Good question. I would say HMDs are utilized in only about 15-20% of all wearable deployments. This is for a few reasons: 1) Social Acceptance. People don=92t like to put things on their head. This holds true for something as clunky as a Cy-Visor hack or as unobtrusive as an SV-3. =20 2) Technological Acceptance. Wearing a display on your head is still a very new concept. Getting people to buy-in at this early stage is still a challenge. =20 3) Workplace Acceptance. This is where major volumes in the next few years will be coming from and there still is great resistance in using them. There are just times where an HMD is just not right for the job - it is either too obtrusive, too "new", too much of a safety hazard, etc... It takes time to gain acceptance. 4) Product life-cycles. As mentioned before, this is still a very new device for the "mainstream" marketplace. We have only gone through about 3 generations of product development. I'd say we will still need about 5 more rev's until one possesses all of the features to make it attractive to the consumer market. 5) Personalizing. As things get closer and closer to your body, they need to be more and more customizable in order to suit personal tastes and be compatible with the users environment. Right now it is pretty difficult to make a HMD with 100 different styles and colors to choose from. =20 6) Group viewing. A HMD is a personal viewing device and can only be viewed by one person at a time. If you need to share data with someone, you either have to take off your HMD and give it to them or they would have to have their own HMD and be able to plug into your system. 7) Solely an Output device. A HMD is only an output device and additional input devices must be used. Hand-held displays can incorporate a touch screen to act as a keyboard and mouse making it an Input and Output device in one. Hand-held displays avoid a lot of these barriers to usage by: 1) Being an "off the body" device. It is stored in a pouch and does not have to be "fit" to each user individually. 2) It is an older technology. People are familiar with larger format LCD displays. 3) It is a true group viewing device. Many people can look at the display at one time. To move from user to user is as easy as passing the device to them. Fit does not have to be adjusted, IPD played with, eye dominance determined, etc... 4) It doesn't mess your hair when you use it. Unbelievably, this is a very big concern for many users. As we move closer and closer to true wearable devices, we may to have to turn to the fashion industry for clues on how to develop products that people wear all day and on how to structure a sustainable industry based on constant innovation. If we use the fashion industry as a guide, the wearable computing industry should be composed of a few niche "haute couture" R&D houses that sell one-off's for a ridiculous amount of money. They will develop the cutting edge technologies and designs. Then their licensing partners will produce a "pr=EAt =E0 porter" line that will appeal to the higher = end customer. They will be high end and low volume products. Finally, companies specializing in low cost, high volume production will stock the shelves at Wal-Mart with consumer grade units. Within these 3 production segments, many companies will exist but each specializing in their own vertical market niche. This way, companies specializing in Workplace computing, Intrinsically Safe Computing, Marine Computing, Medical Computing, Military Computing, etc..., will make products specific to their customer's needs. It will be these specific products that will make the largest market penetrations. The barriers to usage in a specific vertical niche will be eliminated or, at least, drastically reduced. Currently, there are too many companies in the wearable computing market trying to do it all themselves - development to end user sales. Until proper alliances and relationships are forged that will sustain continuous innovation and growth, we will see only the tip of the iceberg of what is possible for HMD design and wearable computing design as a whole. -Tony > -----Original Message----- > From: Steve Barr [mailto:]=20 > Sent: Tuesday, April 01, 2003 6:53 PM > To:
> Subject: Display question >=20 >=20 > I see a lot of alternate displays discussed on the list. >=20 > Is this because of the price of HMDs, >=20 > or the Borg factor of HMDs, >=20 > or ? >=20 > Thanks, >=20 > Steve > --=20 > http://www.stevebarr.com > This message contains 100% my opinions. >=20 >=20 > -- > Subscription/unsubscription/info requests: send e-mail with=20 > subject of "subscribe", "unsubscribe", or "info" to=20 >
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