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Sony's Head Mounted Display (Cont)
madsatcom noted that
the Sony Head Mounted Monitor that we mentioned awhile back
is actually available now
on the Sony Website. I can't find a resolution on that page,
but it simulates a 30" screen, weighs 4.2 ounces, and costs
a woppin' $2600... If anyone at Sony is reading, repeat after
me: "Rob Must Test One of These Screens. Contact Him Now And
Offer Him a Sample Unit". Seriously, wearable computing is
getting closer, it just ain't getting much cheaper.
$2600 isn't THAT bad... I just wish I could get a credit from Toshiba for an LCD I wouldn't use if I had this...
Seriously, $2600 for first generation isn't too bad - out of the reach of most people, but so were the first CD players, 8MM VTRs, and DVD players. Wearables are just around the corner - they'll cost a mint at first too. But, like all good things that sell, it'll come down.
Don'tcha just love the disclaimer on the page?
"Note: This product should not be used by children age 15 or younger. Individuals with eye or heart disease or injury or high blood pressure should consult a doctor prior to use."
What is the big deal with wearable computers anyway? What purpose do they serve other than the 'cool i can wear it, so let me go sit down and play on the internet'?
I was browsing the shopping pages and found a video-only version of the Glasstron for $800.
c atalog.cgi?FNC=GoToFrameset__Aproduct_deta il_html___PLM-A55
http://vaiodirect.sel.sony.com/cgi-bin/catalog/
Sorry, it's a TV-resolution version. Still decent, tho.
Not the same thing. This one is only a tv monitor that accepts NTSC signals. No VGA imputs in sight for this version. Besides the fact that the resoulution is a mere 800x255. Hardly adequate for an computer use.
Fine for Quake. 8vP
two to three years ago i took a tour of the
Human Interface Technology Lab at UW and got
to try out their retinal displays. they were
safe laser or lcd devices that drew directly
on the retina. the image was greyscale, about
640x480, and shakey because the projector was
fixed and did not follow the movement of your
eye, BUT even given that the experience was
fantastic.
Why aren't these things mainstream now? At
the HITL they were even bragging about how
damn cheap they were, and how they were perfect
for people who wear near/far-sighted.
I'm probably going to sound like a conspiracy whack-o, but
sonic washing machines were supressed. I bet you
these retinal displays are going to be supressed
too. Too much money in the conventional display
department.
>a "see-through function"
You mean sorta like a hands free kit for the mobile ?
Like no one has ever driven into the car in front while using one of them };)
I can see it now, some idiot is going to put these on, start playing a video game and walk out into a 6 line highway and get hit with a fsking truck.
That is just the start, then this injured idiot is going to sue sony for $8 million and live the rest of his life in a beach front house.
They need to just put a disclaimer on them:
This device impares your vision and hearing, you will die from them if you are stupid. WARNING: extreme dumbness will cause death... use at your own risk
The show was on Undercurrents, a CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Company) show, so you would need to live in Canada. They seemed to spend not only a long time dicussing the Phillips scuba (one of the worst HMDs EVER built!), but the tests they showed were done at 320x200. I've even felt sick playing Doom at 320x200, the resolution (realism) is the factor, not the frame rate, if you ask me...
I was in San Francisco over the July 4th weekend and saw that they were demoing the headset at the new Sony Metronome (or whatever they call it) store downtown. The line was way too long for me to try it out for my self.
You know you must have it though... :)
Nuff said.
SVGA 800 by 600 resolution. Highest res for lowest cost currently available in the head mounted market.
BTW: CDW via Pricewatch lists it for 2100 something.
