From: Crosby_M (CrosbyM@dcgate.bls.gov)
Date: Wed Sep 18 1996 - 14:18:00 MDT
The Tuesday 9/17/96 Wall Street Journal "In the Lab" column reported
that virtual retinal displays (recall from Neal Stephenson's "Snow
Crash") are about 4 years away. However, they will initially cost
between $5k and $50k. Seattle-based Microvision Inc. & the Univ. of
Washington Human Interface Technology Lab are working on this, primarily
funded by the U.S. Army, which wants to use them with ground-penetrating
radars for mine-sweeping operations. Another big potential market at
that price are surgeons and other medical applications. The displays
they're talking about would be superimposed on one's field of vision
(appearing to be some distance in front of one's eyes) and wouldn't
require bulky helmets. There was no mention of whether the user could
provide any feedback to the system providing the display (i.e., nothing
about whether eye movements could be used to select display options from
a menu).
Mark Crosby
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