From: azuma@unc.cs.unc.edu (Ronald Azuma)
Subject: Re: Building a head mounted display.
Date: 8 Mar 90 22:24:07 GMT
Message-ID: <12492@thorin.cs.unc.edu>
Organization: University Of North Carolina, Chapel Hill


In article <1990Mar4.160052.12036@ibmpcug.co.uk> peterl@ibmpcug.co.uk (Peter Lea
back) writes:
>1) Obtaining a sufficiently high resolution,high contrast and small LCD.
>I guess a 512*512 display is about the lowest resolution that is passable
>for a HMD ? Are LCD's up to this resolution ?

        We use regular color mini-TV screens that have considerably less
resolution than that.  I believe monochrome displays are available with
the resolution you state.  I would love to hear from anyone who knows of
commercially available color mini-TVs with that type of resolution...

>As for the positional and orientational information it may be possible to
>use a similar ultra-sonic arrangement to that of the "Power Glove". It is
>out of the question to buy a 3SPACE Isotrak which costs $3000 the last
>time i checked!

        Acoustic tracking is not recommended.  It's hard to maintain
accuracy over long distances and you can't directly recover the orientation
of the HMD.  The Polhemus may not be cheap, but it is easy to set up and
it works, as long as you stay within 4 ft. of the source and don't put
metal in your environment.

                                                Ron Azuma
                                                (azuma@dopey.cs.unc.edu)