Which, incidentally, runs Linux.
Re:Isn't this old news?
by
Lord+Bitman
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· Score: 5, Insightful
Miliary -> Industry -> Consumer You are here --^ ^-- We are awaiting this one
-- -- 'The' Lord and Master Bitman On High, Master Of All
One eye only?
by
Colonel+Angus
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· Score: 2, Insightful
If an image is only being displayed on one eye would there not be some distortion whenever the other eye is open? I put my finger in front of my right eye. Close my right eye and my left eye cannot see it. Close my left eye and my right eye sees it fine. Open both eyes and it's a distorted "see-through" image of my finger. Would a similar effect not happen here or is there some compensation built into the device? I saw no mention of it in the article but perhaps someone has more information.
Apaches Already Have This
by
darkmeridian
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· Score: 2, Informative
This technology is pretty well-established in the military. Information is painted directly onto the retina for pilots of the Apache helicopter. This data doesn't get faded out and you don't have to look down. Pilots can keep focused on their targets, etc. It's perfectly safe.
-- A NYC lawyer blogs. http://www.chuangblog.com/
Re:Apaches Already Have This
by
misterpies
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· Score: 2, Funny
"Information is painted directly onto the retina"
You mean the light comes into the eye, gets focussed by the cornea and lens, and forms an image on the retina? Wow, that's a new way of seeing things.
-- The author of this post asserts his moral rights.
Maverick. I've gotta bail out, everything is BLUE!
by
cardoso
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· Score: 3, Funny
Wouldn't be lovelly to face a BSOD while driving at 120Km/h, in a rainy night?
--
[]'s Carlos Cardoso - Becoming a brazilian ProBlogger, typo by typo
And That's Why Google...
by
Myriad
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· Score: 3, Funny
Sounds kinda like beer googles, only pricier.
And that, ladies and gentlemen, is why Google's IPO will be a winner.
-- "They do not preach that their god will rouse them, a little before the Nuts work loose." Kipling, 'The Sons of Martha'
This is a Big Thing
by
pkaral
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· Score: 4, Insightful
I think it is hard to overestimate the long term impact of this technology, if it lives up to its promises. This could be the final piece in the puzzle needed to make wearable computing a mainstream reality (rather than a thing for visionary geeks). My guess is that within 10 years of the first real massmarket product, we will all be wearing those when working, driving, shopping, etc.
Could be good for gaming
by
loic_2003
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· Score: 2, Insightful
for FPS games.... If this thing could be tweaked to provide an image for your entire field of vision it would be far superior than those nasty goggles that were used in 'Virtual Reality' systems a few years back. They were simply screens right infront of your eyes. Desert combat and the like would rock if you could use your peripheral vision. It wouldn't be much harder to sense if the eyes have moved and could allow the user to see larger images if they could look to the left and right and have the image scroll along...
Would be interesting to find if it gives headaches to the users like CRT monitors do these days..
Putting all the "cook your eyes with high-powered laser" jokes aside, this has several useful applications.
I'd like a subtitle application. A smart application analyses voices and sends subtitles only I can see.
"He's lying".
"She's eager but expecting disappointment"
"They want to buy, at any price".
"He's still lying".
Subtitling conversations is a great thing. But we can go further. GPS is an obvious plug-in. "Go left, now!" "Almost there" "Cops ahead, slow down and hide the bottles".
Next, how about linking this to streaming news sources. I'd never miss another Fark story. Granted, ticker-tape messages scrolling under your line of sight might get boring. But that's what bash.org is for.
I also want the reality-skinning software. This has been briefly touched on in a previous comment. We can go further. Everyone we meet can get their own photoshopped skin. The boss? He gets a moustache and bright red hair. That girl in finance who refuses all your expenses? A sign on her back saying 'Kick Me'.
Finally, I'd like a system of virtual real-world messaging. This works as follows: comments are linked to real spatial cordinates. As you look at the appropriate building or space, you get to read the comments. To keep comments semi-private, you'd have join a server and channel, like irc.
