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Where Are the High-Res Head-Mounted Displays?
vivian writes "Ever since 1996, when I first set eyes on a Sony GlassTron head-mounted display in Japan, I have been awaiting a lightweight, head-mounted display that actually has decent resolution and doesn't look like a brick tied to your face. The closest contender to date seems to be the WRAP 920AV from Vuzix, and they are partially transparent too, which is great, but as with every other unit I have found, they only offer video quality — 640x480. Given that there have been a number of other discussions on Slashdot, I can't be the only one here who is eagerly awaiting something that could actually be a viable alternative to a PC monitor — especially for gaming or 3d graphics work. Perhaps we could petition a manufacturer to make what we actually want? Something with a minimum of 1024x768 @30-60hz refresh, say, and capable of stereo vision. Extra karma if they incorporate head tracking."
Why spend thousands of dollars smooshing a high resolution display to your face when you can blow up a flatscreen to epic proportions and get all the resolution you need?
Well, as someone who's been waiting for an affordable HMD that I can use for an augmented reality project I've been thinking of starting, let me just ask you one thing: How would I go about mounting a 50" LCD monitor or a projector + screen on my head in a way that doesn't make result in me constantly falling over?
/Mikael
Greylisting is to SMTP as NAT is to IPv4
If falling over is the reality your trying to experience, I'd say your all set!
The VR of the 90's is dead. Long live augmented realtiy.
Augmented reality != Isolated VR rooms as you have described above.
Augmented reality requires transparent HMDs or something similar so that visual reality can be augmented with extra information and not hugeass displays in a room somewhere.
Dammit, I want my Terminator HUD explaining objects to me as I look at them.
That crunching sound? Oh, that's the sound of you crushing MY WILDEST DREAMS.
http://www.kopin.com/about-cyberdisplay/ (Tiny LCDs.)
http://wearcam.org/ (More complex than regular 'partially transparent' displays, but _far_ more capable - look up Mediated Reality / Augmented Reality.)
I suggest googling "augmented reality" to get an idea of how what I mean, the purpose is to take video input (and other sources of input) and augmenting with information from say, a computer, before displaying it on a head-mounted display. Or say, to have an IR camera mounted on the HMD in addition to the regular cameras, thus making it possible to use that video input to "see in IR".
/Mikael
Greylisting is to SMTP as NAT is to IPv4
my hopes lie here - hopefully HD in the release... http://www.microvision.com/pico_projector_displays/
"You are still innocent until proven guilty. What's changed is what they do to innocent people." by notnAP (846325)
While that would be cool for us, it was really pretty ridiculous for the use it was given in the Terminator movies. I mean, come on... the most efficient way to get information from a cyborg's archives into working memory is by displaying it in English in the visual field? In the peripheral vision, no less?
What if I do the same thing, and I do get different results?
I think what you're saying is that until PORN comes available on HMD, it isn't going to take off. You'd be amazed at how much porn drives technology.
Agent K: A *person* is smart. People are dumb, stupid, panicky animals, and you know it.
One word: Counterbalance.
https://www.eff.org/https-everywhere
I want some sort of HMD or wearable computer so badly. I want a camera to record where I go and what I do and act as a backup for my cranial memory. I want it to recognize faces to keep track of my history that person. I want an internet connection everywhere so that I can call up an alternative recipe on the fly when I realize at the last minute that I'm missing an ingredient. I want to use the sum analyses of my automotive commutes to recommend ways I can change my driving behaviour to extend the life of my car and use less fuel. I want ubiquitous, always-ready, augmented reality. I want to evolve and extend my senses beyond what any human has ever been capable of, and I want to keep my private matters private.
Is that so much to ask?
People just don't want to be teased with "hey Geordi" everywhere. It's bad enough at my job... I have a Linux box and a Windows box, each with dual monitors (not particularly big ones) and it's always "hey Houston, are you sure you don't need another monitor?" Everyone else
I always thought HMDs sounded like a great idea, too. I guess they won't be socially accepted until they're integrated into eyeglasses without any noticeable extra bulges anywhere, and wireless too. How to get the battery into such a small form factor will be quite a trick to pull off.
You know, I've been wearing glasses since I was 12 or so and all of this time they have always been a hindrance. They fall off, get crushed by a passer-by when I'm swimming, get scratched up, press up against my face when I fall asleep in the chair, fly off when I get on a roller coaster, get in the way when kissing and cause all other kinds of trouble. It would be nice to get something extra out of the bit of wasted realestate on my face.
Nerd rage, baby!
Because it just hangs on the wall, probably doesn't provide 3D, and I stop seeing it the moment I turn around or leave the room.
That's a very restricted solution. It works if you have a room to dedicate to it, and you're happy enough to interact with the system in one unique place. I think that's a pain and very limiting. Technology advances towards being portable. Making a huge investment in something I can't use most of the time seems the wrong way to go for me.
