[FoRK] Re: [Wearables] So, what *is* wrong with HITL/microvision?

[Eugen Leitl]

----- Forwarded message from Blair MacIntyre <blair at cc.gatech.edu> -----

From: Blair MacIntyre <blair at cc.gatech.edu>
Date: Tue, 8 Jan 2008 21:52:18 -0500
To: wearables-list at media.mit.edu
Subject: Re: [Wearables] So, what *is* wrong with HITL/microvision?
X-Mailer: Apple Mail (2.915)

On Jan 8, 2008, at 8:28 PM, Adam Oranchak wrote:

> Robin Lee Powell wrote:
>> I remember, and I'm sure some of you do to, Back In The Day when
>> HITL said they'd have full-resolution 24-bit colour in something the
>> size of a grain of rice or whatever for a few hundred dollars.  IIRC
>> "the day" was 1995 or so.
> Well, you just stepped into a realm that I am intimately aware of.  
> (Yes,
> you cheeky ones, I said "intimately!") It just so happens that all  
> those
> specifications neglected to tell you that the image was crap, that if
> the display moved out of alignment from the wearer's eye by a  
> millimeter
> off you lost half the image, that the corners were dark and
> pin-cushioned and that the 8 bits of red depth of one pixel appeared
> over the 8 bits of green produced by a pixel 10 pixels away. Oh  
> yeah, it
> cost $20K.

Wow ... tell us how you really feel, Adam.  Don't hold back.  :)

Of course, never having used the original one, and having owned and  
used a more modern $3.5K version of VRD (the "nomad expert  
technician", I would suggest that readers take what you say with a  
grain of salt.  I found the Nomad to be very nice.  Yes, there are  
issues when you move rapidly, but aside from that, I found the image  
quite good, the exit pupil large, the field of view better than most  
other displays in that price range.

I won't bother listing my "credentials", though.  I don't do HMD  
optics, I just use them.

All that said, to actually answer the first question:  rumor has it  
that they will have a small, full-color prototype delivered to the  
military this year.  I'm anxious to see it, as I still believe that  
the VRD is the most promising approach to usable, high-res, wide-field- 
of-view HMDs out there.   All other approaches seem to require lots of  
big crap in front of your face, which just won't cut the mustard with  
the general public.

cheers,
  blair
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Eugen* Leitl <a href="http://leitl.org">leitl</a> http://leitl.org
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