Slashdot Mirror
Wearable LCD Display
fenimor writes "PhysOrg reports, that Mitsubishi is going to introduce next year a headset with a small liquid-crystal display screen which is positioned in front, slightly below eye level so as not to obstruct normal vision. Designed for users who need to perform multiple tasks simultaneously, this tiny wearable heads-up display is expected to cost only US $400."
I already wear glasses, will this work with me?
I never thought we'd get to the point where people had to attach televisions to themselves. I can already hear the bickering over usage rights while driving. I'm beginning to think that John Titor wasn't so wrong.
BLING BLING. Meet the architecture that's changing everything.
How do I use it with glasses? I'm an old man, and can't see anything closer than three feet away WITH glasses. How the heck am I going to read that tiny screen?
LCD stands for Liquid Crystal Display.
Now that that's over with, you may resume posting without R'ing the FA.
Have they effectively eliminated EMI or are they just going to let people die of eye cancer?
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I play guitar.
I plan to be the first person to cause a fender-bender from a chatroom.
Mod me down and I will become more powerful than you can possibly imagine!
this is pretty neat. now i will be able to watch babylon 5 reruns and code at the same time. but then again, what kind of a device will this display hook up to?
Keep the faith, share the code
If they perfect these things, I'd use one as my normal monitor. I have no particular love of having a big ass thing on my desk (even an LCD). If it covers the same apparent field of view, I'd go for it.
Combined with a folding keyboard, this could help portable computers get a lot smaller too.
Odds are it draws a lot less power than a full size LCD panel; should help portable PC power consumption as well; I think the LCD is one of the major power hogs.
Does the back of the miniature display flash "NERD" for everyone else to see? You know, in case it wasn't obvious.
Per Square Mile, a blog about density
the article suggests it only takes a tv signal. I'd like one of these for my flight simming. My desk just can't bear one more monitor.
Mongrel News all the news that fits and froths
Looks like a Jem'hedar viewscreen kinda.
Tiger (maker of cheapo LCD games) put out the R-zone game machine in the '90s. One form of the R-Zone was a headset with a controller attached. A clear piece of plastic flipped out over the player's left eye.
The video is cute and futuristic but what's the resolution? If it's under 800x600 it's kind of useless. 1024x768 and I'd consider it, although I can't see it improving my sex life.
TFA and TFV didn't say much about the specs.
I wonder what the display output will be?
It's obviously powered by thought-wave absorbtion, so that's the good news. No batteries!
sigs, as if you care.
This should be a really neat way to get rid of power hungry displays. This device will draw some power, but hopefully, by virtue of its size, nowhere near the amount of a conventional laptop or PDA display. It should definitely open up some interesting possibilities. Imagine being able to shut off your laptop display, with this plugged into the VGA port, and drawing it's necessary power from a powered USB or Firewire port. Mmmmm ... Tasty ...
Bill Gates already got this. Remember the picture of him we see on slashdot?
Online backup with Mozy, sounds like Ozzie, but more!
I'm wondering - is there any chance of projection into the retina in a device like this?
You get LCD alarm clocks that project images of the time onto the wall already, surely it's only a matter of time before VDU images are projected into the retina...
The voice over on those videos sounds strange. It's probably better that having a Japanese sound track, but it's freaking me out...
Finally, there's a production model of something like this. Maybe those memory prosthesis prototypes being worked on at MIT, among other places, will come to market before too long?
And that's in addition to all the more generally in-demand applications.
-Amalcon
"users who need to perform multiple tasks simultaneously"
Or maybe people should simply unplug once in a while and enjoy some of the real world. All I can imagine is some idiot using this while he's driving and causing an accident...this is far worse than cell phones. Yeah sure there's a power advantage like someone mentioned above for laptops...we'd be better off spending money on designing new longer lasting batteries than this thing.
As long as it leaves me with a pleasurable sensation that I don't have to go Risa, I'm all for it.
How about you, Wesley?
To-do List: Receive telemarketing call during a tornado warning. Check.
It's just like my favorite song, Head Games from 80's super-group Foreigner.
$400 for this thing when I can write up some hack for a gameboy and duct tape it to my face?
... kill me now, please!
...that the porn industry drives technology. I need to be able to look at porn at all hours of the day, especially during work, but I need to do it in privacy. Thanks, Mitsubishi!