I have programmed for the virtual i-o iglasses. Whether or not this applies to Sony's HDM is another matter, but with the iglasses, it was field and frame separated. You see when you are running it in (say) 320x200 (standard mode 0x13) which is 60 frames per second, the iglasses would take every other row and put it into one eye's screen 30 times a second, and the other scan lines into the other eyes 30 times a second, alternating. Now if you hook up an NTSC output, the output is interlaced so that there are 30 frames a second, but it is made up of alternating fields (some on the even rows, some on the odd). So on the computer the easiest thing to do would be to draw what you wanted on the left on to be on certain rows, and on the right on the other rows. Probably the VGA to NTSC converter interlaces it for you. Also you could try to update the screen 60 times a second but the problem is you never know if you are currently on the right or the left eye, and if you miss a frame it'll flip. It is kinda cool though, to do with blue and red alternating screens, which looks purple, but in the iglasses you get red in one eye and blue in the other. I wrote a triangle drawing routine which you could specify which eye to draw to the three points, and it would automatically draw the correct rows. Fun stuff. Also, the head tracking stuff was really cool on the iglasses, but never found any real use for it except in the demos that came with the glasses.
I just saw a story on CNN that Sony did a promotional gig at NASCAR racetracks, showing live racecams on Glasstrons. It appeared to be new hi-rez unit. They showed the signal coming from camera in the car, it was pretty shaky, it was nowhere near the quality this system could produce. But people seem to love the effect. If only it was stereographic!
Anyway, one thing to note about the Glasstron is, why is it called a GLASStron. The Glasstron can be made completely transparent, so you can view the TV picture overlaid on your normal field of vision. It has a variable transparency control that apparently uses a polarizing effect; you can turn the dial to change the amount of "reality" you can see beyond the picture. You can tune out reality and just view the video on a black background, or just "dim" reality so its barely visible unless you're paying attention.
That's also part of the reason why Sony puts such ridiculous disclaimers on the unit. Sony thinks you could walk around wearing the unit, and if you weren't paying attention you could walk in front of a bus. They are also scared of the "Pokemon Effect" giving people epileptic seizures. Its also really easy to lose your balance watching a Glasstron. I watched a a flying POV scene while standing and I found it hard to keep my balance. I don't even want to THINK about some idiot trying to drive a car while using a Glasstron.
BTW, cmdrtaco should stop whining "oh pleeeze send me a free eval unit." You just made a a chunk of cash and you can afford to purchase a Glasstron if you want one. I think its your responsibility to check it out for us. Sony's website takes credit cards.
Posted by Mike@ABC:
Why don't we just have a microphone on there and a voice-recongition system. (Before I get flamed, yes, they aren't 100 percent reliable. Neither is my typing.)
Get these goggles, a mike, a small screen with handwriting-recognition (the Calligraphy software on Vadem's Clio is great) to wear on your arm, and a CPU/memory/storage unit to clip on the belt. Anybody out there build this yet? It's do-able, I'd imagine.
Of course, there's always the possibility of walking into walls while communing with your computer.
Where ya been? :) It's meant for the VAIO laptops for use whenever you need privacy - watching a DVD, etc.
Not sure what's funnier... The original post or some of the replies. Going from "hey, don't pick on Robby" to "yeah, ya prick!" Some things never change and have even become startlingly predictable. :)
If some dumbass wears it out in public, then I'd wager the dork deserves to get run over by a bus. There's better things to look at outside than C code. But then hey, at least the guy made it outside... ;>
ah the wonders of getting sued, Americ's favourite pass-time.
Almost as bad as the writing on the side of coffee cups at McDonalds - "Caution contents hot" - after some poor person got scoldered and the sued. I fscking well hope the coffees hot, hate iced coffee:-)
martin
Tried one like it when I worked for another company that made HMD's (The defunct Virtual IO) I was not impressed, resolution is the key.
When they can do 800 x 600 without fancy double scaning or other faux resolution enhancements, I might be interested.
Head tracking is important and the Sony does not seem to have any.
"Think of it as evolution in action."
On the other hand, there have been lots of nifty things going on in wearable-land lately, and it is indeed getting cheaper. You can put together a pentium-class truly wearable system these days for about the cost of a good desktop machine. Check out EMJ ( http://emjembedded.com) and for a truly wearable HMD, look at microooptical ( http://microopticalcorp.com), or at tekgear for the M1 ( http://tekgear.ca). The HMD's are both greyscale QVGA now, but the M2 is expected to be out in a year or so (?) and is projected to be 16M color 800x600, and MicroOptical is also working on a color high-res version of their display.