So I think laser-augmented vision has the potential to radically change society.
Of course we have to get around the fried-eye issues first.
--
Ceci n'est pas une signature
Re:Some uses for this...
by
infolib
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· Score: 3, Insightful
I'd like a subtitle application. A smart application analyses voices and sends subtitles only I can see.
Now what I'd like to see in the display is:
Name: Bob Greenham (92% certainty) Last met: Acme Conference june '06 Current position: Cyan Inc. (99% certainty) "Bob Greenham" found in one mail thread: Spokes for Acme Wheels (July '06, 3 mails)
-- Any sufficiently advanced libertarian utopia is indistinguishable from government.
Re:Some uses for this...
by
ozbird
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· Score: 5, Funny
I'd like a subtitle application. A smart application analyses voices and sends subtitles only I can see.
"He's lying."
LIAR.
HE'S A LIAR.
HE'LL RAPE YOU.
HE'LL KILL.
YOU KILL HIM FIRST.
"Equivalent to 17-inch SVGA display at arm's length Nomad provides the same full-screen resolution as an SVGA desktop monitor. Most handheld devices display only quarterscreen resolution. Scrolling is virtually unnecessary."
So presumably around 1024x768 pixels...
And the colour depth:
"Monochrome red display Nomad's bright-red display provides high contrast
between the display information and virtually any
background view.
32 grey levels Nomad can display text, graphics, halftones or
video in any combination with excellent
readability."
The thing the surprised me was the price, only $3995, which seems pretty cheap, to be turned into a terminator....
I'm reminded of the bit where Arnie scans the dresscode in the bar, and the HUD flashes up 'Inappropriate' at one point...
Re:Advertising Nightmare
by
argent
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· Score: 2, Insightful
if you're running an operating system and user interface that lets other people pop stuff up in your field of view while you're driving, then Darwin will accept your sacrifice gladly.
I don't have any problem with "banners and popups", or with spyware or viruses, and I don't use any antivirus software at all...
Heads up display
by
wowbagger
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· Score: 2, Insightful
Oh come ON people, this is nothing more than a head mounted Heads up display - you know, like has been around for YEARS!
The only real difference is that this uses a scanning laser, rather than a CRT.
Yes, HMDs are cool. Yes, there are plenty of places HMDs would be nice ot have.
But COME ON - this is a new way of doing something that has been done before! It may lead to better HMDs, it may be a breakthrough.
BUT THE SIMPLE FACT THEY ARE USING LASERS DOES NOT MAKE THIS NEW TERRITORY!
Re:Heads up display
by
David+McBride
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· Score: 3, Informative
This is a significant breakthrough because:
-- Previous HMD's were very heavy (and unbalancing), and not suitable for long-term use; this is not the case with this implementation.
-- The displays used were relatively low quality, requiring small LCD screens with refresh, brightness, colour depth, and resolution issues; with this new design the only limiting factors are how fast you can modulate the laser intensity and how quickly you can scan the retina. (Colour depth is harder as it requires three seperate lasers of the appropriate wavelengths firing at the same mirror, but is within the bounds of possibility.)
-- Previous HMDs were not portable; they required physical lines back to a power supply and main processing units. Power consumption in this design is substantially reduced, meaning batteries and portables/wireless links can be used to make this design untethered.
Although the improvements may seem relatively minor, collectively they allow the use of HMDs in all kinds of applications that were previously completely untenable.
When this becomes mainstream...
Television producers would be crushed...
You wouldn't have to buy posters for your wall...
Your little electric heater could look like a roaring fire...
Skin the world!
Retinal angle?
by
mhocker
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· Score: 2, Insightful
Did anyone understand how the system deals with the angle of the retina changing as the user moves their eyes? The retina is (if I understand it correctly) planar, which is how the cornea can focus images on it consistently. Yet the eyes are nearly spherical, meaning that the retina changes its angle as the eyes move.