Is anyone else having images of the same idiot that eats a borrito while talking on his cellphone while looking at a map while driving using this behind the wheel?
Sadly, there will only be two of these. . . One for the Vorta and one for the Jem Hadar First. And they frame will flash all quick-like when you use them.
worst sig ever. . .
Tell me when they've made contact lenses with built-in "wifi" and powertransmission, and they go completely transparent by thought control (semitransparent otherwise). The resolution needs to be at least 1280x1000 as well. "The world is your desktop background" :)
Preferrably they would take input by thought control but even if not I'd spend at least 3K$ per lens even if I had to take up a loan...
this comment is provided "as is" and without any express or implied legibility or congruity [...]
Here is the original version.
Modest doubt is called the beacon of the wise. - William Shakespeare
Let t1 = time to do task #1. Let t2 = time to do task #2. Let cxt = context switch time.
Doing the 2 tasks sequentially requires t1 + t2 units of time.
Doing the 2 tasks concurrently requires t1 + t2 + cxt.
"cxt" is the cost paid by the workers in being unable to concentrate because of constant switching between tasks.
I didn't read the article but I'm thinking how cool it would be to have a system like that would force it's image into the retina. Imagine having your desktop consume your entire field of view ?! Instead of a display sitting 3 or 4 feet away, all you would experience and see is your computers desktop/commandline/etc ....talk about being immersed !! Is that possible ? Or would we need neural link-ups for that ?
Would the average programmer end up working more efficiently if that were the situation ??
John_Allen_Mohammad,
Linus Ackbar!
job applications will have a check box for the question "able to wear headset monitor for extended periods". then ater a few years there will the attorneys specializing in scopo-syndrome lawsuits.
A helmut. I can't imagine how many people will be wearing this thing walking around bumping into things. You think people are ignorant of the world around them while on a cell phone? Wait until someone's walking around watching a rip of The Simpsons on dvd, or the most recent Daily Show. I fear trying to drive around the person wearing one of these. Unless it comes with a big bullseye bumper sticker...
Has anyone else noticed the impossibly fast evolution of multitasking ability?
People over 70 have trouble doing one thing at one time
People over 55 seem to have trouble walking and cheqing gum simultaniously
People over 30 think that they can drive and talk on a cell phone at the same time
College and high school students can take note on a laptop while carrying on 6 simultanious AIM conversations while paying enough attention to the teacher to know if they are growing supicious
What's next... babies with tenticles?
Hold your finger about 3-4 inches away from your nose. Now focus on it for a couple of minutes.
'nuf said.
Doesn't need to. The utility belt with the palm, pager, digital camera, and a bandolier of batteries and flash cards is usually a dead giveaway.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
And you were afraid we were an endangered species... just wait till we ahold of these...
Like, brushing your teeth, putting on makeup (shaving for guys), eating, changing lanes, and swearing at everyone else on the road because they are "crazy drivers."
Yes, I know people who do this. Yes, I am ashamed.
Try actually thinking for yourself. It's quite refreshing.
That may still seem expensive to slashdotters who know the ins and outs of finding cheap hardware on the Internet, but this is the automotive industry. When purchasing a new car, an extra $500 may get you a decent audio system that would cost $300 at Best Buy. So considering their normal markup, this isn't a bad price for an unnecessary upgrade.
Now all they need is some "educational" sex instruction tapes to pipe into the screen so most guys can see how it's supposed to be done and you won't have half the female population complaining about how they wish their guys were better in bed. I can' see it now... "Here honey, I got you this new toy!"
Cliff Claven
K.E.G. Party Chairman
Founding Leader of: Koncerned for Egalitarin Governance
Looks like another toy that our town will demand for every student in the school system, whether they need it or not. (And guess who's paying...)
I suggest you read Slashdot
Okay, I'm done. Now my big question is simple:
Anyone can buy a Gameboy Advance with a backlit LCD for about $79.
Anyone can buy a digital camera with built in 1.5" LCD for $120.
Anyone can buy a 15" LCD display for their PC for $300 on average.
So WHY is it that a monacle LCD using (technically) less technology costs 3-4 times that price? It's bloody stupid.
Just because you can mod me down, doesn't mean you're right. Shoes for industry!
people what is up? Most posts are whines of some sort or another. DOes no one enjoy technology on slashdot? Do none of you have the ability to see the possibilities of anything?
It's time to get your nerd on.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
Imagine someone with multi LCD displays, like this scooter has rearviews.
