Head-Mounted Augmented Reality Display
For the last year I’ve been on the lookout for a decently priced head mounted display with an integrated camera, and last week I found a device that fits this bill. Introducing the iWear Vuzix VR920 + AR unit, which offers two 640 x 480 LCD screens as well as a clip-on USB powered webcam.
Just call me Geordi LaForge
The Vuzix VR920 + CamAR webcam (snapped onto the front)
Upon delivery I immediately “goggled” into the metaverse and thew together a quick augmented reality demo. The system is fairly responsive, and I found that installing the optional “light filter” insert (basically a piece of molded rubber that blocks out ambient light from above and below your eyes) really helps in making the illusion feel more “believable.” Here’s a quick video of me watching some cubes bounce around on my kitchen table.
As with all AR projects, the illusion is dependent on the presence of a marker of some kind. Wearing the goggles gives a user much more freedom of movement, which means that you tend to lose sight of the marker more often than you would while using your laptop’s fixed webcam. My next project will be to try and overcome this problem by creating a set of redundant markers that can act in concert to help provide overlap coverage for when a single marker goes out of view.
Tags: aug, Augmented Reality, flash, goggles, Papervision
November 25th, 2009 at 3:03 pm
[...] When I contacted Craig this is what he had to say: Thanks for the message. I am using the Vuzix VR920 head mounted display in conjunction with their brand new “CamAR” attachment – it’s a snap-on webcam that fits snugly onto the front of the goggle. Here’s some more info on my blog about the project. [...]
December 4th, 2009 at 1:00 pm
[...] Craig Kapp is a student at the Interactive Telecommunications Program (ITP) at NYU. Check out his blog. [...]
December 24th, 2009 at 7:04 am
Nice! I’m thinking of the Vuzix VR + iWear CamAR as a new option for blind users of The vOICe software (with the visual view mainly for sighted experimenters),
http://www.seeingwithsound.com/winvoice.htm
which basically assumes webcam functionality. I wonder how hard it is to get the visual window content properly displayed by the Vuzix VR? Should one just maximize the window to full screen, or are there other tricks that avoid diving into the SDK?
Thanks