Retinal-Scanning Screen Prototypes

Troed writes: "Microvision demonstrated a prototype display that uses three leds and a mirror to display SVGA graphics from something small enough to be put into cellphones." Not a lot of technical details, but what's there looks good. It'll be a few years at best before the prototypes turn into real products, and I'm not quite sure I want to beta test this one, but I sure can't wait for when they are ready for prime time.

Re:Effects on eyes

[PowerTroll 5000]

Probably not, since Microvision just developed the prototype.

But I see where you're coming from with the idea, no pun intended. Ever try to focus on a close up object? It's rather difficult, so I figure eyestrain would be a factor.

Also, the article is somewhat light on the specifics on usage, how close to the eye, power usage (current and intended market), etc.

Laser light / Normal light

[Renraku]

Any kind of light ultimately damages the eye. Some types do more damage than others. Lasers, notorious for being high power and having the ability to easily blind people have gotten a bad rep. Low-power lasers do very little harm, probably less harm than a few minutes outdoors on a bright Winter day. I believe they are doing this now, or will be starting to, paint images on the retina directly using a laser for flight and other types of training.

Augmented Reality Folks

[Anonymous Coward]

The real gem of this technology is that it will eventually lead to full heads-up augmented reality computing.

Imagine walking down a street or park, and projected out in front of you is all types of interactive data about whats going on. You could be hiking, and with the assistance of GPS and this retinal display, a live top map could be projected over your field of vision, giving you great insight and clues as to where you are going. Better still, such GIS information such as water, underground pipes, etc would be available for full viewing just as if you had x-ray vision.

For doctors, full 3D PET/CAT scan data could be overlayed in vivid detail right on top of the patient as the doctor operates. The doctor could see in complete detail exactly what she was doing as she made the incision.

I don't know about you but MicroVision Technologies is a stock I'm going to buy, they are going to be huge.

OLD Technology...

[X86Daddy]

...well, when it comes to this arena anyway.

MIT's 'borgs [mit.edu] have been using prototype retinal scanning displays from various companies that have offered them for at least half a decade.

Back around '97 I was really interested in wearables, but the availability of this type of display was always a problem, and all the suppliers that the MIT crew had listed no longer sold the devices (and they were only selling them as dev-kits anyway)

Read up on MIT's "Lizzy." The most popular display back then was a single LED (red) scanning display, with 320x240 resolution, but it was the same exact technology.

Re:What about deformed retinas?

[Jerf]

Here's a thought; this sort of thing could replace current eye exam methodologies, or at least supplement them.

Rather then asking a series of binary questions, "Is this... or this... better?", give the examinee some control over the process and do things like "Twist this knob until the line is in focus."

Where this could become really useful is in the more exotically deformed eyes... 'normal' near-/far-sightedness is identified plenty well by current methodologies, but imagine someone with spherical distortion being able to fiddle with the knobs until they see things correctly, and letting the computer figure out what the settings are. Or perhaps "Make this line so it doesn't curve."

One could theorectically do some of this with just a screen, but this technology might allow better control over precise focus and other similar precise controls that might make this significantly better then current practice.

I'm not an optamologist, just a nerd rambling, so perhaps this is already being looked into.