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Re: Good HMDs - Was: help!!!

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>>Date: Tue, 06 Jul 1999 17:26:38 -0400
>>From: Dan Ritter <>
>>Cc: "Rehmi Post" <>, <>
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>>At 03:43 PM 19990706 -0500, Tony Havelka wrote:
>>>> From: Rehmi Post [mailto:]
>>>> The biggest problem still facing us all is the lack of a good,
>>>> in-production
>>>> head-mounted display suitable for constant use.
>>>>
>>>
>>>I beg to differ.  I think the biggest problem facing us all is the lack of
>>>useful mainstream applications that effectively utilize _current_ affordable
>>>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.
>>
>>Contrarily, I think that this just shows that a good display is now
>>the minimum necessary component for the tasks that people want to put
>>a wearable on.
>>
>>If I want a lightweight general purpose computer with a crappy display,
>>I can get a Pilot really cheaply. (I did, in fact.) But in order for me
>>to make the compromises in weight and battery life to get a serious CPU
>>(386/486/Px/StrongArm) then I demand a real display at a reasonable 
>>price point.
>>
>>Note that a 386 PC/104 setup plus a camcorder CRT will fit in a student's
>>price range - but if you're going to convince them to drop $500-800 on a
>>display, it had better have a minimum resolution that lets them feel like
>>they've made a serious investment. Even 640x480 is too wussy these days,
>>and in a year or so the baselevel for a mass-experimenter's HUD will be
>>1024x768.
>>
>>-dsr-

Even for those with larger pockets, (e.g. a funded project addressing
wearables) the issue of quality of display is often critical.  And many of
the "causual/curious" are probably thinking extended "laptop"  applications
that need 640x480.... 

Don't get me wrong, I have an M1 and its well suited for many tasks, the
question about what the users wants to do is very important.  (Btw, few
camcorder's (and none I've found cheap) with LCD's have display have better
than 320x240 real resolution. )

But if the application of the wearable involves lots of text, 640x480 is
critical ( If you want to display low-res BW video (one of the main
components of our application), the M1 is great.  But I find more than 1 hour
of "programming" on with the M1 quite taxing. Maybe it is becuase I have not
gone in whole hog and so most of my coding style is not adapted to 320x240
display (and since I am much slower with the twiddler than a qwerty) (And I
now have a sony-PL700 (800x600 res) I won't be changing my coding style to
match the display, its only a matter of time and $). A potential contributing
factors is that, my set of optics have noticable (but not instantly
objectionable) pin-cushion distortions. I presumed that may be because I got
an early model when they announced their "developers" price.  Do any other M1
users notice the pin-cushion (negative barrel)distortions?

Terry Boult --- Vision and Software Technology Lab, EECS Dept. Lehigh Univ.
		         http://www.eecs.lehigh.edu/~tboult

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