Brother Industries shows off eyeglass-mountable retina scanning display

While it's yet to be seen if eyeglass-mountable displays will become as commonly used as, say, Bluetooth headsets anytime soon, Brother Industries at least looks to be making some steady progress at shrinking 'em down to a reasonable size, and it's got a few other tricks up its sleeve to boot. That latter bit comes from its use of a retina-scanning system as opposed to a simple LCD mounted in front of your eye, which effectively uses your retina as a screen to make it appear like images are actually floating in space in front of you. What's more, while the eyepiece currently needs to be wired to a rather sizable contraption in order to pump out those free-floating images, the company says it expects to be able to switch to a wireless system and shrink things down to a decidedly more wearable size by 2010.

[Thanks, Tom]

[Backlin @ Apr 11th 2008 12:33PM]

I'll have to admit, that is pretty cool.

And I'm glad that the company that developed it wasn't called "Big Brother Industries". The use of this technology would be sealed if that was the case. ;)

[Visionep @ Apr 11th 2008 12:36PM]

This technology has taken SOOO long to get going. Around 5 or 6 years ago researchers at a university in Washington state came up with a laser display that projects onto the retina.

Hopefully some company will pick up this technology and make it more commercial. According to the original research they said it was really easy to change the intensity of the images enabling overlays on real objects.

Besides having a nice heads up display; with a close area positioning system and coordinate tracking these can turn any surface into a virtual display or allow virtual "skinning" of any environment.

[a @ Apr 11th 2008 1:17PM]

Sweet! Lasers! Pointed into my EYE! Sign me up!

I guess if done right, it wouldn't be any more harmful than any other light... I'd like to be sure they don't have the popular 'control issues' on the power supply first, though.

I don't know if I would need such a thing. I'll continue to hope for higher resolution screens in the mean time.

[Aeo @ Apr 11th 2008 1:37PM]

Yessss.... the eyesss... they "will blend"

[Flashpoint @ Apr 11th 2008 12:37PM]

Vorta from DS9

http://ildominio.altervista.org/Immagini/vorta08.jpg

[John Paul @ Apr 11th 2008 12:37PM]

Finally I can sit at the DMV and watch movies without the weird dude that smells funny trying to hang over my shoulder and watch too.

[STNC @ Apr 11th 2008 12:39PM]

Ballin!

[94 taurus owner @ Apr 11th 2008 12:41PM]

SWEEEETTTT!!!!!!

[Chris @ Apr 11th 2008 12:46PM]

WHAT THE HELL IS TAKING SO LONG TO GET THIS TO MARKET!

[Jon Doe. @ Apr 11th 2008 2:05PM]

Possibly the fact if done wrong they could burn our your retinas over time....yah know..trivial details

[Chris @ Apr 11th 2008 12:48PM]

the video watching is a cool idea but im more interested in the HUD possiblities... namely GPS overlays on top of what we're looking at ... tie in a very light weight pc, a UMPC or iPhone v2 and some voicecommand, make the entire package bluetooth and use a jawbone for the voice/earpiece and walla! The ultimate device! hell slap a mini cam on the other side and well... you get where im going with this :)

[TIMMAH! @ Apr 11th 2008 2:06PM]

Well if you can make these as ubiquitous as the bluetooth headset you could start doing away with anything that has a display. Why settle for a tiny screen when you can have a full-size virtually projected display.

UMPCs could be shrunk down into foldout keyboards with no display. You put on your glasses, unfold your keyboard and now you're interacting with a full screen floating in front of your face.

[Wisam @ Apr 14th 2008 12:49AM]

virtual display + virtual keyboard = yum yum

[Unknown @ Jun 19th 2008 4:58PM]

I dunno about the virtual keyboard thing. The whole point about RSDs is that you don't have to be constantly staring at a static interface. Why would you want to gawk at your keyboard when you should be touch-typing anyway? It totally defeats the purpose of augmented reality.

