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Laser Powered Virtual Display

Posted by michael on from the dry-eyes dept.

Tedger writes "The Feature has an article discussing an interesting portable display system developed by the University of Washington. Unlike your traditional mini displays mounted in glasses this system has no display, it is a 'virtual' display created by lasers and microscopic fast moving mirrors. The image is in fact printed onto the retina and has feasibly a infinite resolution. Can anyone say true VR?"

10 of 278 comments (clear)

  1. safety by wed128 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Laser images printed on the retina? what are the safety concerns with this? i would think "burn in" would once again be a serious issue.

    1. Re:safety by gunpowda · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Truly trippy screensavers would help there ;)

    2. Re:safety by Enigma_Man · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Gee, maybe it's not high powered lasers? I'm sure you're being sarcastic / playing dumb, but just because it's a laser doesn't mean it's going to harm your eyes.

      -Jesse

      --
      Nothing says "unprofessional job" like wrinkles in your duct tape.
    3. Re:safety by Alrescha · · Score: 5, Insightful

      "Just because you can't see the laser doesn't mean it isn't dangerous."

      Just because it's a laser doesn't mean it's dangerous.

      A.

      --
      ...bringing you cynical quips since 1998
    4. Re:safety by ShipiboConibo · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I think everyone is just getting worked up because of the word 'laser'... I'm no physicist, but isn't this the same way vision works anyways? Whether from a laser or just an object in daylight, it's just photons going in to our retina. As long as the amplitude of the laser is comparable to that of normal every day lighting I don't see why this would be dangerous. Probably safer than daylight since the laser would be an even 'cleaner' source of the light in only the needed spectrum. Just beware of those 'super-bright white' HUDs guys!

      --
      "It seems that when people become desperate they consult the gods, and when the gods become desperate they tell lies." -
  2. Let's be real about this... by drlake · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Even if they do work out all the bugs in the system, it's still only a step toward true VR at best. Without ways to also stimulate all our other senses, this will be more akin to TV than VR.

  3. led projections by Lenale · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Weren't there glasses with LEDs projecting on your retina already? Those certainly sound safer than lasers.

  4. Been around for a long time . . . by taylor · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I recall researching such "direct imaging" devices back in 1995; they were going to be the next great thing in VR, back when virtual reality was still a meme. What is neat is the idea of wide integration, though safety issues even with low power lasers would, I imagine, remain a problem.

    As an analogy, consider headphone use vs. speakers. In the headphone case, you can easily damage your ears without even noticing you're doing it by having it a tinsy bit loud, while the speaker output makes it much harder (I imagine due to all that feedback to the rest of your body!) Similarly here, you are probably imaging on a limited part of your retina, which may make your eyes dilate open too much, and develop small damage over time, etc.

  5. Infinite resolution ? by HawkingMattress · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Are they really taling about resolution, or about scaling of a vectorized image ? of course you can scale vector graphics as you want, but this ain't new... If they can display bitmap graphics at any resolution without pixelisation, that's impressive. But i doubt it...

  6. Re:Infinite resolution by orasio · · Score: 2, Insightful

    1:1 mapping with the rods an cones in the retina is, in practice, infinite. The universe is bounded by our capacity to perceive it.