New Virtual Screens and Improved Batteries Could Revolutionize Handhelds

Posted By: Ed Sunday, February 17, 2002 9:00:00 AM

Two new technologies could bring big changes to handhelds.

Last week, Microvision demonstrated a prototype of a miniature display. As the user holds a cell-phone-sized device near one eye, the tiny display scans a single beam of multi-colored light through a small lens to project a full-color video image of the apparent size and resolution of a laptop display screen directly onto the eye.

"We achieve full Super VGA (SVGA or 800 X 600 lines) resolution and have measured contrast ratios up to 150:1. Color gamut and saturation are already comparable with a very high quality CRT and we expect to see further improvements in performance over the weeks ahead," said Russell Hannigan, Microvision's director of business development for advanced products.

The company will spend the next 18 to 24 months reducing the size, weight, power consumption and, especially, cost of the miniature display.

However, one question not addressed by Microvision is how the user would enter text. Asking someone to write on a device held up to one eye is unreasonable. Also, the screen is completely virtual so there is no way to tap onto it. Still the device has a lot of potential if someone can work out the problems.

Valence Technology has announced an improvement to lithium-ion batteries that will reduce their cost. Its Saphion technology uses a phosphate-based cathode material in place of the less stable and more costly cobalt. 

They have a high energy density, won't suffer from a memory effect, and have a long life. Lacking cobalt, the new batteries will be more enviromentally friendly.

While not as sexy as virtual displays, lower-cost batteries will lead to lower-cost handhelds, a plus in almost everyone's book. Valence expects to see the first Saphion batteries out by this spring.

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What......?!!!!

I.M. Anonymous @ 2/17/2002 9:20:18 AM #
Are you serious? I love handheld technology, but seriously?!

Borg Babe
I.M. Anonymous @ 2/17/2002 9:23:06 AM #
She looks like a Borg Babe on Star Shrek! If you want to be picked on and look like a total geek, this looks like the product for you. In order to be socially acceptable, they need to make the display fully conceiled into a form factor similar to the sunglasses worn by Keaneau Reeves in The Matrix.

RE: What......?!!!!
JeepBastard @ 2/17/2002 9:26:02 AM #
that thing is really nerdy. nobody is going to wear that ****.

[http://www.mediathreat.net]
RTA
I.M. Anonymous @ 2/17/2002 9:45:39 AM #
RTA = Read The Article

"The company will spend the next 18 to 24 months reducing the size, weight, power consumption and, especially, cost of the miniature display."

That's the prototype. Of course the final version will be much smaller Read before you open your mouths. You'll look less dumb.

RE: What......?!!!!
I.M. Anonymous @ 2/17/2002 11:01:40 AM #
re: RTA

Gee, so you would wear something like that if it were smaller? Any piece of technology strapped to your head and covering one eye looks ridiculous, no matter HOW small they make it.

The guy above you is right, they don't need to just work on reducing the size, they need to work to conceal it in sunglasses. With today's technology, the only way they could do that well is by having a secondary unit strapped to your belt or something. That makes it a completely different product.

RE: What......?!!!!
I.M. Anonymous @ 2/17/2002 11:15:30 AM #
I disagree with the socially acceptable aspect. It probably took quite a while before spectacles were considered socially acceptable by the medieval Europeans and Chinese. Those were times when looking nerdy could get your head lopped off. Nevertheless, the world eventually looked past the obvious aesthetic issues to see the merit in being able to stare at the opposite sex behind a pair of dark shades. So bring on the Borg babe and those luscious lips -- assimilate me baby.

It's called progress, men.

RE: What......?!!!!
I.M. Anonymous @ 2/17/2002 11:20:40 AM #
OR concealing your whole face so that no one will know ure Geeky enough to use one.

RE: What......?!!!!
I.M. Anonymous @ 2/17/2002 11:36:55 AM #
As usual, you have missed the point. This is about a display that is only a couple of inches across that can display a SVGA screen. NOT about a device you clip to your head. You've totally ignored an amazing bit of technology and focused on a limitation of the prototype.

OF COURSE, the final version won't be this big. It will probably look like a pair of glasses wirelessly connected to a handheld device you write on. Or maybe you'll only hold it up to your eye during the few seconds you need to check the address you are looking for. I don't know.

Geez, have some vision. Some of you seem incapable of understanding that electronics always get smaller and better. You've seen it all your life but it somehow hasn't sunk in. What you are looking at is a prototype, not available for sale, that the company is going to spend 2 YEARS working to make smaller. Think about how much smaller and better all types of electronics get in 2 years.

