At 07:45 PM Thursday 1/17/2008, Robert Seeberger wrote: >http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2008-01/uow-clw011708.php > > >Movie characters from the Terminator to the Bionic Woman use bionic >eyes to zoom in on far-off scenes, have useful facts pop into their >field of view, or create virtual crosshairs. Off the screen, virtual >displays have been proposed for more practical purposes - visual aids >to help vision-impaired people, holographic driving control panels and >even as a way to surf the Web on the go. > >The device to make this happen may be familiar. Engineers at the >University of Washington have for the first time used manufacturing >techniques at microscopic scales to combine a flexible, biologically >safe contact lens with an imprinted electronic circuit and lights. > >"Looking through a completed lens, you would see what the display is >generating superimposed on the world outside," said Babak Parviz, a UW >assistant professor of electrical engineering. "This is a very small >step toward that goal, but I think it's extremely promising." The >results were presented today at the Institute of Electrical and >Electronics Engineers' international conference on Micro Electro >Mechanical Systems by Harvey Ho, a former graduate student of Parviz's >now working at Sandia National Laboratories in Livermore, Calif. Other >co-authors are Ehsan Saeedi and Samuel Kim in the UW's electrical >engineering department and Tueng Shen in the UW Medical Center's >ophthalmology department. > >There are many possible uses for virtual displays. Drivers or pilots >could see a vehicle's speed projected onto the windshield. Video-game >companies could use the contact lenses to completely immerse players >in a virtual world without restricting their range of motion. And for >communications, people on the go could surf the Internet on a midair >virtual display screen that only they would be able to see.
But what it will be used most for is to run commercials 24/7 that you can't turn off or even close your eyes to avoid. Obligatory Second Line Maru -- Ronn! :) _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