The reason I ask is that, for this to produce accurate images, it would need to readjust the keystone of the image, much like a LCD projector must do that if it is mounted at an angle to the screen.
If it doesn't correct for this, I can imagine a strange warping effect to images as the eyes are turned.
Slightly OT: Re:Apaches Already Have This
by
ValentineMSmith
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· Score: 5, Informative
I'm sorry, but that is incorrect. Unless they've changed the way the targeting devices work for the AH-64D. The AH-64A uses a small HUD that is clipped to the right side of the pilot's helmet. The image is projected on a piece of semi-transparent, angled glass, just like a regular HUD in any other military aircraft.
The innovative thing about the Apache was not the monocle. It was the way the monocle was boresighted and the way the helmet was tracked in 3D space inside the cockpit. The net effect was that, when the copilot/gunner looks at something, the aircraft can tell where he's looking. The TADS (or Target Acquisition and Designation System) follows his head motion. And, if the 30mm chain gun is the active weapon, it follows his head motion as well. All the CPG has to do is either lase to get a range or lase to designate the target and pull the trigger.
For the pilot, the helmet was boresighted so that the PNVS (or Pilot's Night Vision System) would automatically follow his head motions. The PNVS is an infrared system (not light multiplying) based in a small turret at the front of the aircraft. The pilots said that the perspective change took a bit of getting used to, but it worked very effectively.
I was an Apache crewchief for four years.
-- Karma: Chameleon - mostly influenced by bad '80s New Wave music
Re:Slightly OT: Re:Apaches Already Have This
by
fraudrogic
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· Score: 2, Informative
Actually, more specifically it's used to describe the action of using a laser to find the range of a target. Almost all personnel involved in using/developing/simulating target aquisition systems in the military that use lasers in this fashion say the word "lase" to aquire and identify (for the tactical software) targets.
-- I only mod up parents of "mod parent up" posts...
Re:Slightly OT: Re:Apaches Already Have This
by
RichardX
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· Score: 2, Funny
. The TADS (or Target Acquisition and Designation System) follows his head motion
I'm glad you qualified that acronym, because for a moment I wondered what they were doing with the Text Adventure Development System
"Enemy sighted, twelve o'clock" "Quick! Activate the TADS!" "Okay... it says we're in a maze of twisty passages, all alike.. a fierce green snake bars the way"
-- Curiosity was framed. Ignorance killed the cat.
Too expensive atm...
by
MrBandersnatch
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· Score: 2, Informative
http://www.mvis.com/nomadexpert/info.html
Resolution is a little on the low side at 800x600 for me to get excited about. However it IS exciting that this technology is moving into the workplace - 5-10 years and prices should start dropping to consumer levels and the technology should have improved to a level where some of the..."funner" aspects of this technology become viable. Expect this technology to become pervasive within the next 20 years.
I really hadnt expected to see something like this at the sort of prices they are talking about for another 10 years or so - nice when the future comes early:)
Not that pricey
by
Steelwings
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· Score: 2, Insightful
At $4k it cost less than a plasma display.
Eye and head tracking?
by
SilentTristero
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· Score: 2, Insightful
Seems like the really hard part of any augmented-reality HMD is to keep the displayed image in place over the real image. Are they doing eye tracking or just head tracking? Need to do both to get the displayed image really stable and avoid swimming and the resulting motion sickness. (As the eye swivels in the socket, the displayed image needs to change slightly to overlap the same real object.) The article doesn't say anything about their tracking, but IMHO it should.
Re:I MUST HAVE ONE! NOW!
by
nacturation
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· Score: 2, Interesting
Your eye is approximately equal to a 100 megapixel camera, only instead of an evenly distributed rectangular grid, it's more of a bullseye with the greatest density of rods/cones near the center. So that's the theoretical limit of resolution possible, but of course the electronics governing the laser movement will be the limiting factor here.
-- Want to improve your Karma? Instead of "Post Anonymously", try the "Post Humously" option.
