Do you develop on GitHub? You can keep using GitHub but automatically sync your GitHub releases to SourceForge quickly and easily with this tool so your projects have a backup location, and get your project in front of SourceForge's nearly 20 million monthly users. It takes less than a minute. Get new users downloading your project releases today!
squidgy writes "The BBC are reporting on a system that can superimpose images over your vision using small lasers beaming the images directly onto the retina. This is already being used in the car manufacturing industry. You too could soon have T101 vision."
This discussion has been archived.
No new comments can be posted.
There was a company from Seattle IIRC that was working with this around 5 to 7 years ago. It's an extremely cool technology though and I was bummed that I never heard anything else beyond that. Glad to hear it's still around.
I was really excited about this technology until they started onto application to cell phones. The track record of that industry to make something useful (a mobile phone with a list of names and numbers) into a convoluted hodge-podge of features hiding the useful features 4 layers down in the menus makes me shudder considering how they would implement this.
This technology is pretty well-established in the military. Information is painted directly onto the retina for pilots of the Apache helicopter. This data doesn't get faded out and you don't have to look down. Pilots can keep focused on their targets, etc. It's perfectly safe.
"Equivalent to 17-inch SVGA display at arm's length Nomad provides the same full-screen resolution as an SVGA desktop monitor. Most handheld devices display only quarterscreen resolution. Scrolling is virtually unnecessary."
So presumably around 1024x768 pixels...
And the colour depth:
"Monochrome red display Nomad's bright-red display provides high contrast
between the display information and virtually any
background view.
32 grey levels Nomad can display text, graphics, halftones or
video in any combination with excellent
readability."
The thing the surprised me was the price, only $3995, which seems pretty cheap, to be turned into a terminator....
I'm reminded of the bit where Arnie scans the dresscode in the bar, and the HUD flashes up 'Inappropriate' at one point...
I'm sorry, but that is incorrect. Unless they've changed the way the targeting devices work for the AH-64D. The AH-64A uses a small HUD that is clipped to the right side of the pilot's helmet. The image is projected on a piece of semi-transparent, angled glass, just like a regular HUD in any other military aircraft.
The innovative thing about the Apache was not the monocle. It was the way the monocle was boresighted and the way the helmet was tracked in 3D space inside the cockpit. The net effect was that, when the copilot/gunner looks at something, the aircraft can tell where he's looking. The TADS (or Target Acquisition and Designation System) follows his head motion. And, if the 30mm chain gun is the active weapon, it follows his head motion as well. All the CPG has to do is either lase to get a range or lase to designate the target and pull the trigger.
For the pilot, the helmet was boresighted so that the PNVS (or Pilot's Night Vision System) would automatically follow his head motions. The PNVS is an infrared system (not light multiplying) based in a small turret at the front of the aircraft. The pilots said that the perspective change took a bit of getting used to, but it worked very effectively.
Resolution is a little on the low side at 800x600 for me to get excited about. However it IS exciting that this technology is moving into the workplace - 5-10 years and prices should start dropping to consumer levels and the technology should have improved to a level where some of the..."funner" aspects of this technology become viable. Expect this technology to become pervasive within the next 20 years.
I really hadnt expected to see something like this at the sort of prices they are talking about for another 10 years or so - nice when the future comes early:)
-- Previous HMD's were very heavy (and unbalancing), and not suitable for long-term use; this is not the case with this implementation.
-- The displays used were relatively low quality, requiring small LCD screens with refresh, brightness, colour depth, and resolution issues; with this new design the only limiting factors are how fast you can modulate the laser intensity and how quickly you can scan the retina. (Colour depth is harder as it requires three seperate lasers of the appropriate wavelengths firing at the same mirror, but is within the bounds of possibility.)
-- Previous HMDs were not portable; they required physical lines back to a power supply and main processing units. Power consumption in this design is substantially reduced, meaning batteries and portables/wireless links can be used to make this design untethered.