-- www.globaltics.net
Political discussion for a new world
It's called the SCOPO. This infringes our intellectual property. The charge will be $699 per headset.
Thanks,
Darl
Shadowe Stubs Toe SHIT! lost 15hp on that one...
A bullet may have your name on it but splash damage is addressed "To whom it may concern."
Don't they use these in the film hackers, near the end when they all hack in from the train station?
I'm sure I remember reading an article in about 1996 talking about wearable computers and using a b&w 640x480 equivalent to this that could hook up to a VGA port.
I can't really tell from the webpage, but it seems the same as the MicroOptical HUD I have sitting on my desk. Its been around for a few years now, its certainly not brand new. Can anyone explain the ins and outs?
Plays violent online games as: Nerfherder76
Am I the only one reminded immediately of the glasses invented by Steve Martin's character in The Jerk, which eventually made an entire population cross-eyed?
Three Squirrels
LCD Display = Liquid Crystal Display Display
We really need to know about resolution on this thing.
I was just today considering a home-made wearable computer (perhaps on a nano-itx board gutting a UPS or something for some power), but was considering the fact I'd have to wear the LCD screen too, since all the current HMD's are so expensive. If this thing does 800x600, we're talking business.
I want a pair of Spider Jerusalem smart glasses, not these clunky ol' things :D
Portables have been around for awhile. I am sure someone has caused a fender bender playing with thier in dash computer or side mounted laptop. Or accidently got hit by a car because they were too bust playing with a palm pilot.
"Imagination is the only weapon in the war against reality." -Jules de Gautier
I hope I meet the lady who did the talking for that video so I can pimp slap her! The way she talked just really ground on my ears for some reason.
And what was up with showing the distance between the eye in metric (50cm) and the width of the screen in standard (10 inches). Pick a camp and stay in it.
While on the topic, I wish America would get with the picture and switch to metric already... standard isn't so, well, standard.
Lose Weight and Feel Great with Isagenix
In 2001 the Xybernaut POMA/Hitachi WIA came with Wince 3.0 and a 800x600 head worn display.
? page=PressReleases/details/Hitachi,%20Shimadzu,%20 Colorado%20Microdisplay,%20and%20Xybernaut%20Coope rate%20for%20WIA.html&path=jsp/hitachi/aboutus/Pre ss-Media/
0 articles/electronic080601.htm
6 5970.html
There was no screen nor keyboard, but there was an optical thumb mouse. Fortunately, it had USB, so you could attach a keyboard. However, there was no audio in which meant there was no speech recognition. Moreover, it was running an hitachi SH-4 CPU which meant there was hardly any software. Especially drivers for devices.
The display also fit poorly. Xybernaut has since stopped selling them.
We'll see what happens this time especially since the new display is much cheaper and doesn't come with a system.
http://www.hitachi.us/Apps/hitachicom/content.jsp
http://www.xybernaut.com/company/public/outside%2
http://www.windowsfordevices.com/articles/AT92777
Finally, I can be the one with frickin' lasers attached to my head!
"... installed LCD displays ..."
Liquid Crystal Display Displays? Real Pedantic.
Most of the people here think of this as a geek device, but I think it would be most useful in some of those deskjobs which require a lot of phone interaction. Combined with a headset, this puts the majority of the system in one place and removes the need to craning of a neck and maintaining awkward positions.
If this can be combined with some new keyboard device, it really gets everything together.
Heads-up display, whatever - did you see that OMNI computer vehicle? Mobile computing that moves *you*. (insert soviet russia joke here) They're thinking about it pretty hard, but I want a computer that I can operate with a steeringwheel, not a car I operate with a klunky keyboard. Do they drive Dvorak in the UK?
--
make install -not war
Dear, when me make love, you don't pretend I'm someone else, do you?
Wh47 d1d j00 541, 31337 15n't t3h r0xor5 ne m0r3???
...is thousands of Dragonball Z fans rushing out to get one of these for their scouter.
What resolution can these things display? The linked article and video doesn't mention anything. MicroOptical already makes things like these. They have a number of different versions and can display at VGA (640x480) resolution. They have binocular versions, and there's even one in which the display is a reflective portion of a transparent eyeglass lens that looks like a bifocal. Why wait until next year for this one from Mitsubishi when MicroOptical already has a whole range of different kinds now?