Now keep your dumb comments to yourselves and wait until a real version gets shipped in 2004.

RE: What......?!!!!
I.M. Anonymous @ 2/17/2002 1:07:01 PM #
I bet there will no wires, sunglasses, and communication with a unit either on the belt/in a pocket...all with Bluetooth technology...interesting

RE: What......?!!!!
I.M. Anonymous @ 2/17/2002 5:10:36 PM #
Will Bluetooth be fast enough though to keep refreshing the screen, entering text, etc?

This is amazing technology people. Before we know it, we'll just have to wear glasses, eye or sun, to use our PDA. Wouldn't surprise me if this had a little piece of plastic (like 5x3 inches), where you enter in text, "tap", etc. Also wouldn't surprise me if this used a mouse like interface to get around. Anyhow, very cool!

Mario
PalmInfoCenter Moderator

RE: What......?!!!!
I.M. Anonymous @ 2/17/2002 7:18:30 PM #
or maybe it would be all in voice commands.. do any of you guys remember the ibm commercial where the guys is in russia checking stocks all from one eye peiece.. and he was using voice commands..

RE: What......?!!!!
I.M. Anonymous @ 2/17/2002 8:05:11 PM #
Where's the accessories???! I want a big slide-on modem! I want a leather belt-clip case.

RE: What......?!!!!
I.M. Anonymous @ 2/18/2002 2:07:37 AM #
"or maybe it would be all in voice commands.. do any of you guys remember the ibm commercial where the guys is in russia checking stocks all from one eye peiece.. and he was using voice commands.."

Now he was a total GEEK! sounded like he was talking to himself.

New Technology?
I.M. Anonymous @ 2/18/2002 2:24:36 AM #
New Technology?

Only if you ran this story three years ago!

I hope it's not going to take them 2 years to shrink the bloody thing. They are alway way behind the technology curve.

RE: What......?!!!!
JeepBastard @ 2/18/2002 9:49:53 AM #
They already have a device that is integrated into shades that is shipping now.

Calling people names doesn't seem very nice. This unit is crappy right now, and their press release is positioned so they can get funding.

http://www.hitachi.co.jp/Prod/vims/wia/index.html

Now that is a nice unit. It still isn't the kind of shades that dont attract attention unforunately, but they are much better than that borg helmet.

And it's shipping now.



[http://www.mediathreat.net]

RE: What......?!!!!
I.M. Anonymous @ 2/18/2002 1:14:04 PM #
hmmm.. those shade... still look pretty big.. if only the screen was thinner it might look decent...

The colours were so nice when suddenly ... SPLAT!

I.M. Anonymous @ 2/17/2002 10:05:10 AM #
As the user walks along with his now monocular vision, concentrating on the movew he walks into a tachnologically challenged wall!

RE: The colours were so nice when suddenly ... SPLAT!
I.M. Anonymous @ 2/17/2002 10:09:49 AM #
A guy was driving along in his car, dialing on his mobile phone, when he ran into a wall. Too bad. This caused mobile phones to not catch on anywhere in the world. If it weren't for this, billions of them might have been sold. Too bad.

Seems geared towards G.I. Joe

I.M. Anonymous @ 2/17/2002 11:08:27 AM #
Have you ever seen an Apache pilot aim by looking? These things might give marines, etc. the same kind of capability. It would be a personal HUD.

Also, using a palm pilot backlight at night is bound to get ones hands shot off. So much for Tak on R&R.

RE: Seems geared towards G.I. Joe
I.M. Anonymous @ 2/17/2002 11:17:41 AM #
Yeah they'll be playing Bejeweled instead of looking for some terrorists.

RE: Seems geared towards G.I. Joe
I.M. Anonymous @ 2/17/2002 12:28:15 PM #
They fight for trouble, wherever there's freedom, Jihad Joe is there.

Now only if they could build this into a contact lens.

I.M. Anonymous @ 2/17/2002 11:13:20 AM #
Of course, the contact lens would probably feel like a boulder in your eye.

RE: Now only if they could build this into a contact lens.
I.M. Anonymous @ 2/17/2002 11:45:10 AM #
In less than 20 years this will be built into your EYE.

RE: Now only if they could build this into a contact lens.
I.M. Anonymous @ 2/17/2002 11:54:19 AM #
*Person walking along, then all of a sudden...* "THE BLUE SCREEN, THE BLUE SCREEN!!!! THE HUMANITY!!!! THE PAIN!!!"

RE: Now only if they could build this into a contact lens.
I.M. Anonymous @ 2/17/2002 12:10:48 PM #
Having forgotten to neutralize lens cleaning fluid before placing a contact into my eye, I can just imagine the pain.