Evolution from Driving w/ Cellphones
by
Lokatana
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· Score: 2, Funny
For the last couple of years, there's been lots in the press about the dangers of driving while talking on a cellphone, and how that distraction is a major cause of car accidents.
I can see the headlines now:
Car accident fatality found with a smile on his face and his *censored* in his hand.
What are the long-term effects of passing coherent light through the aq. and virt. humors of the eye? Our eyes were evolved for the spread spectrum of sunlight.
-- [You have a stable society when some nut guns down a schoolyard and the law doesn't change.]
The two most powerful applications are...
by
SuperGus
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· Score: 2, Insightful
(1) Closed-captioning for hearing-impaired users, when coupled with voice reconition.
(2) Real-time foreign languge subtitles, when coupled with voice recognition (speaker talks in French, user sees English subtitles in field of view - "Your mother was a hamster, and your father smells of elderberries.")
(3) Real-time foreign language text translation, when coupled with OCR (read a menu in a French restaurant, see English meaning in field of view)
OK, three. The three most powerful applications are these, plus fanatical dedication to the Pope. Four. Amongst the four most powerful...
link to the company
by
srblackbird
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· Score: 2, Informative
Funny how the world seems to be catching up with Neal
Stephenson.
Great. Soon we'll all be living in the seventeenth century...
-- One man's -1 Flamebait is another man's +5 Funny.
I have used this before...
by
BroFrog
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· Score: 2, Interesting
A few years ago I was able to use one of these systems (prototype). Truly a very awesome setup. At the time the unit was composed of a very light headset, which was capable of projecting a single color, red. The most interesting future feature presented was the ability for this laser to be shot across a room into your eye, eliminating the need for the headset. Since I saw the headset demo a few years back I am curious if they have perfected a means to do this yet.
This is great. Now the blond bimbo driving 80 mph next to on the instertate will not only be trying to sip her diet coke and apply makeup, but will be watching the Bon-Marche's sale scroller instead of the road. I can't wait!
Actually, it is my understanding that the controller software in the eye takes several micro offset images and then produces an interpolated image of much higher resolution, which is then compressed into a datastream and sent to the driver (optic nerve). So the theoretical resolution is actually a function of the resolution of the eye * (speed of the eye in actual frames per second/the number of frames transmitted per second) with allowance made for the compression stage.
The actual resolution transmitted to the brain may be much much higher than the mere 100 megapixel single image resolution.
Disclaimer: IANAOBYRMV (I Am Not An Optical Biologist, Your Resolution May Vary)
--
You can have it fast, accurate, or pretty. Pick any 2.
Vernor Vinge ... Deepness in the Sky
by
yohohogreengiant
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· Score: 2, Informative
Great sci-fi where one of the main technologies "Conceptual Space" or communal wallpaper where large parties of people (like the bridge crew of their ship) equipped with these eye scanners create a seamless simulation. Nice to see Tech following in the track laid down by Fiction.
Been waiting Seven Years
by
Steve500
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· Score: 2, Interesting
I first saw Microvisions VRD (Virtual Retinal Display) back in 1997 on Tomorrows World. Back then they were confident that we would all be able to buy home VR console systems etc etc within a couple of years. I waited....and waited..and waited...
Seven years later we have a red monochrome strap-on monstrosity that makes you look like the geeky Borg that the other Borgs tease.
Hurry up with something decent! I want my Sony VR games console, with dataglove now!!
Slashdot Mirror
Is the use of adaptive optics for imaging the retina. This involves using deformable mirrors or micromirror arrays to sense how the retina deforms a wavefront.
Anyone else immediately think of the old "set refresh rate to zero" hack that used to be able to burn out monitors?
One will I get X-ray vision?
The site where: "I'm right, as long as you ignore the things that prove me wrong", became a valid method of debate.
I'd hate to be the guy who's plugged in when there's a power surge...
But, more prosaically, I wonder what the effective pixel resolution of the display is? colour depth, too.
