pollack@dendrite.cis.ohio-state.edu (Jordan B Pollack) (08/28/90)
Can anyone point me to a published review of the $500 heads-up display made by Reflection Technology? I've seen announcements of the gee-whiz-look-whats-coming sort, but haven't seen any evaluations. I did hear a rumor that made it sound pretty useless; that any head movement causes unreadability. If anyone has tried one on and can comment, please do. -- Jordan Pollack Assistant Professor CIS Dept/OSU Laboratory for AI Research 2036 Neil Ave Email: pollack@cis.ohio-state.edu Columbus, OH 43210 Fax/Phone: (614) 292-4890
ME.DMG@forsythe.stanford.edu (David Gaba M.D.) (08/29/90)
In article <POLLACK.90Aug28115240@dendrite.cis.ohio-state.edu>, pollack@dendrite.cis.ohio-state.edu (Jordan B Pollack) writes: >Can anyone point me to a published review of the $500 heads-up >display made by Reflection Technology? > >If anyone has tried one on and can comment, please do. > I read about them in the authorative journal Popular Mechanics (at the barber shop! :-) ) and contacted the company. They came out and did a demo. I was more or less impressed in that with only a little practice I did seem to be able to shift my vision back and forth between the little screen and the real world. The resolution was OK -- not great for looking at detailed 25x80 spreadsheets, but a fair representation of looking at a so-so IBM monochrome screen of a couple of years ago. The red color does take some getting used to! The head-set was a little kludgy at my demo., maybe by now they have improved it, or the OEM people will spiff that up. We were looking at it for possible use in medical displays for anesthesiologists during surgery, to allow heads-up display of monitor information while looking directly at the surgical field (so we can keep an eye on what mischief the surgeon is up\ to!). I am skeptical about its utility for this purpose. It would take a good infrared or other kind of transmitter to allow a non- tethered application. I suspect (though I would like to do the empirical tests) that there are other easier, cheaper ways to accomplish more or less the same thing (remote display screens mounted from the ceiling in a strategically placed location do pretty well). I have just found out that the people in anesthesia at Ohio State have done a formal evaluation for this purpose (just noticed you're from there, how about that!). You should contact Frank Block, M.D. in the department of anesthesiology. Sorry, I don't have his phone number. He is presenting a paper at the annual anesthesia meeting in Oct. on the evaluation. David Gaba, M.D., Asst. Prof. Anesthesia, Stanford