Nathan Miller wrote: > 1. Can one or more of the Eyetap designs (primarily video from what I > understand) not be adaped for use as an HMD for a wearable PC? If not, > what are the constraints? This isn't really a difference in video vs. PC other than driver boards, input signals, and the kind of resolution you're looking for. Eyetaps don't constrain you there. > 2. Given that Mann seemed to be fairly free with his designs at least > through 1997, why has the WearComp not had more influence? It seems > that people are still struggling with design problems that Mann would > certainly have had to overcome to get the kind of functionality he did... As you pointed out, Mann has been focused on video in/out, and mostly monochrome at that. People that want a wearable computer generally are looking for much higher resolution, color display HMDs. So there is a little disconnect there in functional requirements. That said there are other reasons why the eyetap, and HMDs with wearable computers, haven't taken off more. 1) Mann has a patent on the Eyetap arrangement, so commercial use of the design would be problematic without his cooperation. 2) For a time at least he was looking into building a commercial version, not the fiber optic one you pictured, but the larger one on the main page of eyetap.org. I don't think anything became of this, at least not yet. 4) Mann's devices are one offs, and not cheap at that. I believe the fiber optic unit you pointed out cost something like $10K or $20K to build. That makes Microoptical displays look like a bargin. The commecial design he proposed is the Borg looking one on the frontpage of Eyetap.org > Just trying to wrap my mind around all this, and there seems to be a > /major/ disjunct between the level to which Mann has taken the > technology and other homebrewed models I've seen out there. The disconnect is budget and that Mann moved away from using a regular backlight for an LCD to using a laser. This helps focal optic arrangemets, make the brightness adjustable such that you can use it in daylight, and allows nifty things like remote location of the LCD and laser backlight on your waist at the end of a fiber optic cable. Other that that it is pretty much the same technology, just that he can move it away from the front of his face. _______________________________________________ Wear-Hard mailing listhttp://www.haven.org/mailman/listinfo/wear-hard
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