Linux-Based PMP Features Head-Up Display

nerdyH writes "A new Linux-based portable media player (PMP) features an eyeglass-like head-mounted display with 800 x 600 resolution. Dreamax's Indicube i-800 PMP provides an experience similar to sitting two meters away from a 54-inch screen, the vendor claims. It uses an 0.44-inch eMagin OLED display, claimed to offer the smallest pixel pitch in the industry."

54" screen is well and fine

[Zerth]

But can it give me the equivalent of 17" CRT at arms length?

Whenever I see these, I think "yay, monitor replacement" until I find out that, like most of them, it is just as fuzzy for reading text as a regular TV.

... finest pixel pitch may not be good

[dsojourner]

I've worked on micro display projects before --- and you don't want the pixel pitch getting too close to the wavelength of light -- which will be around 1/2 micron. Pixels smaller than a micron or so will result in dispersion of the light that is generated, limiting the quality of the image.

54 inch screen at 7 feet = 15 inch monitor

[MrSteveSD]

Yes, a 15 inch monitor (15.4 to be more precise) on your desk 2 feet in front of you has the same field of view. Somehow the sales tag "Like a 15 inch monitor on your desk" doesn't sound quite as impressive. This is one of my pet peeves. You always hear manufacturers explaining how their tiny FOV eyepiece is like an enormous screen at some equally enormous distance. They just pick a distance which coincides with an impressive sounding screen size. If they give you a distance in feet, just divide the screen size by the distance, then multiply by 2. That will give you the equivalent monitor size (2 feet in front of you).

The FOV of this device is actually a bit better than a many I have seen. They often come out as being equivalent to 14 inch monitors rather than 15 inch monitors. It's nice that it can play HD movies but a bit of a shame that the screen is way below HD resolution, making such an exercise fairly pointless.

Since the early 90s I been waiting for an affordable head mounted display (HMD) with a human-like field of view, and sadly I'm still waiting. Even the unaffordable ones have pretty crummy FOVs. Still, if any kind of HMD becomes popular (no matter how poor) it can only be a good thing in the long run. It's bound to result in better products before long.

Re:Target audience

[Anonymous Coward]

FYI: not everyone is a candidate for laser eye surgery. Anyone with vision that is still changing with time, or with extremely poor vision, is not a candidate for the treatment. (Yes, paradoxically the people who most need corrective surgery are not candidates.) For certain people with very bad eyesight and irritable eyes, neither contacts nor surgery are available (my sister is in this class of unfortunate people).

All of that to say that there is a segment of the population who cannot avoid wearing glasses. There are of course many others who prefer glasses over contacts or corrective surgery for non-monetary reasons.

Re:what for?

[ianare]

No ... using Linux means tried and tested support for the embedded platform, no royalties to pay, access to source code in case modifications need to be made, access to source code to see exactly what is going on, easy to set up a custom interface, no bloatware mandated by OS vendor, etc etc ...

It's really no surprise to me that Linux is making more and more progress in small devices, and none of it has to do with some sort of imaginary "Linux halo effect". It's just good engineering/business sense.

Re:Target audience

[ballpoint]

No, that's not true. Optics are designed so that you need to focus your lens on a virtual image that appears to be x meters away in exactly the same way as you would need to focus on a real image that actually is x meters away, where x is a design choice.

For each level of near- or farsightedness, a display could be specifically designed so that no additional correction would be necessary. But guess what, manufacturers will be addressing the middle ground only, and won't be catering to special needs, save for a limited range like +/- 2 diopters that can be easily obtained by moving a lens a few mm.

Re:54" screen is well and fine

[MrSteveSD]

But can it give me the equivalent of 17" CRT at arms length?

No. The apparent size of the screen scales linearly according to distance. So 54 inches at 7 feet is the same as 54/7 at 1 foot. Your monitor is probably about 2 feet in front of you, so that is (54/7)*2 = 15.4 inches. So it's like having a 15 inch monitor.

Addendum

[Bwana Geek]

Of course, inspired by this [xkcd.com].