Tired of lugging around a tablet to read e-books? And dislike PDAs, too?
Well, how about a goggles-based display? The one shown here looks more or less like regular eyeglasses. It can supply the equivalent of a 60-inch screen viewed from ten feet away. Practical for e-books?
That’s the fantasy coursing through my mind as I take in the ballyhoo for this new product from Lumus-Optical—topic of items in Israel21c, Engadget and Slashdot.
So what do you think, especially if you could combine this with wi-fi? You could still store your library on a desktop or laptop. While goggles displays are hardly new, Lumus has been a bit more stylish about it than have rivals. A new paradigm ahead for reading? Or just techie dreams?
From Engadget:
“The firm’s latest prototype boasts dual 640 x 480 resolution displays as well as two wee projectors on each arm; the Lumus glasses can accept video inputs via an undisclosed connection, and projects an image akin to a ’60-inch screen from 10 feet away.’ Its Light-guide Optical Element technology allows the imagery to be reflected back on to the lenses so users can view them, all while being transparent enough to allow you to focus on the humans, trees, road block, or board room presentation ahead of you.”
I’m with you here. This has long been a fantasy of mine. An iPod-like device would store 1,000’s of books, though it would take a heavy-duty toggle to stand up to all those page turns.
Problem is that the few reviewers I’ve seen write up actually getting to try these heads-up displays for more than a few hours all reported massive headaches.
Though the 60-inch display sounds impressive, remember it is only the res of a Dell axim pda. That sort of big-chunk pixels are less crucial where it comes to rapidly-moving images like video. But for text? Hm.
I do hope that this new tech works though.