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Technology

New Low-Power Wearable Monitor 30

Posted by CmdrTaco from the gimme-gimme-gimme dept.
Chris Calabrese writes "CMP TechWeb just posted a story on a new wearable monitor technology that promisses low power consumption and high performance. Still kind of expensive, but it would be nice to have one anyway. " $2500-$5k? Ah well, I can dream.
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New Low-Power Wearable Monitor More

New Low-Power Wearable Monitor

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  • How would a "direct optic nerve connection" be "better" than a retinal display? How could anything be more directly connected to the optic nerve than the retina is? Are you an idiot, or just an unthinking ignorant person?

    Retina processes the data that it receives, so at the input there is a grid of cells that produce signals that represent grayscale pixel or color-filtered pixel. Grid isn't as regular as CRT or LCD screen, so producing the image that looks flat requires to somehow make a projection on a retina (trivial solution is optical projection, but in theory other things can be made).

    However the output of retina that goes to a nerve is not a pixels field, it's encoded information with some steps of pattern recognition already made on it. The evolution of retina-to-brain interface was quite complex, and a lot of "hackish" things are used in the existing "design". It was perfectly normal for a frog retina to contain cells that actually made decisions used in hunting (this is why famous flies-hanging-on-the-threads experiment works -- recognition mechanism is too stupid to recognize a motionless fly as a fly because it's too damn small!). So encoding information in a way, used by the retina, will be very useful -- it will pretty much eliminate resolution problems, reduce the necessary bandwidth, etc. However no one has any idea how to duplicate it, retina is very hard to reverse-engineer.

  • Posted by bSMfh (bastard ScoutMaster fro:

    I want one!!!

    Add the crank generator on a hip belt, and your iridium rig, and you would really be set!

  • Just imagine being able to see that you're going at 95mph without ever taking your eyes off the road, while at the same time having an X window in front of your eyes displaying the video captured with the bttv driver showing what seems to be a state trooper right behind you...

    Oh my, I guess it was too bad an experience...

    ^D
  • As owner of previous VirtualVision display(Sport) and LiquidVision M1, here's my take:

    First, these new monitors are in same price range as other monitors with comparable resolution. So they ain't expensive.

    Second, they are not for VR applications, they are intended for 'mediated reality', that is, they are see-through, and you can do your normal work while looking at, say, aircraft assembly charts on your display. Having stereo displays is useless in this situation, as eye would probably not able to sync up to both images in HMD AND to outside world (so 3D aircraft assembly chart is not possible). In fact, new Sony Glasstron has 2 displays in it, but displays same image on both of them.

    For now, www.microopticalcorp.com has the best display...Totally non-intrusive, people won't be able to tell that you are wearing it. Compare that to me walking around with M1 and looking like a borg. Or VirtualSport, which makes me look like a madman by wearing ski-goggle eyeglasses in summer :)
  • A number of people believe that cell phones can cause brain tumors in people who use them a lot. I wonder if these monitors have the same problems?

    --
    Timur Tabi
    Remove "nospam_" from email address
  • How about a generator that uses a pendulum to
    recharge batteries as you walk?

    (hey! that's an idea! A laptop battery that
    gets recharged by a pendulum generator when
    you carry the laptop on the bag! The generator
    can be built into the bag so it'd work with all
    laptops)
  • its a bit pricy for an accessory.. =) i guess im low-tech or something.. but wearing my hardware would make me feel like part of the borg..

  • Dude. I got pricing at the Embedded Systems Conference around 50 bucks per display from Colorado Microdisplay. What the fuck is this 2500 bucks crap? Is the extra 2400 bucks for the "helmet?" Someone needs to undercut these guys, and FAST. (oh yeah - for pics, check out http://www.virtualvision.com/Products.htm)
  • I also own a Virtual Vision Sport. I got it for $200 at a surplus place in Bellevue, WA (VV is headquartered in Redmond, 5ish miles from M$). I've hooked it up to my computer before, but it's meant for TV so the resolution wasn't up to it. Besides, it's see-thru, so you have to use the darkest lens just to read off of it (large fonts).

