Technically Speaking: Gadgets

Heads up display in a Star Trek-like visor. This gadget may change the way we all do things, such as read or watch TV. It may take some time to see the fruits of the labor but it is sure to be really cool.

Microvision’s display products demonstrate the capabilities of the company’s proprietary scanned beam technology to deliver superior displays in a variety of formats with high resolution, high contrast and excellent color saturation. Unlike conventional flat panel displays using a matrix of pixels, Microvision’s scanned beam displays are created with just four primary components: drive electronics, light sources, scanner and optics. The image is created a single pixel at a time and may be scanned directly to the eye, eliminating a monitor or screen altogether. Highlighted as the cover feature story in the May issue of IEEE Spectrum as the “Ultimate Display,” the low power and elegant architecture of Microvision’s scanned beam displays provide an extremely efficient way to deliver an image, and have the potential to revolutionize displays for everything from cell phones and gaming glasses to laser televisions.

Microvision will be exhibiting and demonstrating for the first time in public its MicroHUD™ automotive head-up display. This pre-production prototype laser-scanning display for automotive applications displays navigation, performance and other vehicle information by reflecting a very high-contrast image off the car’s windshield, so drivers can keep their eyes focused on the road ahead. Designed as a standard module to adapt to a wide range of vehicles, the MicroHUD has unique abilities to meet the demanding packaging, cost, performance and reliability requirements of the automotive industry. Prototypes have already been delivered to OEM automakers and Tier 1 suppliers around the world.

Additionally, the company will showcase the Nomad Expert Technician System, which is now in commercial production and being shipped to customers. The Nomad Expert Technician System is the world’s only wireless wearable computer with a head-worn, head-up display. With a unique “connect and work” capability, the Nomad Expert Technician System enables automotive service technicians to superimpose text and diagrams from online and Internet service manuals directly over their workspace at the point of task, hands-free. Trials with leading automotive companies show up to 40 percent gain in productivity, as well as improvements in quality of work, increased training efficiencies and rapid return on investment.

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Don’t plan to rush out and buy this gadget yet, for it’s priced at $4000.

Click to enlarge.

Very interesting concept, but is it practical? As of now, I don’t think so. When the sensors are not so obvious then I think they will finally be on to something.

Check out the details.

Source: Slashdot

This isn’t an actual tablet pc, it is a pen-operated, wireless-enabled Windows XP machine for mobile media.

The consumer electronics giant is billing the Vaio VGN-U70 as the world’s smallest full-function Windows PC. The unit measures 16.7 x 10.8 x 2.6cm and weighs just 550g. Much of the machine’s face is taken up by an 800 x 600 transflective colour LCD. The display can also operate at up to 1600 x 1200, but at this stage it’s not clear if that’s a native resolution.

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The U70 is operated using a stylus, but the OS is Windows XP Pro rather than Tablet PC Edition. Sony supplies a cradle into which the U50 can be placed and connected to a Palm-style full-size foldaway USB keyboard and have its battery recharged. The U50’s stylus is an unusual design Sony calls “fin-shaped", which can be attaches to the machine or kept separate. It ships with Japanese character recognition software.

Driving the U70 is a 1GHz Ultra-low Voltage Pentium M and Intel’s i855GM integrated chipset - so yes, it’s a Centrino machine. And, indeed, we find the machine has an 802.11g Wi-Fi adaptor built in. It also has a 20GB hard drive and 512MB of memory. There’s a USB 2.0 port, and CompactFlash and MemoryStick Pro ports for expansion.

The unit is powered by a slimline Lithium Polymer battery capable of providing around two-and-a-half hours’ operating time. Japanese consumers will be able to up that to 5.5 hours, courtesy of an alternative, ‘extended’ battery. But it added 145g to the weight.

The U70 will ship on 29 May for around ¥210,000 ($1871). Sony will also offer a lower spec. model, the U50, for ¥179,000 ($1595), which contains just 256MB of memory and a 900MHz ULV Celeron processor. It ships with Windows XP Home Edition.

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This an impressive looking machine, but I don’t know if it is really worth $17G.

You decide:

The MaxPac8200X is ideally suited for users requiring maximum I/O bandwidth and two or three integrated 19″ LCD monitors. The PCI-X slots support the needed high bandwidth for applications capturing uncompressed video. Up to 5 SCSI HD at 146GB provide more than 700GB internal to the MaxPac and sustained video transfer rates of 200MB/sec.

Typical applications include uncompressed video applications such as Video Toaster and HDTV video capture and editing or any application requiring disk bandwidth in excess of 100MB/Sec and multiple LCDs. Each of the LCD monitors supports an additional S-Video input as well as a computer video out for a projector.

This configuration is typically configured with a slim DVD-R/RW.

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You can view the complete specs here.