I just got a TekGear (www.tekgear.ca) M1 monochrome monocular HMD today. It was very easy to get up and running, I was able to assemble it and get it working in about 10 minutes. The VGA input appears to prefer 640x480, anything else doesn't fit on the screen well. The only "surprise" was about $20 of customs you have to pay if you order it from the U.S., but it arrived only two days after ordering (thanks NAFTA!) The M1 body rests just above your ear, and a flexible though stiff connector runs out to the display head just in front of your eyes. It is compatable with glasses. It is supported by a metal band that goes from above one ear across the top of the head to the other side (think like headphones, but nothing touches the ears). The band at first appears impossibly tight, but once you add the foam pads and put it on your head, you don't notice the tightness. It needs to be solid so the display doesn't fall off/jump around/etc. In case you didn't know, I'm using it on Win95. The M1 320x240 resolution means that there is some text on the screen you can't read, but I was suprised positively at how much I _could_ read on a 640x480 screen without any modifications. You might want to use a mouse that stands out better than the default one, and adding a couple of points to fonts makes things much more readable. Even if the M1 LCD resolution was higher, I'm not sure how much it would help much with readability of smaller text, since the individual letters would be real small anyway. As a glasses user, you might find that you need to clean ALL the gunk off your lenses, or else parts of the screen will appear blurry ;) The M1 looks very cool, especially from the front. It has a lot over a hacked-together CRT from a camcorder. Since my girlfriend and I will be wearing it to go along with her mobile webcam (http://www.thesync.com/carlazone), there were certain "fashion" requirements, and apparently it passed. My next move is to get a > 1000 mAH battery for it, and look for software that magnifies part of the Win95 display. Linux users with X-windows will definately benefit from one of those window managers that allow you to "pop" from one quadrant of a larger virtual desktop to another. -Thomas Thomas Edwards The SyncVideo for the Net Generation http://www.thesync.com 312 Laurel Avenue 1.301.438.7281 Laurel, MD 20707 -- Subcription/unsubscription/info requests: send e-mail with subject of "subscribe", "unsubscribe", or "info" to
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