Although the improvements may seem relatively minor, collectively they allow the use of HMDs in all kinds of applications that were previously completely untenable.
Actually, more specifically it's used to describe the action of using a laser to find the range of a target. Almost all personnel involved in using/developing/simulating target aquisition systems in the military that use lasers in this fashion say the word "lase" to aquire and identify (for the tactical software) targets.
Great sci-fi where one of the main technologies "Conceptual Space" or communal wallpaper where large parties of people (like the bridge crew of their ship) equipped with these eye scanners create a seamless simulation. Nice to see Tech following in the track laid down by Fiction.
by Anonymous Coward writes:
on Tuesday April 27, 2004 @03:15PM (#8987640)
This usage of "lase" would be fine except that it already is used to mean that which the gas atoms (or whatever) do in an operating laser. After all, the primary verb in LASER is the "A"mplification, which is done by the atoms.
This isn't new... (Score:3, Informative)
Already out there.... (Score:2, Informative)
Pretty cool, but I wish they would do tricolor lasers and then blast full color into they eye. Power might be an issue... ah, retina over easy?
Re:"You've got mail!" (Score:2, Informative)
Apaches Already Have This (Score:2, Informative)
Display resolution, colour depth (Score:5, Informative)
And the colour depth:
The thing the surprised me was the price, only $3995, which seems pretty cheap, to be turned into a terminator....
I'm reminded of the bit where Arnie scans the dresscode in the bar, and the HUD flashes up 'Inappropriate' at one point...
Slightly OT: Re:Apaches Already Have This (Score:5, Informative)
The innovative thing about the Apache was not the monocle. It was the way the monocle was boresighted and the way the helmet was tracked in 3D space inside the cockpit. The net effect was that, when the copilot/gunner looks at something, the aircraft can tell where he's looking. The TADS (or Target Acquisition and Designation System) follows his head motion. And, if the 30mm chain gun is the active weapon, it follows his head motion as well. All the CPG has to do is either lase to get a range or lase to designate the target and pull the trigger.
For the pilot, the helmet was boresighted so that the PNVS (or Pilot's Night Vision System) would automatically follow his head motions. The PNVS is an infrared system (not light multiplying) based in a small turret at the front of the aircraft. The pilots said that the perspective change took a bit of getting used to, but it worked very effectively.
I was an Apache crewchief for four years.
Too expensive atm... (Score:3, Informative)
Resolution is a little on the low side at 800x600 for me to get excited about. However it IS exciting that this technology is moving into the workplace - 5-10 years and prices should start dropping to consumer levels and the technology should have improved to a level where some of the..."funner" aspects of this technology become viable. Expect this technology to become pervasive within the next 20 years.
I really hadnt expected to see something like this at the sort of prices they are talking about for another 10 years or so - nice when the future comes early
Re:Heads up display (Score:4, Informative)
-- Previous HMD's were very heavy (and unbalancing), and not suitable for long-term use; this is not the case with this implementation.
-- The displays used were relatively low quality, requiring small LCD screens with refresh, brightness, colour depth, and resolution issues; with this new design the only limiting factors are how fast you can modulate the laser intensity and how quickly you can scan the retina. (Colour depth is harder as it requires three seperate lasers of the appropriate wavelengths firing at the same mirror, but is within the bounds of possibility.)
-- Previous HMDs were not portable; they required physical lines back to a power supply and main processing units. Power consumption in this design is substantially reduced, meaning batteries and portables/wireless links can be used to make this design untethered.
Although the improvements may seem relatively minor, collectively they allow the use of HMDs in all kinds of applications that were previously completely untenable.
That is why this is a big deal.
link to the company (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Slightly OT: Re:Apaches Already Have This (Score:2, Informative)
Vernor Vinge ... Deepness in the Sky (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Slightly OT: Re:Apaches Already Have This (Score:1, Informative)
that which the gas atoms (or whatever) do in an operating laser. After all,
the primary verb in LASER is the "A"mplification, which is done by the
atoms.