--
Callas
Sounds kinda like beer googles, only pricier.
Can I bum a sig?
Now all we need are friggin HUMANS with friggin lasers attached fo their foreheads
Cool - now I can have a "You've got mail" banner scroll across my field of view and cool rotatey vector envelope icon will appear at bottom right of everything I look at...
I have a hard enough time descerning reality as it is.
Forget thrust, drag, lift and weight. Airplanes fly because of money.
Does this work for everyone who has vision? Or will it only work for some, like traditional 3D, or those few who could actually play the Nintendo Virtual Boy without getting a headache?
Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
Do not look into laser with remaining eye!
Design for Use, not Construction!
You too could soon have T101 vision."
Not like I spend enough time staring at code, just what I need is to have a constant stream of 6502 assembler every waking moment.
I think this system, or one just like it, was on /. a year or two ago. I remember the obligatory messages from people who thought that laser light in the eye automatically meant you'd go blind.
There was a company from Seattle IIRC that was working with this around 5 to 7 years ago. It's an extremely cool technology though and I was bummed that I never heard anything else beyond that. Glad to hear it's still around.
Carpe Canem - Seize the Dog
Would be cool for notebooks.... have no need for a screen. Would make them even smaller and probaly consume less power too.
Support the First Amendment. Read at -1
My eyes, the goggles, they do nothing! Nothing!!!
"Sic Semper Tyrannosaurus Rex."
...but it'll be way better when I can get laser beams to come out of my eyes.
Hey, this has already been doing this for years.
Pretty cool, but I wish they would do tricolor lasers and then blast full color into they eye. Power might be an issue... ah, retina over easy?
Am I the only one who thinks the image of the device looks suspiciously like the Dragon Ball Z scouter device used by the Saiyans?
This looks exactly like Steve Mann's EyeTap device. Which, incidentally, runs Linux.
Miliary -> Industry -> Consumer
You are here --^
^-- We are awaiting this one
-- 'The' Lord and Master Bitman On High, Master Of All
If an image is only being displayed on one eye would there not be some distortion whenever the other eye is open? I put my finger in front of my right eye. Close my right eye and my left eye cannot see it. Close my left eye and my right eye sees it fine. Open both eyes and it's a distorted "see-through" image of my finger. Would a similar effect not happen here or is there some compensation built into the device? I saw no mention of it in the article but perhaps someone has more information.
This technology is pretty well-established in the military. Information is painted directly onto the retina for pilots of the Apache helicopter. This data doesn't get faded out and you don't have to look down. Pilots can keep focused on their targets, etc. It's perfectly safe.
A NYC lawyer blogs. http://www.chuangblog.com/
Wouldn't be lovelly to face a BSOD while driving at 120Km/h, in a rainy night?
[]'s Carlos Cardoso - Becoming a brazilian ProBlogger, typo by typo
And that, ladies and gentlemen, is why Google's IPO will be a winner.
Blockwars: free, multiplayer, head to head game
"They do not preach that their god will rouse them, a little before the Nuts work loose." Kipling, 'The Sons of Martha'
I think it is hard to overestimate the long term impact of this technology, if it lives up to its promises. This could be the final piece in the puzzle needed to make wearable computing a mainstream reality (rather than a thing for visionary geeks). My guess is that within 10 years of the first real massmarket product, we will all be wearing those when working, driving, shopping, etc.
for FPS games.... If this thing could be tweaked to provide an image for your entire field of vision it would be far superior than those nasty goggles that were used in 'Virtual Reality' systems a few years back. They were simply screens right infront of your eyes. Desert combat and the like would rock if you could use your peripheral vision.
It wouldn't be much harder to sense if the eyes have moved and could allow the user to see larger images if they could look to the left and right and have the image scroll along...
Would be interesting to find if it gives headaches to the users like CRT monitors do these days..
http://www.frenchgeek.com/
Putting all the "cook your eyes with high-powered laser" jokes aside, this has several useful applications.
