Full HD display for wearable computing [Move to www.wearhard.info]

[martinv]

Hi everyone,

I have ongoing plans to put together a wearable PC. Earlier in the year I bought a Twiddler 3 to use for input for this PC. So far though I haven't had much success with finding a suitable display. I figure the lowest resolution that will be workable will be full HD; so 1920x1080 resolution. The Silicon Micro Display ST1080 looks to be a good candidate but as far as I can see it's actually not available to buy. The ODG R9 from what I read also meets this resolution requirement, but it doesn't sound at all straight forward to use it simply as a display - the R9 is also complete overkill when I just want a display (it also does 6 DOF tracking, has high resolution camera etc.).

It looks like manufacturers are aiming squarely at AR and VR and at solving the significant challenges presented by these technologies, yet it seems difficult to find a simple wearable display that offers the same performance as a budget desktop monitor.

Some manufacturers also claim to be full HD, yet once you actually find some specifications it turns out that they claim to accept full HD video input, but the display resolution is actually much lower. ie. they're scaling the image down.

Can anyone suggest a straightforward wearable 1080p display that actually is available now?

[tony]

If you want to build your own, we can get you started with the O8 and Sony HD microdisplays. https://www.tekgear.com/o8.html Full HD no compromise.

[martinv]

For this project I need something off the shelf that would provide HDMI, DVI or VGA interface or similar and be ready to go.

Nice to see the basic hardware is out there though. Maybe some manufacturer will pick it up and design some usable glasses for the rest of us.

[leoj3n]

https://www.amazon.com/Virtual-Reality-Theater-Displays-Nintendo/dp/B07B2KHRGV/

[martinv]

Hi leoj3n, that's pretty much what I'm after, the Goovis G2. In fact, I raced out and bought one right away! I haven't had a lot of time to look at it yet, but it really is full HD. What I like about it is that you can run it in two different modes - one is with the HMD connected to the battery pack in which case the "system" is running Android. I successfully paired the Twiddler 3 with it, though I haven't done much more than confirm the pointer works. The second mode you connect the HMD via an extra cable to (say) a laptop that has HDMI and USB for power. Then it really is just acting as a display. In that case you pair the Twiddler with the laptop.

Some initial thoughts... This is my first HMD. This gives complete black-out, so when you put it on you cannot see anything other than the screen. There is a jack on the HMD where you can plug in headphones. I would recommend in-ear ones as full over ear types will not fit as well as they might otherwise. I found the image to be very good, but only if I have the thing adjusted precisely and have the HMD precisely aligned on my head. Moving things a little bit results in blurry corners or edges of the screen. Not such a big deal watching movies in practice, but a big deal for a computer desktop. I will try and practice with this. Another thing I'm getting used to is that every movement of my head translates into a screen move, which I find a bit disconcerting.

I still have to play around a lot more with it so it's still early days.

[leoj3n]

Thanks for the feedback @martinv. I'm waiting to see what else comes out that will be better than this or drive the price down to the $500 range. I tried the Vufine+ but had to return it because the screen didn't have a brightness adjust and was too bright. Felt like it was burning my retina using it in low light. In fact alternating opening and closing my eyes there was a very concerning difference in how white objects/surfaces looked after using the Vufine+ for only a few minutes. I would only use the Vufine+ to fly a drone in very bright sunlight, in which case it would probably serve it's purpose. However, similar to what you mentioned with the Goovis, even the slightest shift in orientation would ruin the clear picture. Not to mention reading text with one eye on a tiny display is not enjoyable.

I would pay whatever premium for an HMD specifically designed for text display and general computing. Sounds like the Goovis isn't perfect in this regard.

[leoj3n]

Rokid Project Aurora USB-C smart glasses could be a wearable Nintendo Switch display

https://glass.rokid.com/en/

[leoj3n]

• https://www.scmp.com/tech/gear/article/2181165/ex-magic-leap-employee-launches-mixed-reality-glasses-nreal-light-bid
• https://www.nreal.ai
• https://youtu.be/tsiaMsD9hcw

[tony]

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