Make no mistake, wearable computing (IMHO) will be The Next Really Big Thing in computing, sort of akin to the PC in the late 70's-early 80's or the internet in this decade. This won't be for maybe another five years, but those of you who want to be in on the ground floor, start hacking now! :-)
----------------------
There is no K5 cabal.
I am not the real rusty.
Could somebody with more technical experience about LCDs please tell me why that is so?
- the Crazy Fraggle
It says that this display simulates a 30" display approx. 6 feet ahead of you. It does this by using 2 LCD displays. But is it possible to use those 2 displays to create a 3D picture instead of just placing the 2D display at a fake distance?
- the Crazy Fraggle
> I can't find a resolution on that page
Looking lower down on the page, the description of the LCD used is: "0.7 inch 155M dots, 832 (H) x 624 (V)". That's good enough for me...
This is a higher resolution version. Read the Specs. THe $800 version is only TV grade, while this one does SVGA 800x600.
I saw one of these about three years ago (yes *three* years ago) at a computer expo in New Zealand. I was going to test a pair out but the damn rep ignored me and took them away...silly bag. Hmmm, I've just got my holiday pay...perhaps I'll ge a pair :)
"I just can't sit while people are saying nonsense in a meeting without saying it's nonsense" J Watson, Sci Am 288:(4)51
"Note: This product should not be used by children age 15 or younger. Individuals with eye or heart disease or injury or high blood pressure should consult a doctor prior to use."
May cause death, epilepsy, impotence, fondness for Microsoft Works, dislike of Warner Bros. cartoons.
But apart from that it's great.
That's what I love about this country... as soon as you get ahead all sorts of people feel justified in telling you how to spend your money. "You are richer than I, therefore you must spend frivelously for my benefit. You owe it to me since I don't have as much money."
Eagles may soar, but weasels don't get sucked into jet engines.
If you delve into the specs:
Battery Life/Charging Time (battery not included):
NP-F550 - Approx. 1H/Approx. 4H;
NP-F750 - Approx. 2H/Approx. 8H;
NP-F950 - Approx. 3H/Approx. 12H;
So, the highest priced (not included) battery will last 3 hours, take 12 hours to recharge? I guess that's enough time for my Ft. Lauderdale/Boston trips, but I'd like more.... Gimme gimme gimme!
Seriously, I can see myself sitting on a plane playing Playstation games on my G3 laptop with a simulated 30" screen. Mmmm.
--Mid
From the specs page
I've been waiting N years to get one of these bad boys, I wan't permanently implanted HUDs, why would I want to take it off?
On a more serious note, the **same** problems were reported when television was introduced, when monitors were introduced, and especialy when 3d games were introduced. It is the result of a strange learning morphism in the way your brain sees things, but the good news is, you learn to **switch** modes pretty fast, which is why you can play quake and the get up and walk.
-Crutcher
-- Crutcher --
#include <disclaimer.h>
You seem to be under the impression that when you have this on, you can't see what you're doing or where you're going. In fact, the specifications page mentions a "see-through function", by use of an LCD shutter system, so you can either view just the image, or the real world and the image at the same time.
However if you wear one of these while walking down the street, I think you'd look like a moron.
AFAIK, the LDI-D100BE is true stereo 800x600@85Hz (triads, not pixels) ( www.vrt.de/products/sony/glasstron.as p). But the stereo is field rather than frame sequential, which I gather makes it a bit of a pain to drive. Field of view is only 28 deg., which might be fine for movies, but it's not exactly right up there for HMDs.
As for the price, it's cheaper than anything else with that resolution.
And you can mount (e.g.) an InterSense InterTrax 3DOF tracker pretty easily, I gather.
What I want to know is, how does the field scanning work, and has anyone got it working on a PC?
Any comments, either here or mailed directly, would be great. I can't be the only person evaluating this stuff...