I'd like a subtitle application. A smart application analyses voices and sends subtitles only I can see.
"He's lying".
"She's eager but expecting disappointment"
"They want to buy, at any price".
"He's still lying".
Subtitling conversations is a great thing. But we can go further. GPS is an obvious plug-in. "Go left, now!" "Almost there" "Cops ahead, slow down and hide the bottles".
Next, how about linking this to streaming news sources. I'd never miss another Fark story. Granted, ticker-tape messages scrolling under your line of sight might get boring. But that's what bash.org is for.
I also want the reality-skinning software. This has been briefly touched on in a previous comment. We can go further. Everyone we meet can get their own photoshopped skin. The boss? He gets a moustache and bright red hair. That girl in finance who refuses all your expenses? A sign on her back saying 'Kick Me'.
Finally, I'd like a system of virtual real-world messaging. This works as follows: comments are linked to real spatial cordinates. As you look at the appropriate building or space, you get to read the comments. To keep comments semi-private, you'd have join a server and channel, like irc.
So I think laser-augmented vision has the potential to radically change society.
Of course we have to get around the fried-eye issues first.
Ceci n'est pas une signature
And the colour depth:
The thing the surprised me was the price, only $3995, which seems pretty cheap, to be turned into a terminator....
I'm reminded of the bit where Arnie scans the dresscode in the bar, and the HUD flashes up 'Inappropriate' at one point...
if you're running an operating system and user interface that lets other people pop stuff up in your field of view while you're driving, then Darwin will accept your sacrifice gladly.
I don't have any problem with "banners and popups", or with spyware or viruses, and I don't use any antivirus software at all...
Oh come ON people, this is nothing more than a head mounted Heads up display - you know, like has been around for YEARS!
The only real difference is that this uses a scanning laser, rather than a CRT.
Yes, HMDs are cool. Yes, there are plenty of places HMDs would be nice ot have.
But COME ON - this is a new way of doing something that has been done before! It may lead to better HMDs, it may be a breakthrough.
BUT THE SIMPLE FACT THEY ARE USING LASERS DOES NOT MAKE THIS NEW TERRITORY!
www.eFax.com are spammers
When this becomes mainstream... Television producers would be crushed... You wouldn't have to buy posters for your wall... Your little electric heater could look like a roaring fire... Skin the world!
Did anyone understand how the system deals with the angle of the retina changing as the user moves their eyes? The retina is (if I understand it correctly) planar, which is how the cornea can focus images on it consistently. Yet the eyes are nearly spherical, meaning that the retina changes its angle as the eyes move.
The reason I ask is that, for this to produce accurate images, it would need to readjust the keystone of the image, much like a LCD projector must do that if it is mounted at an angle to the screen.
If it doesn't correct for this, I can imagine a strange warping effect to images as the eyes are turned.
The innovative thing about the Apache was not the monocle. It was the way the monocle was boresighted and the way the helmet was tracked in 3D space inside the cockpit. The net effect was that, when the copilot/gunner looks at something, the aircraft can tell where he's looking. The TADS (or Target Acquisition and Designation System) follows his head motion. And, if the 30mm chain gun is the active weapon, it follows his head motion as well. All the CPG has to do is either lase to get a range or lase to designate the target and pull the trigger.
For the pilot, the helmet was boresighted so that the PNVS (or Pilot's Night Vision System) would automatically follow his head motions. The PNVS is an infrared system (not light multiplying) based in a small turret at the front of the aircraft. The pilots said that the perspective change took a bit of getting used to, but it worked very effectively.
I was an Apache crewchief for four years.
Karma: Chameleon - mostly influenced by bad '80s New Wave music
http://www.mvis.com/nomadexpert/info.html
:)
Resolution is a little on the low side at 800x600 for me to get excited about. However it IS exciting that this technology is moving into the workplace - 5-10 years and prices should start dropping to consumer levels and the technology should have improved to a level where some of the..."funner" aspects of this technology become viable. Expect this technology to become pervasive within the next 20 years.