[darkstar @ Apr 11th 2008 12:56PM]

would it be asking too much for some xxx-ray vision??

[xtremesniper @ Apr 11th 2008 12:57PM]

My main concern would be the effects (short term and long term) of shining this kind of thing directly into your retina. Sounds like a generation of blind people just waiting to happen.

[Whiplash @ Apr 11th 2008 1:17PM]

Yeah, normally this stuff doesn't bother me.... cellphone radiation? Bahh!!!! Asbestos? Booo!!! But having something projected right onto my retina... that freaks me out. :-(

[Ryan @ Apr 12th 2008 4:51AM]

LIGHT?!

projected onto my RETINA?!

OH NOES! wait...
*turns off the lights*

still there... *closes laptop screen*

balls... *covers every LED on my soundsystem with tape*

hmm... *shoots out streetlight outside*

pesky stars, ruining my fun *erects massive sky thing to block out stars*
good, no more light in my retinas.

point is, the only difference between a laser and an LED is fuck all, don't worry so much guys, these things are designed so even if the scanning optics fail, the laser power isn't enough to cause any permanent damage, plus, if you see a really freakin' bright light (that isn't the sun) suddenly, just take the thing off quick! looking into the bulb of a 5000 lumen projector does more damage, i promise.

[Mark @ Apr 11th 2008 1:19PM]

couldn't they get one of those hot female cell phone models?

[Jon Doe. @ Apr 11th 2008 2:03PM]

"looks to be making some steady progress at shrinking 'em down to a reasonable size"

That isn't a reasonable size. When it gets down to the size of dice...then lets talk. Preferably it should be about the thickness of a couple SD cards that is along the rim of your glasses and bounces off the lens of the glass into your eye. However that is going to be a while.

[Strange Quark Star @ Apr 11th 2008 2:57PM]

I want this.


N O W

[Matt @ Apr 11th 2008 3:09PM]

Sweet, now I can get Lasik while watching a movie!

[ET @ Apr 11th 2008 3:14PM]

I saw that idea first on dragonball comic more than 10 years ago.

[JuggleNuts @ Apr 11th 2008 3:21PM]

I just can't wait for when wireless broadband enables us to stream video of what we're looking at to the web in real time

[sure @ Apr 11th 2008 3:32PM]

If this hits the market, I expect a LOT of "over 9000!!" jokes. It will take humanity years to recover from the damage.

[ma5t3rw1tt @ Apr 11th 2008 4:09PM]

Thats pretty sweet. Now if only we can get some mobile gaming going on or maybe the internet. Privacy at last MUWAHAHAHAHAHA!

[Shinigami @ Apr 11th 2008 4:25PM]

I don't want this crap! I want holographic screens! Those that DO float near me in the air!

[yh @ Apr 11th 2008 5:08PM]

I wrote a whole business plan about a retinal scanning display system a couple years ago for one of my classes. My idea was based on the original microvision patent, but it looks like this is one step up from the microvision system. My favorite part about retinal scanning systems is that if done correctly, there is almost no focus loss. Your eyes could be focused at infinity or 2 inches from your face and the project image would still be clear. All this system needs is an 3 axis accelerometer, a few gyros, and a d-gps system you've got yourself a ghost recon hud :)

[Alex G. @ Apr 11th 2008 5:12PM]

Anyone here thought "Snow Crash"?

[ammi @ Apr 11th 2008 8:24PM]

aww, but I don't want the usa to be divided up and sold.

although a lot of YT's gadgets ruled...

[dx0ne @ Apr 14th 2008 4:12PM]

i thought about Gibson's Virtual Light..

+ infra-red cam and who needs light at night (i wear my sunglasses at night ;] )

[Labrador @ Apr 11th 2008 10:27PM]

Does anyone know what the resolution of this thing is?

[Unknown @ May 14th 2008 5:36AM]

SVGA (800x600)

http://www.brother.com/en/news/2008/rid/index.htm