Hmmm…reminds me of “Conspiracy Theory” but with HMDs. “Drawing on air” but oh, so cool…

Artists ‘draw on air’ to create 3D illustrations
By Lisa Zyga

By putting on a virtual reality mask, holding a stylus in one hand and a tracking device in the other, an artist can draw 3D objects in the air with unprecedented precision. This new system is called “Drawing on Air,” and researchers have designed the interface to be intuitive and provide the necessary control for artists to illustrate complicated artistic, scientific, and medical subjects.
[…]

Pretty cool stuff….but you need the HMD of your choice…

Look at this:

The Sensics piSightâ„¢ products are the world’s most immersive head-mounted displays, ideal for numerous applications including virtual prototyping, training, data mining and more. The panoramic, upgradeable, high-resolution piSight displays offer:

Panoramic field of view that delivers full 3D immersion: from 82° to 180° diagonal, depending on model
A modular, upgradeable design that fits a very wide range of performance and budget requirements
High resolution: Up to 4200×2400 pixels per eye (2400×1720 effective)
Ease of use: weighing less than 1 kg (2 lbs.), piSight HMDs feature an open-frame design that is comfortable and stays cool

More specs:

ProductspiSightâ„¢ Specifications

The following table shows key performance parameters common to all the piSight panoramic head-mounted displays. Please visit the available configurations page for the information about specific configuration.

Field of view
(depending on model) 82° to 180° diagonal
58 ° to 179 ° horizontal
29 ° to 84 ° vertical

Binocular overlap 29° to 82° depending on model

Resolution 20 pixels/degree
2.9 arcmin/pixel throughout entire visual field

Color 24 bit color
75% of NTSC gamut
>800:1 contrast

Frame Rate 60 Hz

Eye relief 18 mm

Interpupillary distance 55 mm minimum
71 mm maximum

Headsupported weight 1.5 to 2 lbs (0.7 to 1 kg) depending on model

Tracking Compatible with most motion trackers and many eye trackers

Toss in, some most likely very, very pricey (today) Sensics PiSight Full Immersion 3D displays and what a virtual experience you’ll have…like IMax, without having to find a parking place…or the each time excessive ticket prices.Now…how to get into the I/ITSEC conference in November in Orlando to check the Sensics products out…Between that and holographic displays, a whole new word of visual delights await us.

Those crafty scientists….

I have a habit of using ergonomic keyboards. Have for years. It’s another area that draws my attention, partially for the better speed of input, but also out of concern for the opportunity to keep at it longer…

Kannuu HowSo…the new news is that Kannuu

Blue Velvet download

has come up with a thumb operated device that has shown the capability of inputs up to 60 wpm!  Yep, looks like a cell phone, but I bet it won’t be long before someone adapts it to a Bluetooth interface for a desktop…

How do it know? It anticipates the next letter/set of letters, like your web browser address bar, when you begin typing in an site URL.

Say goodbye to Carpel Tunnel!

Displays. LCDs are getting cheap. Who can’t afford a 17″ these days with rebates? Ok, what’s next?

Organic Light Emitting Diode or OLED displays. From Wave Report tutorial on OLEDs:

Organic Light-Emitting Diode (OLED) technology

An OLED is an electronic device made by placing a series of organic thin films between two conductors. When electrical current is applied, a bright light is emitted. This process is called electrophosphorescence. Even with the layered system, these systems are very thin, usually less than 500 nm (0.5 thousandths of a millimeter).

When used to produce displays, OLED technology produces self-luminous displays that do not require backlighting. These properties result in thin, very compact displays. The displays also have a wide viewing angle, up to 160 degrees and require very little power, only 2-10 volts.

OLED displays have other advantages over LCDs as well:

* Increased brightness
* Faster response time for full motion video
* Lighter weight
* Greater durability
* Broader operating temperature ranges

There are two types of OLED displays – passive and active. These distinctions, plus narration about the OLED 2001 conference and the market challenges that the technology will face can be read in WAVE 151 or as a separate article on the WAVE Report site.
[…]

Thin and no backlights needed! I also read a year or so ago, they have figured out how to stack the blue/green/red diodes, rather than placing them in a small triangle to make a pixel. That breakthrough will provide even higher quality displays, tripling the resolution.

BUT WAIT! There are also PLEDs – Polymer LEDs. And I found them when the search box had PLED as a typo by me in it. So I got edumacated by mis-spelling…

From Cambridge Display Technologies FAQs:

How do PLEDs displays work?
PLED displays are made by applying a thin film of light-emitting polymer onto a glass or plastic substrate coated with a transparent electrode. A metal electrode is sputtered or evaporated on top of the polymer. Application of an electric field between these two electrodes results in emission of light from the polymer. When a current is applied, electrons from the cathode migrate through the cell and meet positive ‘holes’ migrating from the anode. When they meet, they form so-called excitons, and as the electrons drop into the holes, energy is released as light. See also How PLEDs work.
[…]
How big can PLED displays be manufactured?
Displays up to 40 in. have been demonstrated and ultimately, because of the scalability of ink jet printing, even larger displays are expected. The relative simplicity and flexibility in manufacturing means that different technology sets could enable modular display devices that can be tiled to produce very large displays.

