Wearable LCD Display

fenimor writes "PhysOrg reports, that Mitsubishi is going to introduce next year a headset with a small liquid-crystal display screen which is positioned in front, slightly below eye level so as not to obstruct normal vision. Designed for users who need to perform multiple tasks simultaneously, this tiny wearable heads-up display is expected to cost only US $400."

Spectacles

[Big Mark]

I already wear glasses, will this work with me?

Wow.

[Power Everywhere]

I never thought we'd get to the point where people had to attach televisions to themselves. I can already hear the bickering over usage rights while driving. I'm beginning to think that John Titor wasn't so wrong.

Death by EMI

[Lindar The Bard]

Have they effectively eliminated EMI or are they just going to let people die of eye cancer?
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so?

[Yonkeltron]

this is pretty neat. now i will be able to watch babylon 5 reruns and code at the same time. but then again, what kind of a device will this display hook up to?

Great for laptops/PDAs

[for_usenet]

This should be a really neat way to get rid of power hungry displays. This device will draw some power, but hopefully, by virtue of its size, nowhere near the amount of a conventional laptop or PDA display. It should definitely open up some interesting possibilities. Imagine being able to shut off your laptop display, with this plugged into the VGA port, and drawing it's necessary power from a powered USB or Firewire port. Mmmmm ... Tasty ...

Projection

[Big Mark]

I'm wondering - is there any chance of projection into the retina in a device like this?

You get LCD alarm clocks that project images of the time onto the wall already, surely it's only a matter of time before VDU images are projected into the retina...

Re:Death by EMI

[workman161]

No, LCD doesn't emit EMI radiation. But this makes me think of another question... Are there any long term effects from using it? Like eye strain, or headaches, or nausea?

both eyes ?

[Anonymous Coward]

I didn't read the article but I'm thinking how cool it would be to have a system like that would force it's image into the retina. Imagine having your desktop consume your entire field of view ?! Instead of a display sitting 3 or 4 feet away, all you would experience and see is your computers desktop/commandline/etc ....talk about being immersed !! Is that possible ? Or would we need neural link-ups for that ?

Would the average programmer end up working more efficiently if that were the situation ??

John_Allen_Mohammad,
Linus Ackbar!

Multitasking Generation

[izomiac]

Has anyone else noticed the impossibly fast evolution of multitasking ability?

People over 70 have trouble doing one thing at one time

People over 55 seem to have trouble walking and cheqing gum simultaniously

People over 30 think that they can drive and talk on a cell phone at the same time

College and high school students can take note on a laptop while carrying on 6 simultanious AIM conversations while paying enough attention to the teacher to know if they are growing supicious

What's next... babies with tenticles [planet-familyguy.com]?

Cost only $400

[Stevyn]

That may still seem expensive to slashdotters who know the ins and outs of finding cheap hardware on the Internet, but this is the automotive industry. When purchasing a new car, an extra $500 may get you a decent audio system that would cost $300 at Best Buy. So considering their normal markup, this isn't a bad price for an unnecessary upgrade.

Re:Could be a big thing

[g3head]

Full color 680x480 isn't a problem, thats what NTSC runs at IIRC, and personal video has (so far) been the only real market for wearable displays.

Get above that and the cost rises in leaps and bounds

Some commercial displays [tekgear.ca]

Re:Res, res, res

[irc.goatse.cx troll]

Why? This isn't supposed to replace your desktop monitor, its supposed to give you a hud to display specially crafted apps. You could get away with 300x200 on it really, all you'll be doing is outputting info, most likely using text and small icons.

Once it gets a few years of tech down the line, a nice 1600x1200 display to directly overlay images on top of real life could be useful too (eg, showing an infobox on top of people, specificly re-coloring/highlighting objects, etc), but to say its not even useful until its 8x6 is just not thinking.

Re:Could be a big thing

[ScrewMaster]

I don't care what they say about laser power levels and eye safety: I don't want coherent light beamed into my eyes. A failure in the laser diode's current limiting and the next frame will paint permanent darkness. Forget it.

Other advantages: Security, pointing device.

[Ungrounded Lightning]

Another advantage of an RSD is that it is a spinoff of a device to scan the retina, and adding one more beam-splitter and a photodiode on the laser side of the scanner lets the display do this, too.

That leads to two extra functions:

1) The retina print can be used for a "password". (Fewer worries about somebody who steals your wearable getting at your data or using your comm account to make 20-hour calls to 900 services in Malagua or spam the whole internet.)

2) The display can measure where you're looking - and use that (with suitable algorithms to keep the cursor from being obtrusive) as your pointing device. (Look-and-click means one less device in your hand, i.e. a chord keyboard with mouse button chords in its vocabulary. And it ought to be a bunch faster than mousing.)