World's Smallest Projector - Fits In Your Eye!

Clint DeBoer · #1 05-24-2006, 09:11 PM

We all like small. I mean, come on - thinner TV screens, smaller parts for a more compact design... About the only thing we don't want small is our diagonal viewing area - assuming I'm not talking about certain spouses that is. Well, they've finally gone and done it. The world's smallest projector was successfully created and tested - and it fits in your eye. This machine lets partially blind patients read and explore virtual buildings by projecting images directly onto their retinal cells.

[Read the Editorial]

TABCON · #2 05-24-2006, 09:18 PM

creeeeeepy...

I'm sure the military is already experimenting heavily with this one...lol.

Tacon

Alain Singapore · #3 05-25-2006, 01:08 AM

Quote:

I'm sure the military is already experimenting heavily with this one...lol.

That has been around for quite some time.

Only available in shades of red. See through your picture. Very bright. Very expensive!

nyf · #4 05-25-2006, 01:16 AM

It's not just available in red. Check the laser camera options on microvision's site: http://www.microvision.com/lasercam.html . Full color and 1.4 megapixels.

In fact, I've actually used this system at the Mayo Clinic when I was doing graduate interviews last spring. Mayo is interested in using it for surgical planning, overlaying anatomical or functional scans on a surgeon's vision as they operate. It also is a hell of a way to browse the net. The cameras can mount on pretty much any eyewear; goggles, prescription glasses, whatever. I'm sure the biggest problem with them at the moment is lag characteristics, which I don't recall. Mayo's imaging group was working on integrating motion tracking and cool stuff.

I don't remember the price quote, but it seemed to be entirely too cheap to be such a limited prototype, and there may be a reason I'm holding off on getting a laptop

edit: Here's a Wired link from 2001 (!): http://www.wired.com/news/technology...ory_page_next1

cusky5oh · #5 05-25-2006, 02:35 AM

i'd imagine when the first headphones came out (some still are), they were fairly expensive. and are now down to the point where they are given away, granted those can hardly count as an actual reproducer of audio... i wonder if someday we will be asked by the flight attendants on our way to mars if we would like to watch "matrix 84, We Were Serious When We Said It Was a Looping Program" on our way to mars and be given a set of retina projectors to do so...