According to MicroOptical Corp.’s vision of the future, a person could watch a movie while on a train journey and the passenger on the next seat would not know.
The key, said the company, is its set of products called EyeGlass Displays, which the manufacturer envisions as the Walk man of the future and the answer to the United States’ frustration with the perennial small screen stalling the growth of the wireless Internet.
The EGD consists of lightweight and unobtrusive display optics integrated in a conventional set of glasses, enabling the viewer to see a virtual image of video and computer data in the lens.
According to MicroOptical, the EGD can fit into a variety of eyewear systems like goggles, sun glasses, safety glasses, prescription eye wear and facemasks, both as invisible monitors and clip-on monitors.
“This is a monocular system,” said Greg Jenkins, MicroOpticals sales manager, explaining the product works on one eye and does not obstruct a person’s normal vision. “The right eye compensates for any small portion of vision blocked by the prism in the left eye.”
Both the Clip-on and Integrated Invisible Monitor are available in color display and neither viewer requires bulky hardware, a helmet or a hat.
The company said the video images appear before the viewer’s eyes from a signal transmitted to the glass via cable and that is relayed from a small micro-display in the temple of the glasses, which generates the image. The image then is relayed through the eyeglass lens itself to a combiner embedded in the center of the lens, which reflects the image in the eyes of the viewer.
Jenkins believes the EGD will replace the laptop and will be popular with 3G phones, which will have rich Internet features.
He said since cell phones are getting smaller, and already have limited real estate on the display screens. With the EGD, the device could be as small as a watch.
Jenkins said the product should be ready by the end of 2001. He said it is now being tested by about 150 OEMs, which are working toward custom integration with existing equipment.
