Monday, December 1, 2008

What is Virtual Retinal Display?



A virtual retinal display (VRD), also known as a retinal scan display (RSD), is a new display technology that draws a raster display (like a television) directly onto the retina of the eye. What a person wearing VRD goggles sees is an image floating in space right in front of them. This image will not completely cover the real objects seen without the goggles, but will display the image over them. "(However, the portion of the visual area where imagery appears must still intersect with optical elements of the display system. It is not possible to display an image over a solid angle from a point source unless the projection system can bypass the lenses within the eye.)" (Wikipedia.org). This piece of technology may allow us watch television or use telephones or computers only by wearing what appears to be vision or sunglasses from outside, while all the magic happens between the lense and the eye.

The Virtual Retinal Display was invented at the University of Washington in 1991. The Development of this technology begun in 1993. Idea was to develop a virtual display the closest possible to the reality picture. It would have color display, high resolution, high quality picture allowing the user see an illusion of an image that is created by the light beam sent directly to the retina. (www.cs.nps.navy.mil)
By sending the image directly into the eye, the VRD technology allows the person to see the image much clearer then from any possible television screen. It would also consume much less energy because it only uses a microwatt of energy to transmit the image. In addition to all this "good stuff", the privacy of the viewer is guaranteed. (wisegeek.com)
By now, Microvision Inc. has the exclusive license to commercialize the VRD technology.
References:
  1. Virtual Retinal Display - Wikipedia.org
  2. VRD Technology - cs.nps.navy.mil
  3. Virtual Retinal Display - wisegeek.com

2 comments:

Retina said...

http://vrdisplay.blogspot.de/

simwave said...

Virtual reality retail (VRR) is essentially buying things via virtual environments. At the moment of course VRR is still in its infancy and mostly relies on floating website style interfaces. However, there has been some interesting prototypes and research into VRR lately, and I am interested in the thoughts and feelings of users regarding different VRR environmental design.

Interactive Design