The Pixel Farm

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.