RE: Perhaps a cheaper HMD

From Wear-Hard Mailing list Archive (WH) Maintained by R. Paul McCarty

Note that Vuzix (was icuiti) has a $400 VGA HMD (VR920) that does SVGA text.
Might not be covert, but its not $1000 either. The gaming marketplace is
driving the commercial use of the technology.

Chuck

"I have yet to see any problem, however complicated, which, when looked at
in the right way, did not become still more complicated."

Poul Anderson 

-----Original Message-----
From: Brian Chabot [mailto:] 
Sent: Friday, September 07, 2007 1:52 AM
To: Wearable Hardware Discussion List
Subject: Re: [Wear-Hard] Perhaps a cheaper HMD

Friar wrote:

> The only way to prove that QVGA is a workable
> display size is to show that you can ONLY
> solve a cool problem by wearing a computer as
> apparel.  This is the old "killer app" concept.
> And at this point, it has to be truely genre-
> busting to make an impact and still manage to
> make a fashion statement instead of a fashion
> faux pas.  Otherwise people will just continue
> to fill their pockets with the ipodphone-
> gameboy combo and lug around a laptop when
> they actually need computer work done.

There are apps that you really need a wearable with HMD to pull off but few
have really made it out of Alpha testing - reality augmentation and memory
enhancement come to mind.  For that you really need a partially transparent
HMD which would also help in the loss of depth perception and balance.

> In my opinion, the minimum display rez that
> will actually capture attention is probably
> native 720p HDTV (1280x720x24bpp).

The other possibility is to use the "pixels" measurement rather than
display resolution - 300,000 pixels sounds better to the average
unthinking consumer than "VGA" or "640x480".

> All without
> looking like a freak.

There's the key.  The display needs to be discreet.  If you look like
you're on your way to a Star Trek convention, it's not going to be a big
selling point.

> (and anybody who says "but, what about
> truely mobile computing?" has never tried
> strapping a computer to a newbie and
> watched them proceed to walk into every
> coffee table/sharp object within 10 feet.
> Hilarious? Yes.  Mainstream? No).

...and never tried to read a long file while walking...

Displays hidden in glasses are good.  Especially if they're
semi-transparent.  Geordie LaForge visors and Borg attachments have a
low sales appeal. (...as much as some of us may be amused by them...)

In any case though, $2000USD is not going to cut it, no matter how good
the display is otherwise.  $2000 for a complete system with
context-aware environment, GPS mapping, facial recognition, voice I/O,
wifi, 3G, BT, and cell phone?  Now we're talking.

Brian

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