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RE: Good HMDs - Was: help!!!

> From: Don Papp [mailto:]
> Sent: Tuesday, July 06, 1999 4:22 PM
> To: 
> Subject: Re: Good HMDs - Was: help!!!
>
>
> On Tue, 6 Jul 1999, Tony Havelka wrote:
>
> > technology. It is quite interesting that some people are willing to base
> > their wearable design on a 386 PC/104 module, or that they are
> willing to
> > reverse-engineer a camcorder CRT and risk death by high voltage
> shock, in an
> > effort to save cost, but are "holding off" on purchasing a
> commercial HMD
> > because there isn't one available that will do 800x600.
>
> 	I believe camcorder hacking is more about "getting resolution"
> than "saving cost".  (Though of course it is much cheaper.  The M1 is
> easily the most expensive component of any non-prefab wearable I have
> priced out)

Wow. 2 big points here.

1) I believe the number one issue in a wearable display should be
ergonomics, or human interface.  The CRT just does not cut it. It's heavy,
bulky, and extremely obtrusive.  All current HMDs out there outperform any
CRT based system in the area of ergonomics, hands down. This, by far, should
be the most important criteria when evaluating any wearable device.

2) I've priced out many non-prefab wearables and none of them with
acceptable performance have been under $700. (Cell, JumpTech, Ampro) And
$700 has been just for the CPU core. Add $100 for RAM and $200 for a hard
drive that puts you up to $1000 for a bare working unit. I have not
considered cut and paste Laptops as a wearable solution.

> 	The trend towards "waiting for something that does 800x600" may be
> explained as simple grass-is-always-greener, but perhaps that is not it.
> It could very well mean that to many wearable enthusiasts, display
> resolution is simply more important than CPU horsepower or whatever else
> you put it up against.

Following this argument, would it be safe to say that "wearable enthusiasts"
are willing to pay more for a display than they are a CPU core since they
value resolution higher then CPU performance? This does validate the earlier
comment of the M1 being priced higher than any wearable component - while it
is not now, maybe it should be.

- Tony

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