Laser HUD Projected on Retina

Ligur writes: "The scoop is at the Seattle P-I: 'This fall, Bothell-based Microvision Inc. plans to give people the same cybernetic experience that once existed only in a screenwriter's imagination. Through a device called Nomad, people will be able to read information from a small, wearable computer that projects an image over their normal vision.'" Looks like they've come a long way in the past three years.

Cant wait till the price comes down

[gmg]

It would be interesting to see how this would be integrated with our current set of home devices. Right now it appears the cost is a bit too much for the average geek.

Transparent? Not really

[Software]

The display is a red, transparent computer screen, but, in fact, is no screen at all. The device shoots a tiny laser beam that draws patterns onto the retina so that only the wearer sees the images.

OK, fine, but how come I can barely see the guy's right eye in the picture [nwsource.com]? There's not much point in a transparent screen if the surrounding equipment is not tranparent. Maybe if it was off-axis it would be more useful.

Still, this does sound like promising technology.

I tried it at ACM1...

[gtada]

The problem that I have with their technology is that it seems to have a very narrow range of focus. Unless you're pretty still, it's out of focus. Unless there is some way to really anchor this unit to your head (like maybe some surgical implants!), I'm not really interested.

corrective lenses?

[Em Emalb]

How about my contact lenses? Will they get messed up by this?

Nothing like a piece of melting plastic in your eye to wake you up. I highly recommend it.

Re:Retinal damage

[Moofie]

A photon's a photon, right? If it's too powerful, it's gonna burn stuff. If it's not, it won't. What's special about laser light that causes your concern?

Re:I live in a very industrial town...

[Fixer]

Generally I agree with the notion of classifying such tech as a medical device, but I would point out that there HAS to be some safe wattage level for a laser, even if that wattage is lower than the amount of ambient light reaching your eyes on a sunny day. So, as long as the laser is at or below this level, what's the big deal?

Also, a diode laser of sufficently low power would be self-limiting in the case of regulator failure.. they tend to blow if their currents go even slightly beyond their ratings. So, take a page from the nuclear weapons designers: Build such systems with a 'weakest link' mentality.. if any portion of the circuit dies, use components of such low quality that every other one in the chain bites it as well.

It's painful to lose a five thousand dollar device like that, but it's better than going blind, no?

That's not how optical scanning works

[Mr. Uptime]

I used to have a TV and its vertical yoke died one day. When messing with the potentiometers in the back to try to adjust the picture back to a working state, I quickly discovered that the electron beam that scans the inside of the picture tube is extremely strong and produces a very bright spot on the screen.

When you think about it, though, the phenomenon makes a lot of sense. The beam is as bright as (average pixel brightness) * (total pixels on the screen). If you concentrate the brightness of the entire screen on one point, that point is going to be very bright and may well be damaged.

And that brings us to the problem here. If you burn the phosper off a little dot on your TV's picture tube, it's not the end of the world - you can just buy a new TV. But if you burn a spot in your retina, it's there forever unless you can get an eye transplant. If you used such a low-power laser or electron beam that this wouldn't happen, your picture would be too dim to see.

Mr. Uptime

Re:Retinal damage

[tgibbs]

I worry a lot less about this than about drugs. A drug potentially can act with every single molecule in your body. But basically, a photon is a photon, your eyes are designed to handle photons. So long as they stay well below the UV frequencies (which can break bonds and produce actual chemical changes), you should be pretty safe. Even if you manage to bleach out all your visual pigment, it should eventually recover. I suppose that if you pumped enough photons into the retina, you could cook it from purely thermal effects, but that would take quite a bit of power.

Re:Entertainment Value

[tswinzig]

Combine this with a wearable computer to project the naked bodies of porn stars over people we see every day. Now, instead of undressing the girl in marketing with my eyes I can undress her with my cyborg-eye.

Why don't you talk to her and try to undress her FOR REAL.

Re:Transparent? Not really

[Pentagram]

OK, fine, but how come I can barely see the guy's right eye in the picture [nwsource.com]? There's not much point in a transparent screen if the surrounding equipment is not tranparent. Maybe if it was off-axis it would be more useful.

Hmm. Couldn't you have a camera on the front of the device and project the field of view the device is obscuring onto the retina, making it invisible?