If you have nothing better to say, why don't you shut up? If you have a problem with this place and the guys that run it, why the fuck are you here? Get a life, no one is interested in your opinions, especially when they are as dim-witted as these.
I can't remember which TV show it was but they had a huge warning about these types of things. It seems that if you wear it for too long it can screw you up for when you take it off. It had something to do with the frame rate (so to speak) that our brains sees the natural world and what these things can provide. Once you brain got used to seeing things through these viewers, it had a hard time going back to normal. They were doing tests in one of the Disney places (world, land ?) and people who tested these new arcade games complained of dizziness and disorientation after leaving the game. They also reported that a few games were removed because of this. Does anyone remember seeing this? It was within the last 2 weeks. I'm in Canada so I don't know if you Americans saw it or not.
I don't know how real this is or whether it includes these devices but thought I'd add my 2 cents.
if only the damn pricetag was lower
One thing I noticed, though, after thoroughly unscientific testing: everyone who put this headset on began to lower their head until their chins were literally resting on their chest.
My theories why this happens:
- The weight of the unit, with its center of gravity out in front of your head, will push it down. (I checked out one of the Sony HUDs, and it has similar trouble.)
- This is the interesting one. I would imagine that, if we weren't forced to hold up our heads in order to see what we wanted to, our neck would naturally relax. Most of my participants didn't even notice where their head went until they took the headset off.
Don't get me wrong. I dig the concept of the HUD. Their cool factor is undeniable. But until they can beam an image onto a regular pair of glasses, which I don't find particularly feasible, or from the temple of a pair of glasses directly onto the retina, ain't no friggin way HUDs are going to fly. (Scenario 3: your office furniture becomes a recliner with a split keyboard and a HUD. Whoever comes up with this needs product placement in The Matrix II.Anyway, my i-Glasses always get the desired response from visitors: "Dude, that is so fucking cool!" But I think I'd rather use a Braille reader than that thing for real work.
Sony's display (it's called the Glasstron, by the way) is not at all good for walking around. The transparent function is not that great, you can't see through that well, and it's hard to read the screen. If you don't want to pay $2600, just buy their cheaper NTSC version for about $800 and use a scan converter
If you remove the need for a screen from a laptop and add a second power source to power the replacement then you can cram more oomph into the same size box and it should last longer as well. The only problem I can see is I would need to learn to touch type as I would not be able to see the keyboard.
Alternatively if you use a chord input device - once considered to be the way to go - you can make the portable any shpae you want as you are nolonger hampered by screen or keyboard.
And thirdly if you want to save space then a monitorless desk is smaller and less costly than the current set up in trading floors... you add the motion sensor and you can pan through multiple screens answer the phone etc., etc. The merchant banks currently throw large amounts of money at getting more people onto their trading floors so the price would be no obstacle.
If the are going to put in independant lcds for the two eyes. Why not got the small extra effort and make the thing stereoscopic. For $2600 I want a whole new quake experience. at 800x600 the
TNT2Ultras could display at 30+ FPS independantly to each eye. They could use the gizmo in the new microsoft gamepad to do the head tracking.
Sorry to burst everyone's bubble here, but I've seen and played with this cool looking toy.
Sony actually started selling this exact head-mounted disply with their portable DVD player, only diff was minus the VGA/Composite/Svid converter box. Whats worse tho, you can buy the "DVD-Tron" at home theater shops for $1200, Same goggles, plus a REALLY nice portable DVD player. (or $799 if not sold as a kit!) I really don't know what Sony is thinking here with their $2400 price tag...
As far as quality, well, I wasn't impressed. Much better than head displays I've seen before, but these thing STILL have a long way to go.
If you are looking to play video games or watch DVD on the new little 3 lb Panisonic player then you can get a A-55 that will project a 52" screen at lower resolution for about 600 bucks from Video Direct. Guy at the store said the battery is just a video camera battery so an extra battery you could watch several movies. The ones I tried on where great. Has stereo sound also.