Your eye snaps shut as the tear ducts go into overdrive. You will your eye to open, but the searing pain forces you to pry your unyielding eyelids apart and tear at the offending implement. As you toss it to the ground, you hear the earphone chirp "You've Got Mail!"

RE: Now only if they could build this into a contact lens.
I.M. Anonymous @ 2/18/2002 7:58:41 AM #
In less than 20 years this will be built into your EYE.

Actually, there was a Japanese animated series about that very concept. The neat thing about it, was that this guy's eye had access to every public and private network on earth and he could interact with it purely by thought!

Here's more info on it if anyone's curious:

http://makeashorterlink.com/?S12F12D6

8==8 Bones 8==8

RE: Now only if they could build this into a contact lens.
I.M. Anonymous @ 2/18/2002 8:11:54 AM #
Dude, talk about being a geek. Japanese animated series? Good lord, looking like a nerd with the headgear is the least of your problems!

Sorry, but I don't 'get' the whole anime thing at all.

RE: Now only if they could build this into a contact lens.
I.M. Anonymous @ 2/18/2002 10:24:56 AM #
> Dude, talk about being a geek.

"Dude", if you looked in the dictionary for the the word "geek", you'd find a picture of someone dressed better than you are. Posting comments onto sites like this one makes you a major league geek. Either accept it or go watch some football and never come back.

Vanity wins everytime...

ssummer @ 2/17/2002 12:24:51 PM #
It's funny, everyone is more concerned about how they would look wearing the device than the possible health complications of having a higher-than-normal-energy light beam blasting directly onto your retina. Talk about the ultimate screen burn-in.

Vanity wins everytime...

higher than normal?
mj6798 @ 2/17/2002 2:49:34 PM #
What makes you think its energy is "higher than normal" under normal use?

My main concern would be that the scanning hardware would fail. Then, you would indeed have a high intensity beam of light focussing on a tiny part of your retina.

Cell Phone Radiation
I.M. Anonymous @ 2/17/2002 4:47:09 PM #
What about all of the Cell Phone Radiation we are all getting????

RE: Vanity wins everytime...
jws @ 2/18/2002 6:42:20 AM #
i agree with ssummer, I use my palm intensely now, such a gadget would require a big amount of light to be readable, judging by the fact that the display would relatively far from your eye (see photo).

RE: Vanity wins everytime...
ssummer @ 2/18/2002 9:14:43 AM #
The product's light energy (produced by a laser mind you) has to be higher-than-normal to get any discernable image much less a 150:1 contrast ratio image otherwise it would just blend in with the ambient light...

Are you kidding- who is the editor?

I.M. Anonymous @ 2/17/2002 12:53:25 PM #
This is the most ridiculous story I've ever read

RE: Are you kidding- who is the editor?
I.M. Anonymous @ 2/17/2002 2:13:03 PM #
These comments are ridiculous. No more anonymous posts.

RE: Are you kidding- who is the editor?
I.M. Anonymous @ 2/17/2002 3:55:38 PM #
I thought the comments were fairly amusing in parts -- I enjoy reading this site when I have a little downtime to get a laugh; it's better than a lot of the other websites out there today. The batteries thing is definitely the big news, as long phosphate can be substituted for cobalt. I'm not a chemist but I didn't think you could do that... As at least one comment points out, virtual head-up displays are nothing new. They've even made it onto Cadillacs in recent years. Anyway, I'm impressed that you guys don't feel like big geeks when you pull out your handheld in the middle of party to jot down someone's e-mail address. There's a reason why telephone numbers only have 7 digits, guys -- to make them easy enough to remember that even you can manage it...

RE: Are you kidding- who is the editor?
I.M. Anonymous @ 2/17/2002 6:05:14 PM #
Memorize only one 7-digit number? Who hit you with the ugly stick?

;-)

RE: Are you kidding- who is the editor?
I.M. Anonymous @ 2/17/2002 7:21:41 PM #
its 10 digits in my area now....

RE: Are you kidding- who is the editor?
I.M. Anonymous @ 2/18/2002 2:10:34 PM #
Actually it's ten digits in my area too. But if the first three are different from my own, who needs the rest of the number? As to the ugly stick, that reminds me: I've often wondered why the lower model palms or the new Sonys don't come with nicer styli? I mean, can you imagine how many more people I could impress if I whipped out a well-weighted sizeable silver stylus...? :P

Do I hear stylus envy?
I.M. Anonymous @ 2/18/2002 11:07:05 PM #
If it was even larger, it could have other, ahem, recreational uses.

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