Er, a room covered with displays is exactly the old concept of VR. You're replacing reality completely there, except that instead wearing hardware it's all around you.
My understanding of "augmented reality" is precisely an HMD that mixes reality with VR. Things like:
Constant Internet connection that can be used at any time in any place
GPS overlay right over your vision while walking on the street
Vision enhacement - take the normal vision and modify it, by highlighting important things, removing ads, allow attaching a virtual sticky note on any building, extra cameras that allow to see from the back of your head or in infrared, easy lookups of data about things you see.
AR games: Merge reality and a game, playing say, a FPS in a park. Create a chessboard on any surface.
Merging RL with another world: I'd really like to be able to for instance merge RL with Second Life and make it so that somebody from SL can virtually sit near me and appear to be there.
The headmounted displays were accidently left in the flying cars in parking lot of the lunar hotel.
HMD's are so retro-chic. Don't you know that all the cool research is now tapping the brain's retina layer to augment/alter vision?
These days, I'm waiting for the hat/camera/socket that allow for text overlay, enhanced-spectrum cameras, and novel perspectives to our existing firmware.
Remember, when dreaming go big.
Its not Hi-Res but its something people would wear more than some bulky goggles:
http://www.digilens.com/products.html
Its more for augmented reality than virtual reality.
Of course if you've a thousand dollars to blow there is always one of Emagin's products:
http://www.3dvisor.com/
"I am the king of the Romans, and am superior to rules of grammar!"
-Sigismund, Holy Roman Emperor (1368-1437)
a 2" screen a half inch from your eye was not the way the human eye was intended to work. no offense to how cool it would be though, but our eyes just have not evolved for that type of input.. things like depth perception, spatial awareness and stereoscopy break down. the best we can do is overlay projections which have been used in broadway musicals for years, and HUD which has been used to help old people drive cars and young people blow up third world countries.
Good people go to bed earlier.
Especially the constant reviewing of commented 6502 source code for reading and writing to floppy disks by track and sector! Why possible purpose does it serve to be reading that while shooting up a police department?
Oh, say does that Star-Spangled Banner entwine / The myrtle of Venus with Bacchus's vine?
That's depressing. I can't recall having been so disappointed in /.'s "geek" credibility. Anyone who reads/posts here has NO business being confused about a) why a head-mounted semi-transparent display is FUNDAMENTALLY different than a large wall-mounted LCD or b) what augmented reality is.
Yeah - ridiculous for a cyborg, but awesome for me. I can't tell you how useful it would be for me if, when somebody walked up to me at a party, I received the following tips on my head's-up:
* Name: John
* Relationship: Husband of wife's co-worker
* How well known?: Talked 3 times informally
* Drink/Smoke: Y/N
* Topics to avoid: Christian (fanatic), Janet (knocking her off behind wife's back)
* Suggested topics: MMA/UFC, Italian food
Would save me a lot of awkward conversation lulls.
He's getting rather old, but he's a good mouse.
It ain't cheap, and I doubt you could even buy one if you had the cash, but for state of the art, do a little research into the HMD for the JSF (helmet mounted display for the Joint Strike Fighter / F-35). From the Rockwell Collins website:
"Vision Systems International (VSI), a joint venture between Rockwell Collins and Elbit Systems Ltd. of Israel, is developing the Helmet Mounted Display (HMD) for the JSF. VSI's HMD offers a compact, versatile, lightweight and extremely rugged display with low power consumption. The JSF HMD is a binocular off-the-visor display providing the pilot with a large field-of-view video/calligraphic image to both eyes."
http://www.vsi-hmcs.com/f35.htm
From what I've read, it's simply amazing. The pilot will be able to look in ANY direction (including straight thru his body or the bottom or rear of the cockpit) to see augmented reality - with data fused from multiple sensors including infrared and radar, overlaid on the real world.
http://uscockpits.com/Jet%20Fighters/F-35_Cockpit_(dusk_with_virtual_HMD).jpg
http://www.defenseindustrydaily.com/f-35-hmds-pulls-the-gs-04088/
By the way, "calligraphic" is worth noting. A normal video image simply cannot create very bright and precise light points, because it's a raster image. But a calligraphic display effectively overcomes this limitation, by using a separate CRT gun to hit the same phosphors with much more power in a non-raster format. So the display is a combined raster and beam system, providing some ability to provide very precise details at much higher brightness, while also allowing normal full-color display.
--Brandon / Split Infinity Music
Hmmm ... So Skynet started as a DeFragging tool that moved on to become a Fragging tool? Neat!
This space for rent. All reasonable inquiries will be entertained at proprietors discretion.
Sure, but it would also provide inspiration for epic conversation lulz.
So, John, I ran into Janet the other day at the pagan sex festival, where she and your wife performed unspeakable acts on a pentagram. Care for a smoke?
