Return to the archive index

RE: Good HMDs

From: (Eric LaForest)
Date: Sun, 11 Jul 1999 01:20:08 -0400 (EDT)

>This goes out to everyone:
>
>What is your current wearable configuration and is it based on current
>technology?
>
>- Tony

A NetWinder in a metal over-case (impact/shck protection) in a thigh-mount
configuration with a gel-cell lead-acid battery in a fanny-pack.
Current I/O is done through a Compaq 286/LTE running Tunix, the best damn
DOS terminal emulator I have ever used.
This is useable, but way too bulky...and a waste, the 286 could make a
decent "super-portable" using Minix as an OS and a few minor modifications.

While I could use a shoulder-strapped, modified regular "mini-keyboard"
(the Happy Hacking one comes to mind) or a Twiddler, there is no currently
available HMD that is useable/affordable...what I really need a HMD that
can do 80x25 text *minimum*.  I don't care much for graphics, but the text is
utterly necessary.

The general design that Rhemi suggested a few days ago was pretty good.
An intelligent frame buffer accessed via serial/parallel interface with a
resolution in the 640x480 ballpark would serve most peoples' needs I
bet...along with being utterly flexible, controllable and efficient both
in terms of data transfer and power consumption.
It would have a high potential for Hack Value. :)

Of all the HMDs I researched, the P4 still seems to be the apex with the
M1 close second, losing out only in resolution and contrast.
(But comparing flat LCD to scanned LED is unfair, I conceed.)
All others are too bulky/power hungry/expensive/fragile or simply not
available to the general public.

If you could make a VT320 in a rugged HMD form factor, I'd buy it there and
then, even if its' cost was close to a 1000$CAN.

Perhaps the needs of the market/community could be better served by
keeping the M1/M2 as a graphics HMD for those who need it and can afford
it while producing a small, cheap, robust, crisp, text-only HMD for the (I
presume) majority that do not need graphics for daily use.

A VolksViewer of sorts. ;)

--
Eric LaForest      Nascent Linux Borg     -www.ncf.carleton.ca/~di458-
#define Hacker !(Cracker)  //FYI: http://www.tuxedo.org/~esr/jargon
Breaking into computers does not make one a hacker, for the same reasons
that hotwiring cars does not make one a mechanic... paraphr. from ESR

--
Subcription/unsubscription/info requests: send e-mail with subject of
"subscribe", "unsubscribe", or "info" to 
Wear-Hard Mailing List Archive (searchable): http://wearables.blu.org

+Previous Message in Thread | Next Message in Thread

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

Archive created with babymail