Some of you may remember Headplay, a wearable display – only a concept and a pitch for VC at the time. After what seems like ages (well, maybe more like six months), I finally got an email from Headplay last night announcing that they are now ready to ship. It’s allegedly available for shipping at USD 499.99.
I had almost forgotten about the concept designed by ideo and written it off as yet another vapourware product. At the time I learned about Headplay, icuity was building up hype for their wearable iPod display. There was also MyVu.
Headplay, as opposed to icuity and MyVu, sports an own media player – a separate box – that can reportedly play most familiar audio and video formats. Furthermore, where as the two other brands supports resolutions of 640 X 480 and 320 X 240 respectively, Headplay touts a native 800 x 600. However, there is no VGA or DVI port, only an y/c (svhs). There’s a page up on the site detailing the specs further.
Let me know how it works for you if you ever get your hands on one – or better yet, send me one to test!
Another new affordable wearable display to check out would be the icuity VR920 which includes stereo vision (Nvidia only) and head tracking. I have no information on how well it works at this time.
I’ve been looking for an affordable wearable display to use with a laptop for a couple of years now. A display I would actually buy would have to have at least 800 x 600 native resolution and a DVI or VGA interface. Optional niceties would be head tracking and stereo (twin) cameras. The threshold for me actually considering a purchase would probably be between USD 500 to 800, depending on specs.
Be sure to leave a comment if you know of other affordable and interesting wearable displays, or maybe you have some ideas for use that you would like to share? I would like to experiment with augmented reality myself. Virtual Light anyone?
[tags] wearable computing, display, goggles, hardware[/tags]
Imagine if the consumer market tigthened up and Oakley or Rayban got down with a product hustle like this? Status quo practical. Relevant. Why look like you just jumped out of the next-generation? Hit us with some fashion-tech that makes sense!!! The 800×600 native is tight — I’m just not feeling the formfactor on anything that exists right now, unfortunately. Lookin’ forward to more posts, bruh.
I’d like to see more development done to the design of wearable displays too. Now if Apple would get on the bandwagon, we’d probably see something nifty. However, wearable displays are probably too geeky for the Apple hipster dufus crowd?
Thanks! I’ll try to keep posting on a regular basis.