Approximately how much will it cost?
Costs to manufacture, when compared with LCDs of comparable volume and maturity of production tools and processes, are expected to be 20-40% lower.

What are PLED displays used for?
PLED has four key applications:

* Large single pixel displays can be used in lighting applications, replacing incandescent and fluorescent bulbs.
* Low information content displays where inorganic LEDs are currently used: video, hi-fi, shaver, watch etc
* Displacement of cathode ray tube (CRT) or LCD (traditional television and computer display applications): mobile phones, digital assistants, computers and televisions.
* New display applications for which PLED characteristics make it uniquely suited. E.g., replacement for traditional automotive instrument panel, dynamic advertising applications, graphical signs for point of sale or purchase, electromechanical signage, bio-medical testing.

See that? Print them with an inkjet like process….and, like OLEDs, cheaper than LCD technology. I have also read that the LED displays can be put on a flexible/bendable (not foldable) base, leading to all sorts of new ideas for paper thin display surfaces that are not required to stay flat all the time to be usable.

Now, never fear, the scientists are even father out with Quantum Dot display technology…

QD Vision has this to say about the practical stuff, you know like price and performance:

[…]
QD Vision has developed a prototype of a 32-by-64 red pixel QD display that uses the new printing process. Quantum dots were printed within a sandwich of organic semiconductor thin films, which when driven by a current, enable quantum dots to emit light. The quantum dots are 5nm inorganic semiconductor nanocrystals synthesized by QD Vision.

Quantum dots displays are expected to provide sharper colors and cost less to make than the competing technologies like organic light-emitting diodes while using a similar manufacturing process to OLEDs.
[…]

MIT Labs have been working to develop the technology for a while now:

Quantum-dot LED may be screen of choice for future electronics

December 18, 2002

CAMBRIDGE, Mass.–MIT researchers have combined organic materials with high-performing inorganic nanocrystals to create a hybrid optoelectronic structure–a quantum dot-organic light-emitting device (QD-OLED) that may one day replace liquid crystal displays (LCDs) as the flat-panel display of choice for consumer electronics.
[…]
CREATING BRIGHT LIGHT

The QD-OLEDs created in the MIT study have a 25-fold improvement in luminescent power efficiency over previous QD-OLEDs. The MIT researchers note that in time, the devices may be made even more efficient and achieve even higher color saturation.

“One of the goals is to demonstrate a display that is stable, simple to produce, flat, high-resolution and that uses minimal power,” Bulovic said.

The MIT researchers were inspired by advances in all-organic LED (OLED) technology. OLEDs, which can be used to create TVs or computer screens only a fraction of an inch thick with the same brightness as LCDs, have been making their way into commercial electronic devices. The MIT group envisions that QD-OLEDs will in time become complementary to OLEDs because they can be built on the same electronic platforms with compatible manufacturing methods.
[…]

So, the future for your display surfaces/devices looks bright and inexpensive, too!

Toys….

Virtual Reality headsets have been a technology I watch from afar.Two things have made them “not just yet” for the run of the mill users: 1) Cost! and 2) Resolution. The second actually drives the first, when you consider the expense in making a small LCD, or now OLED, display less than an inch square have the same resolution as most people run on their laptops and 15/17″ LCD monitors: 1024×768 pixels.

I once was working on the Computer Aided Dead Reckoning Tracer project, when they used an upended Mitsubishi 37″ TV as the viewing surface. There was a quest to replace the CRT technology with a digital projector by the engineers working the project, and at the time, they were lucky to have a 800×600 pixel display for the projectors (similar issue with the LCD in the projector). Pushing the manufacturing process to make 1024×768 yielded significant failure rates in the LCDs produced. That was 1997-8.

Things have come a lot further now, and Vuzix has a series of head mounted displays (HMDs) that are affordable and can display a 1024×768 picture to each of your eyes. Not surprisingly, they also build such equipment for the military/tactical market, which, most likely has been a major factor in driving the cost down for the run of the mill consumer by expending military R&D dollars.

