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From: mbutts@mentor.com (Mike Butts)
Newsgroups: sci.electronics,comp.arch
Subject: "Private Eye": new cheap display technology
Message-ID: <1989Nov30.212243.3012@mentor.com>
Date: 30 Nov 89 21:22:43 GMT
Organization: engr
Lines: 42

From "Electronic Design", 11/23/89, p.29:

"Tiny Display Suspends Image in Space by Synchronizing Scanning Mirror to LEDs"

"A tiny 2.5 ounce 'virtual' display projects an image that appears to float in
space, and gives roughly the resolution and appearance of a 12 inch monitor. 
The Private Eye comes in a light-tight package that's 1.2 in. high by 1.1 in.
deep by 3.2 in wide.  It can be hand-held or serve as a visual Walkman on a
lightweight headset.

"The display produces text and graphics at a resolution of 720 by 280 pixels. 
The screen can be formatted to 25 lines by 80 characters per line, making it
suitable as a display device for pocket PCs, full-screen radio pagers, and
pocket fax machines, as well as military and industrial head-up displays.

"A startup company, Reflection Technology, Waltham, Mass., has been marketing
the display for over a year, but is only now revealing how the display works. 
The patented display is the brainchild of founder and president Allen Becker. 
To develop Private Eye, Becker combined LED and scanning-mirror technology.  It
consists of an LED column display, a magnifying lens, a spring-mounted moving
mirror attached to a voice coil, a counter-moving weight to cancel vibrations,
and some custom ICs."

There are many more tech details and a picture in the article, and also in this
week's EE Times.  The image's virtual distance can be varied using a sliding
lens control.  The display only draws 10 milliwatts of power.  They have had
working models interfaced to PCs for quite some time now.  The article says
have announced two customers, one using it in a paperless portable fax machine,
and the other applying it as a head-up display for pilots.

EE Times says they envision scaling up to 1024 by 764 pixels soon, and 1K by 1K
full color with gray scaling and shading in about five years.  The technology
is simple, elegant, and should be cheap in mass production.  I have to think
this offers a real opportunity for light, cheap, VR headsets in a few years.

I used to work for Al Becker years ago at Kurzweil Computer Products (the
reading machine for the blind company).  If you call, tell them I said hi!
-- 
Michael Butts, Research Engineer       KC7IT           503-626-1302
Mentor Graphics Corp., 8500 SW Creekside Place, Beaverton, OR 97005
!{sequent,tessi,apollo}!mntgfx!mbutts         mbutts@pdx.MENTOR.COM
Opinions are my own, not necessarily those of Mentor Graphics Corp.


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