Another advantage of an RSD is that it is a spinoff of a device to scan the retina, and adding one more beam-splitter and a photodiode on the laser side of the scanner lets the display do this, too.
That leads to two extra functions:
1) The retina print can be used for a "password". (Fewer worries about somebody who steals your wearable getting at your data or using your comm account to make 20-hour calls to 900 services in Malagua or spam the whole internet.)
2) The display can measure where you're looking - and use that (with suitable algorithms to keep the cursor from being obtrusive) as your pointing device. (Look-and-click means one less device in your hand, i.e. a chord keyboard with mouse button chords in its vocabulary. And it ought to be a bunch faster than mousing.)
Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
but why pay 400 dollars when you can just rob it from a distracted/defenseless nerd? :p
I don't see the logic behind the monocle design. It's distracting and uncomfortable for your eyes to concentrate on two distinctly different images. I once had a college professor who got a free demo for one of these monocle-style displays, and he said it was unusable for this very reason.
This device would be great for Bouncers at a nightclub. They could use it to verify ID checks, keep in communication with other bouncers, keep up with notices from central base, keep an eye in areas that they are not physically in (or Orientate yourself around the place without looking with your eyes but by following the streams of video from the cameras in the corner of every room, well there is a coolness factor to that, or a practical factor if it's too dark to use your eyes and the cameras can capture infrared) etc.
Rumour has it that the #1 in the queue for the first production unit is goatse man.
They whose government reduces their essential liberties for temporary security, receive neither liberty nor security.
Compared to other portable solutions this isn't even that expensive and since it is on the head and not constantly being put down and picked up it will suffer less abuse as well.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
Todays 20yr old boys can barely control a desktop without it getting invested and complain bitterly when they got to press forward for to long in their shooter or bullets don't end up exactly where they are pointing.
Oh and as any cop can tell you, yes people think that they can drive and talk on a phone at the same time. They also can tell you how many people get killed each year while doing that.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
Let t1 = time do enter code
Let t2 = time to look up documentation
Let cxt.old = time to task switch from editor to reference manual
Let cxt.new = time to glance at side monitor (or book)
Still prefer to switch windows back and forth?
This is a $400 heads-up-display for those looking for bargain-basement augmented reality or just an at-hand excuse on why you never, ever get laid. The geeks become geekier!
Free Desk
Wearable Liquid Crystal Display Display?
Yet another gadget for people to fuck with when they
SHOULD BE PAYING ATTENTION TO THEIR DRIVING.
yay.
s'wut i sed.
The high speed escalator on the same page is much cool than the wearable display. That seems to be pretty old hat.
- Re:Wow., Saturday October 16, @07:22PM, attached to Wearable LCD Display
- For those that didn't already know, Sunday October 17, @08:57AM, attached to The Hardware Behind Echelon Revealed
- For those that didn't already know, Sunday October 17, @10:32AM, attached to 30 Years Of Dungeons And Dragons
- People have been trying to make iPod killers for, Sunday October 17, @11:22AM, attached to Holiday Competition For iPod Dollars
Why gee, look at Pingular's last 4 posts, nothing but "I can contribute nothing but I can link to Wikipedia or other sites for cheap upmods!" Please don't waste your mod points modding this known Slashdot crapflooder up.This isn't a "heads-up display" (HUD).
It's a "head-mounted display" (HMD).
I used to work for Telxon, until they moved the tech jobs out of Ohio to Texas, then merged with their rival Symbol.
Telxon had mini screens like this, designed for mobile shop workers (i.e: Warehouse workers or the like). Screens worked relatively well, but there was a major drawback. Continual use caused major straining of the eyes. Overuse caused eye injuries! Because of this, Telxon dropped making 'em.
Will be curious to see if the new company has worked out these issues with these new screens.
--- It's not my fault this post looks redundant. I just type too slow.
But how do you select text, Wink and roll?
Me lost me cookie at the disco.
But how do you select text, Wink and roll?
I'd just suggested using "push mouse button" chords on the chord keyboard (which I visulalize as a ball with buttons you're holding in one hand).
But eyelid gestures make good sense, even if you WERE joking. B-) Also eyebrow gestures, though that would take an extra scanner (or a bit of mirror to let the same scanner "paint" your eyebrows with infrared).
It would be GREAT for quadraplegics.
Of course a person using it would look REALLY silly, though a careful choice of gestures might mitigate that.
Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way