I really hadnt expected to see something like this at the sort of prices they are talking about for another 10 years or so - nice when the future comes early
At $4k it cost less than a plasma display.
Seems like the really hard part of any augmented-reality HMD is to keep the displayed image in place over the real image. Are they doing eye tracking or just head tracking? Need to do both to get the displayed image really stable and avoid swimming and the resulting motion sickness. (As the eye swivels in the socket, the displayed image needs to change slightly to overlap the same real object.) The article doesn't say anything about their tracking, but IMHO it should.
Your eye is approximately equal to a 100 megapixel camera, only instead of an evenly distributed rectangular grid, it's more of a bullseye with the greatest density of rods/cones near the center. So that's the theoretical limit of resolution possible, but of course the electronics governing the laser movement will be the limiting factor here.
Want to improve your Karma? Instead of "Post Anonymously", try the "Post Humously" option.
For the last couple of years, there's been lots in the press about the dangers of driving while talking on a cellphone, and how that distraction is a major cause of car accidents.
I can see the headlines now:
Car accident fatality found with a smile on his face and his *censored* in his hand.
What are the long-term effects of passing coherent light through the aq. and virt. humors of the eye? Our eyes were evolved for the spread spectrum of sunlight.
[You have a stable society when some nut guns down a schoolyard and the law doesn't change.]
(1) Closed-captioning for hearing-impaired users, when coupled with voice reconition.
(2) Real-time foreign languge subtitles, when coupled with voice recognition (speaker talks in French, user sees English subtitles in field of view - "Your mother was a hamster, and your father smells of elderberries.")
(3) Real-time foreign language text translation, when coupled with OCR (read a menu in a French restaurant, see English meaning in field of view)
OK, three. The three most powerful applications are these, plus fanatical dedication to the Pope. Four. Amongst the four most powerful...
http://www.microvision.com/nomadexpert/index.html Nice movie :)
"The test of the morality of a society is what it does for it's children." -Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Funny how the world seems to be catching up with Neal Stephenson.
Great. Soon we'll all be living in the seventeenth century...
One man's -1 Flamebait is another man's +5 Funny.
A few years ago I was able to use one of these systems (prototype). Truly a very awesome setup. At the time the unit was composed of a very light headset, which was capable of projecting a single color, red. The most interesting future feature presented was the ability for this laser to be shot across a room into your eye, eliminating the need for the headset. Since I saw the headset demo a few years back I am curious if they have perfected a means to do this yet.
This is great. Now the blond bimbo driving 80 mph next to on the instertate will not only be trying to sip her diet coke and apply makeup, but will be watching the Bon-Marche's sale scroller instead of the road. I can't wait!
Actually, it is my understanding that the controller software in the eye takes several micro offset images and then produces an interpolated image of much higher resolution, which is then compressed into a datastream and sent to the driver (optic nerve). So the theoretical resolution is actually a function of the resolution of the eye * (speed of the eye in actual frames per second/the number of frames transmitted per second) with allowance made for the compression stage.
The actual resolution transmitted to the brain may be much much higher than the mere 100 megapixel single image resolution.
Disclaimer: IANAOBYRMV (I Am Not An Optical Biologist, Your Resolution May Vary)
You can have it fast, accurate, or pretty. Pick any 2.
Great sci-fi where one of the main technologies "Conceptual Space" or communal wallpaper where large parties of people (like the bridge crew of their ship) equipped with these eye scanners create a seamless simulation. Nice to see Tech following in the track laid down by Fiction.
I first saw Microvisions VRD (Virtual Retinal Display) back in 1997 on Tomorrows World. Back then they were confident that we would all be able to buy home VR console systems etc etc within a couple of years. I waited....and waited..and waited... Seven years later we have a red monochrome strap-on monstrosity that makes you look like the geeky Borg that the other Borgs tease. Hurry up with something decent! I want my Sony VR games console, with dataglove now!!