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New Display Keeps an Eye On the Viewer

Posted by Soulskill on from the apparently-it-watches-the-watchers dept.

Al writes "Researchers at Fraunhofer Institute for Photonic Microsystems (IPMS) have developed an OLED display that doubles as a camera. The idea is to use it in lightweight heads-up displays that track users' eye movements, affording some form of gaze-control. The researchers will demonstrate a prototype at the Society for Information Display conference in San Antonio this week. The current version has a simple monochromatic display: it is 1.25 centimeters on each side, with a resolution of 320 by 240 pixels. The team at Fraunhofer IPMS has also partnered with Novaled, an OLED company that manufactures high-quality white diodes, and plans to make color prototypes using the technology."

5 of 61 comments (clear)

  1. Incorporate this in a TV along with a cable modem- by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    And BLAMMO-- Big brother is watching!

  2. Apple might have a patent for this... by distantbody · · Score: 3, Insightful

    ...They submitted a patent application for something like this in January 2006 see here. Personally I would prefer to use a discreet webcam.

  3. Prototype, eh? by iamdrscience · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The camera in the researchers' current prototype is still fairly rudimentary. It has a resolution of only 12 pixels, which means that it can't yet track a user's eye movements.

    In other news, I have made a prototype flying car in my garage. It doesn't fly yet, but I have put some stylish looking fins on it.

    1. Re:Prototype, eh? by moon3 · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Fraunhofer guys invented MP3 compression, this German think tank do have results..

      Also this is proof of concept. It doesn't really matter whether the resolution is 12 or 1024.

  4. Re:reversal by inviolet · · Score: 4, Insightful

    In Soviet Russia, screen watches you!

    You laugh, but this invention is important. Video-phones cannot catch on without it, because humans require eye contact in order to trust each other. You can't have eye contact over a video-phone unless your camera is also your monitor.

    --
    FATMOUSE + YOU = FATMOUSE