Or, alternatively: So, John, I herd u liek Christ, so I put some 'body of Christ' into the body of Janet.
"Trolls they were, but filled with the evil will of their master: a fell race..." -- J.R.R. Tolkien on Olog-hai
There was a short bit on BBC's Click (their "tech" news) a couple of weeks ago about a contact lens that is being built at the moment to give a visual overlay. So you could be nearer the mark than you think. It was not April the first either.
While that would be cool for us, it was really pretty ridiculous for the use it was given in the Terminator movies. I mean, come on... the most efficient way to get information from a cyborg's archives into working memory is by displaying it in English in the visual field? In the peripheral vision, no less?
The original Cylons were even better. What's the best way to pilot a raider? Strap in three robots, give them manual controls! And how do they communicate? By vibrating air molecules inside the ship! Wait, why was it pressurized again? So I take it if Cylons were in a ship that lost atmo, they'd have to communicate with sign language?
That's right up there with Transformers, robots sitting in chairs at control panels, looking at video screens, and talking into telephones.
How, having had our good laugh at this, I wonder how a Terminator-style robot would perceive that kind of information? I suppose any sensory recording from the unit would have a visual component as well as shitloads of onboard and environmental data that would be impossible for a human to fully appreciate. For humans debugging the prototypes of what Skynet eventually refined, I figure we'd probably see all shorts of HUD data that could be overlaid on top of the image for our benefit but Skynet wouldn't need it, nor would the terminator. I remember seeing a few years back an example of what sensory fusion and augmented reality could represent for a pilot. It showed transparent nested bubbles overlaid on the landscape representing the detection and engagement range of SAM's.
If we're talking about technical problems with the basic terminator design, I think the hydraulics and exposed interior of the chassis is probably the worst. To pass for human, a terminator would need to have muscles attaching to the endoskeleton at the right spots and flexing naturally along with the motion of the form. The superhuman strength would come from motors enclosed within the joints so as to keep them from becoming rusty and gunked up with the blood and bodily fluids. Still, thems jus some nitpicks. It still looks badass and terrifying.
Kwisatz Haderach
Sell the spice to CHOAM
This Mahdi took Shaddam's Throne
Because I'd rather they hacked my glasses (which I can take off) than my brain?
(Find me an OS or similar level project with zero security breaks, and I'll consider letting that team of programmers near a system I'd install in my head.)
'Sensible' is a curse word.
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The PiSight HMD promises 187 degrees horizontal and 84 degrees vertical FOV by tiling DLP chips. I have yet to see it myself, but the units start somewhere around $20K and go up depending on how much FOV you want). 1900x1200 per eye (kind of low, but higher than anything out there).
The problem to solve with HMDs is not just field of view or resolution--you also need to solve the convergence and accommodation problems.
I envision a future HMD unit integrating eye tracking and auto focus which exploits the way the human eye really sees (few degrees at a time, in extremely high resolution) instead of trying to render a very high resolution image at interactive frame rates. I imagine the fact that this has not been built is due to the catch-22 involving low demand and high cost [when only the military can afford your hardware and is willing to pay for it, there is absolutely NO incentive to mass produce it]
In the meantime, the state of the art in VR is still in systems like the CAVE. I think the Iowa State VRAC CAVE has something amazing like 16 Mpixel resolution...
I am waiting for one of the game companies to start exploiting this. In the meantime, get yourself a pair of NuVision Cinema LCD shutter glasses (around $100), a $500 emitter, and a DLP 3DTV device for under $3000 if you are serious about home-based VR. If you can drive the 3DTV device (NVidia is releasing drivers for it ... there is also hardware available from RealD), the quality is stunning. (You're on your own with head tracking...but there are cheap solutions out there such as the WiiMote based hacks...I've only used the more expensive solutions).
I've been involved with wearable computers since 1994. Further, I have been designing and fabricating head mounted displays for an academic client who is highly regarded in the field of optics since 2004. To say I know something about this subject would be a coy understatement.
What is clear from reactions to all my previous demos is that people want a head mounted display that is inconspicuous, fits well, has high resolution, full color, wide field of view and produces a high quality image. Oh, yeah, it should be inexpensive as well. Because I've been working with world class optical experts, I know the physical reality of the optics. These criterion conspire against one another; improving one diminishes the others. So, one must prioritize these and do the best we can.
Here is one potential ranking:
1) unobtrusive
2) fits well
3) image quality
4) wide field of view
5) full color
6) inexpensive
7) high resolution
Your request for high resolution with acceptable field of view and image quality makes the unobtrusive criterion impossible with today's technology. This is unacceptable to the public at large.
I am working on a display system now that fits behind an ordinary looking pair of sunglasses. We have compromised resolution and, to some degree, field of view. I'm bound by a confidentiality agreement but I can tell you we are making advances with each successive project. The HMD is the last remaining barrier to a compelling wearable computer. One day your cell phone will be in your sunglasses.