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Displays Input Devices

Canon Demos New Head-Mounted Augmented-Reality Display 53

Press2ToContinue writes with this excerpt from ExtremeTech: "With products like Google's Glass, the Oculus Rift, and even certain features found on the Nintendo 3DS, augmented, mixed, and virtual reality are starting to make some headway in the consumer space. Canon, best known for its cameras, is looking to break into the mixed reality scene with its new head-mounted display. ... The core of the setup is the Canon HMD (head-mounted display) which works in conjunction with various sensors — optical and magnetic, as well as visual markers — to help create the mixed reality environment. The HMD employs two cameras located in front of each eye that captures video and shoots it off to an off-board, tethered computer. The computer then combines the real-world visuals with computer-generated visuals, and beams that back to two monitors placed in front of the eyes within the HMD. The unit combines with a development platform, dubbed the MR Platform, which allows companies to create mixed reality images to display on the HMD."
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Canon Demos New Head-Mounted Augmented-Reality Display

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  • Dear Canon, (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 23, 2013 @01:32PM (#42990021)
    That's very nice. But the 1990s called and want it back.
    • But the 1990s called

      You at least warned them about 9/11 though, right?

      • No, we warned them about Bush instead. Cause vs result...

        • The fuck? 9/11 was planned all the way back in 1994 in the Bojinka Plot. I'm no fan of Bush and I can understand not liking how he handled it, but he didn't cause 9/11.
          • by Anonymous Coward

            Oh please! Everyone knows that 9/11 was planned all the way back to 1961 when Obama was born.

  • by Anonymous Coward

    $125,000 up front plus $25,000 per year in maintenance. Almost nobody will actually see one of these in real life.

    • How many people saw the older ones in real life? The only reason I saw the '80s era gear in person at all, was that the Science Center bought a rig 10 years after it was obsolete. I vaguely remember the '90s era consumer gear and it wasn't as good as the '80s era gear, except for the resolution. It lacked the interface and cost about half the price of a new computer of the era.

      • I went HMD hang-gliding at the Seattle Science Center in the 90s. It was super-heavy, lagged like 300ms, looked like Avara, and was over in about fifteen seconds, so the person behind me could be underwhelmed. I don't think it was even stereo, but I could be wrong. That said, I would sacrifice and infant for an Oculus Rift.
    • by drkim ( 1559875 )

      $125,000 up front plus $25,000 per year in maintenance. Almost nobody will actually see one of these in real life.

      I saw this at SIGGRAPH. It was cool, but not useful in any consumer level way. There are full immersion HMDs for gaming, and Google Glass for AR.

      You might see this at the retail store level: trying on virtual clothes, customizing your new car, etc.

  • by Nyder ( 754090 ) on Saturday February 23, 2013 @02:00PM (#42990203) Journal

    since it has a $125k price tag.

    No one else is that stupid to pay that much.

    • I'm sure the military will be a customer, but $125k for any major corporation is negligible. I was going to reply saying the cost of building a concept car, for instance, is peanuts compared with $125k. However, the industry standard, upon further looking into it, is to build a large scale non-working prototype. If they want it functional, they might take the drive train out of an existing car. This is pretty close to the functionality you get out of prototyping with VR, and the majority of the cost is
      • If you payed me 125,000, I would finish college, learn about optics, build you a headset, write you better software than this, build a ludicrous computer to run it on, then give you back the remaining 25,000 dollars.
        • by Hanzie ( 16075 ) *

          For $125K, I could deliver Occulus Rift + Google Glasses in a month, and still have enough left over for your education. And the month is only to find some current owners who will part with their treasure.

    • No one else is that stupid to pay that much.

      Except the taxpayers...

  • Sriously - I think I'd rather wear Stimpy's Happy Helmet than this thing.

    I may think that the Google Glass is a bit overhyped, but at least it doesn't look like you just strapped your Canon Point and Shoot to your forehead.

  • Application ideas: (Score:5, Interesting)

    by SuricouRaven ( 1897204 ) on Saturday February 23, 2013 @02:17PM (#42990317)

    Adblock RL: Replaces all billboards, posters and other advertising with blank space.
    Social-app: Automatically recognises the faces of everyone you are supposed to know and overlays name and a history of recent interactions, allowing you to pretend you care enough to remember who they are.
    Nudievision: Construct a 3d model of figures and overlay, effectively removing clothing.
    Pure Eyes: Blocks any sexual images, including women showing more flesh than would be considered modest in an Amish town. Marketed at the super-devout Christian market.
    Halal Eyes: Actually just Pure Eyes with the logo changed, but marketed to Muslims instead.
    Child compass: Receives GPS position from offspring's mobile phone and maintains a continually updated directional indicator to aid to recapture when they run off.
    Pedofinder: For every face seen, perform automatic lookup in public sex offender databases. A vital app for all paranoid parents so they know when to shun people.
    Gaydar: Tags an icon over any other Gaydar user.

    • by DavidTC ( 10147 )

      Gaydar: Tags an icon over any other Gaydar user.

      I don't think that's how 'gaydar' is supposed to work. Straight people can have gaydar, and gay people might not. (Gay people probably _try_ to have it, but that doesn't mean it works.)

      You actually could implement a gaydar feature, though. It theoretically should be possible to statistically detect slight sexual attraction towards others. Watch other people's sightline, and check their pupils for dilation and what their eye stops on, etc. You could even de

  • by loufoque ( 1400831 ) on Saturday February 23, 2013 @02:28PM (#42990377)

    The video has so much bullshitting going on in it that it's really impressive.
    It reminds me of all the people I've seen when creating my start-up. Why do people in emerging businesses think it is a good idea to make ridiculously bold statements about technology that clearly isn't that world shaking?

    • by Anonymous Coward

      The video has so much bullshitting going on in it that it's really impressive.
      It reminds me of all the people I've seen when creating my start-up. Why do people in emerging businesses think it is a good idea to make ridiculously bold statements about technology that clearly isn't that world shaking?

      I feel bad for the engineers who worked on this product. It's probably a very good product and then marketing gets their hands on it a F#@ks it all up. Nothing worse than having all your great ideas and hard work be diminished by some lousy marketing campaign.

  • Not too many people, really. Most of them hang out by the train station. They don't pay anything for mixed reality. It just happens, and most of the time they didn't do anything to deserve it. You see a lot of other people doing this too, but they usually have to buy a plastic bag full of this funny dried up plant stuff. Then they--get this--smoke that crap. It smells funny, but it works. They're almost immediately living in "mixed reality".

    Now tech companies are doing this? I guess I shouldn't be

    • by drkim ( 1559875 )

      Not too many people, really. Most of them hang out by the train station. They don't pay anything for mixed reality. ...

      Agreed. The difference with this system (apart from the $125,000) is that you can control the mixed reality you're in.

  • by Guspaz ( 556486 ) on Saturday February 23, 2013 @02:51PM (#42990527)

    I realize this is for AR more than VR, but I'd rather take a $300 Rift with a huge FoV than a $125k Canon thingy with a tiny FoV...

  • The video in TFA sounds and looks like an MLM marketing video..
  • by Anonymous Coward

    I would love this, I would like to sit on my couch with my fleshlight and have a virtual woman go up an down and see her boobies bounce when I move my fleshlight up and down, that would be awesome! I would pay $25,000 for that.

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