[Wolves] HUD (Heads up display)

Stuart Langridge sil at kryogenix.org
Tue Jan 8 09:38:11 GMT 2008


> > GNOME has been developing this a11y software for at least eight
> > years, and setting up a GNU/Linux system with GNOME, OOo, FF, and
> > Java [1], is all achievable for technically competent sightless
> > users. Once set up, the system is _fairly_ usable for most
> > visually impaired users, and shouldn't be impossible for sighted
> > users wanting to use a PC on the move without a display. :)
>
> What?, sorry guys but the visually impaired are not part in the
> equation for the minute so stop blabbering on about voice only non
> graphical solutions!
>
> The idea was a HUD in glasses You'd need to be able to see to use
> them! How on earth we get to non GUI solutions is beyond me?

The point Richard was making here is that putting a HUD on glasses is
*hard*, so an alternative might be a voice-only output interface.

> I note with interest a story on Slashdot this morning;
> "nerdyH writes "A new Linux-based portable media player (PMP) features
> an eyeglass-like head-mounted display with 800 x 600 resolution.
> Dreamax's Indicube i-800 PMP provides an experience similar to sitting

Look at the pictures! http://linuxdevices.com/news/NS2593777857.html

You look like a spanner! Would you go out wearing that? You look like
Geordi LaForge. *And* it's not properly transparent, so even if you
don't care if your stupid thin glasses make small children laugh at
you, you still can't see where you're going; you need to be sitting
down somewhere, and if you can do that then you might as well just use
a laptop.

> Aq
>
> Quote:
> "no-one's even close to a marketable product that
> can do head-tracking and arbitrary-angle projection"
>
> What about the Logitech Quickcam ORBIT Face-Tracking Webcam? Cant the
> technology from that be used? Mind you I'm not sure I understand what
> you mean by "head-tracking" do you mean a persons physical head or the
> HUD?

The point here is: if you want to project an image onto someone's
glasses from some arbitrary other point (i.e., from something not
fixed to the glasses) then you have to be able to detect where the
glasses are in 3d space, and project onto the surface, and adjust it
second-by-second as the user moves her head. Which no-one can do at
the moment, as far as I'm aware.

> I would have thought the display would be beamed down from the frame
> (No rimless glasses I'm afraid you'll need somewhere to put the
> gubbins) onto the lens so moving your physical head would have no
> effect as the glasses would move with the bonce.

Exactly; you look like a total nerd. See the pictures I posted earlier
of the Lumos Optical glasses, which are transparent, so you can see
where you're going, and you still will have little children laugh at
you as you go down the street.

Besides, you said "I bet you could get some kind of quasi-phone that
would project the image"; if you need the phone *and* magic
super-bulky glasses then it's never going to take off :)

sil

-- 
New Year's Day --
everything is in blossom!
I feel about average.
   -- Kobayashi Issa



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