The one headset in particular that I have “my eyes on” (maybe I should say “in”) is the iWearYR920. Besides being able to take a VGA display feed, it also has head tracking built in. That means the unit, while worn, sends a signal back via the interface to tell the computer which direction you are “looking” in the virtual world. Big deal? Yes, it is. For games like Flight Simulator X from Microsoft (check out a video of the VR920 in action with FSX here), when you look around your cockpit, or the outside of the cockpit, the display shifts as though you were looking there, without the operator having the slew the picture about artificially with key strokes. That adds another layer of realism to the game….
Specs:

Technical Specifications:
Twin high-resolution 640×480 (920,000 pixels) LCD Displays
Equivalent to a 62″ screen viewed at 9 feet
24-bit true color (16 million colors)
Visor weighs 3.2 oz.
60 Hz progressive scan display update rates
Fully iWear® 3D compliant and supports NVIDIA stereo drivers
Built-in noise canceling microphone for Internet VOIP communications
Built-in 3 degree of freedom head-tracker
USB connectivity for power, tracking and full duplex audio
Analog VGA monitor input
Support for up to 1024×768 VGA video formats

Features:
6-foot slim, single cable design with miniature USB and VGA connectors
Large field-of-view optics to allow a fully immersive experience
iWear® 3D enabled for automatic 2D/3D control; no buttons required
With built-in microphone users can communicate from anywhere in the world as if they were standing next to each other (or inside the game)
Integrated 3 DOF head-tracker lets users look around inside virtual worlds as if they were there

User Adjustable:
Removable, flexible headphones
AccuTiltâ„¢ viewer pivots up to 15 degrees
Soft, comfortable, hypoallergenic nosepiece extends out up to 3/8″
Custom fit headstrap included for extra secure fit

Supported Media:
Plug and play video with virtually all PC applications
Thousands of pre-existing applications in full 3D (supported by NVIDIA stereo drivers)
The VR920 will completey change the plethora of massively multiplayer applications from World of Warcraft to Internet chat in virtual worlds

Advanced Optics:
32 degree field of view
3/4″ eye relief and 5/16″ eyebox
2.5″ Intraocular Distance (IOD)
Color corrected 10th order aspherical lense with diffractive surface

Box Contents:
iWear VR920
Headstrap
Drivers, manual and software disc
Quick start guide with warranty and safety instructions
Lens cleaning carrying pouch

Price tag? SRP $399. Not cheap, but…not like the $24,000, many, many lb beast I used to find around the net that would do the same thing in military grade simulation applications…

In case you don’t need head tracking, but are in the habit of watching movies, but have the significant other that doesn’t share your choice of movies, or you are on the road/in the air a lot, or just bored and sit and watch movies, there is the AV920 for a savings of $50 @ $349 to plug into your DVD player.

What does it look like? 62″ display at 9 feet. Like sitting in the TV/Living Room with the $3000+ dollar big screen. See, it’s really affordable if you explain it to her that way…and she won’t even have to watch it because you grabbed the remote first and you saved at least about $2650!

What’s not to like?

You know…it could be like this:

Read more about this monstrosity here…

Ah, all things interesting once more….

From the October CPU Magazine, the opportunity to play in weightlessness, a vertiable “F” ticket ride (with an “F” ticket price tag):

The “Space Jet” conceived by EADS Astrium , a European aerospace and defense company. It has both conventional jet engines and a rocket. Takes off like a jet, heads up to about 35-40K feet and fires up the “G” maker to head up into the deep blue sky above.

Passing 60KM of altitude about 80 seconds later, the apogee will be at 100KM, with about 3 minutes of weightlessness, before heading into the atmosphere once more, using angle of descent to control the re-entry speed. 3-5 Gs will accompany this portion of the ride, with the exterior of the aircraft reaching the 250^oF range. Once low enough, the jets will be restarted and a conventional landing (hopefully) will follow a few minutes later. Total time from take-off to landing is about 2 hours….cost? Thought you’d never ask…”around” $250,000 (the price of a 1300 sq ft house in Va Beach these days).EADS is looking at a “fleet” of 20 of the Space Jets.

For a long time, I have had my eyes be attracted to earth bound transportation that have the looks of fighter planes.

Thanks to CPU Magazine, I found one more:

It’s the “alé” from Fuel Vapor Cars:

The “alé” features a unique 3-wheeled configuration: 2 in the front, and one in the rear. The front wheels drive and steer the vehicle. This design enables the car to perform at a superb level, particularly in cornering, with the car easily pulling 1.7 g’s in corners during track testing on street tires. The three-wheeled automotive platform also aid in improving fuel efficiency and aerodynamics.

Honda mill, swallowing a highly vaporized fuel mixture, getting 92 MPG on gasoline! Runs lean, low emissions, 1/4 mi in the low 12s, measures side forces of 1.7G in the corners….

But…IT LOOKS LIKE THE BUSINESS END OF A FIGHTER!

Added benefit (IMHO): One seater, so I don’t have to fight over listening to talk radio while I’m driving…Might be in limited production next year, in the $75-100K range. Just consider the pent up frustration those of us with bad eyes can purge ourselves of, especially when they go into mass production.

If, however, you’re more into open cockpits, bugs in the teeth type of pseudo flying experience, and have a “green” streak in your genes:

Then there’s the “Killacycle” (Hot chick not included, void where prohibited, not available if you can’t get your own, and not legal in all 50 states anyhow), the battery powered motorcycle. 8.168 in the qtr mile makes it really fast…but it uses over 1000 batteries to make that happen.

There you are: Today’s gleaned technology news, selected because I think it’s cool stuff.