    I fear it'll have the same problem as the VVS, which is that it has a very short (10cm-ish) focal length, which gets REALLY uncomfortable after a while. It's also hard to read because it isn't stereoscopic, it'll give you a headache after a while.
  • I'll vouch for this guy. I was also at the Colorado Microdisplay booth in the Embedded Systems Conference and had a chance to stick my eye in one of their demo units. The eye piece was about the size of a 16-20pak of gum but the development vga encoder box was about the size of a desktop PC (although they did have a non-cardbus PCMCIA VGA encoder as well). The desktop PC they had hooked up to the encoder box had a Creative Labs Encore DVD kit showing 5th Element in a window on a 800x600 desktop. The refesh was fast enough to view the DVD without artifacts and the desktop text was as clear as any monitor. I talked with the head guy at the display ,and he too, said that the display IC (without the very propritary driver IC) was about $50 in 10K quantities. They were expecting someone this year to retail a display for $300. I also found out from a Japanese web site a couple months ago that Colorado Microdisplays are the ones furnishing the LCD for that IBM 233MMX wearable that uses the 340MB microdrive. Anyone know of any other developers building products with this LCD?
  • I had a chance to use this thing first and at the Colorado Microdisplay booth in the Embedded Systems Conference. The eye piece was about the size of a 16-20pak of gum but the development vga encoder box was about the size of a desktop PC (although they did have a non-cardbus PCMCIA VGA encoder as well). The desktop PC they had hooked up to the encoder box had a Creative Labs Encore DVD kit showing 5th Element in a window on a 800x600 desktop. The refesh was fast enough to view the DVD without artifacts and the desktop text was as clear as any monitor. I talked with the head guy at the booth and he said that the display IC (without the very propritary driver IC) was about $50 in 10K quantities. They were expecting someone this year to retail a display for $300. I also found out from a Japanese web site a couple months ago that Colorado Microdisplays are the ones furnishing the LCD for that IBM 233MMX wearable that uses the 340MB microdrive. Anyone know of any other developers building products with this LCD?
  • http://www.media.mit.edu/projects/wearables/
  • I want an Xserver that interfaces with my retina. Even better would be a direct optic nerve connection; however, we would need support for legacy applications (such as traditional vision; you might need it if, say, you were having to use a traditional display) possibly in the form of a wearable camera.

    An XInput ``human interface'' device would be a nice accessory. Perhaps it could make use of some unneccessary nerve connections, such as some of the toes (when was the last time I actually needed to wiggle those appendages?)

    I'll be happy when my person has an IP address.

    ifconfig human0 165.79.145.1 (and no port scanning please!)

    BTW, would someone please inform Sun that $2,495 is not PC prices? I'm tired of their commercial for a stripped-down Ultra 5. <sigh>

  • You mean, will people believe it causes tumors?
    I suppose that is up to the people.

    So probably, yes.

  • ...I'm still partial to the MicroOptical [microopticalcorp.com] solution. Less intrusive.

    BTW, Colorado MicroDisplay is at http://www.comicro.com/index.html [comicro.com].

    The Virtual Vision subsidiary is at http://www.virtualvision.com/ [virtualvision.com]

  • I want pictures. You all know I can't read. I want to see pictures or it isn't real to me. Why is that soooo hard to understand???
  • I want to see what this headset looks like!

    -Chris
  • Gee, why not a laptop that captures the kinetic energy of your fingers hitting the keyboard (okay, I read wired. Sue me.) Serious, though. For those of you who read Snow Crash, this is just the next step to being a gargoyle. Yeeha!

    Zagmar
  • I think the PSX2 will be geared up for some pretty heavyweight VR pictures. It may come out with a goggle set for VR but at $2500+ it's not exactly a consumer item, and therefore unlikely.

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