According to MITs Technology Review, most of the companies working on these wearable head mounted displays started out building systems for the military. My interest in wearable devices is centered around consumer products for recreation and leisure time, however it’s fascinating to see some of these companies building innovative communication products for industries like aviation and hospitality first, in order to generate enough revenue and research to get themselves into the consumer market.

RECON INSTRUMENTS

One of my favorite applications for wearable displays is used for augmented reality while participating in snow and dirt sports like snowboarding and dirt biking. Recon Instruments makes micro optic displays that are are completely non-obtrusive for front and peripheral vision and provide real-time information on speed, jump analytics, distance, temperature and much more. Recon’s MOD Live GPS micro optic displays snap into Recon-ready goggles and connect to Android devices (iOS coming soon) via Bluetooth. They just recently partnered with with Smith Optics and Scott sports so I’m expecting we’ll start seeing more of these on the slopes quite soon.

Click here to view the embedded video.

ZEAL OPTICS

A fellow MCDM student, Derek Walker, recently posted a video of another goggle device for snow and dirt sports that records video, takes pictures and has an in-goggle viewfinder. These won’t be available for another year, but I really like the way they’ve integrated a head mounted camera.

Click here to view the embedded video.

More info: http://business.transworld.net/84405/news/zeal-optics-launches-ion-goggle-at-outdoor-retailer/

LUMUS OPTICAL

“Offering a new way of living, working, communicating and viewing content (including Internet, movies, TV and video games) anywhere and anytime, Lumus-enabled displays take vision to the ultimate level by redefining what you see on the go“

According to their website, Lumus is the “leading enabler of wearable displays”. Their technologies are currently being used by pilots in the U.S. Air Force and U.S. National Guard. Instead of developing displays from start to finish, Lumus sells their Optical Engine Modules under OEM agreements to leading consumer electronics manufacturers, who then market lines of products integrated with Lumus technology. By doing this they have penetrated a wide range of markets but don’t neccessily have control over how their technology is being used.

One fascinating tidbit from their site helps to explain the need for this type of product: Manufacturers and cellular service providers alike are demanding a portable personal display solution that will ensure an optimal large-screen viewing experience, thereby guaranteeing the success of their products and services. Ari Grobman, business development manager for Lumus, guesses that consumer devices will appear in “two years, maybe less.”

Credit / More info: http://www.lumus-optical.com/

VUZIX

“The Company’s products, personal display devices that offer users a portable high quality viewing experience; provide solutions for mobility, thermal sighting systems, tactical wearable displays and virtual and augmented reality.”

Credit: GizmoWatch
Vuzix won two innovation awards at CES for advanced 3D glasses and a new monocular see-through head mounted display (HMD). Their new 3D Mobile Video Eyewear looks pretty slick and connects to nearly anything with HDMI or any other type of video out. They provide a big screen experience (75″ from as seen from 10 feet away) and cost about the same as a plasma TV, $599. The new monocular see-through HMD for idustrial use is intended for things like viewing the schematics of a machine while looking at it and will go on sale later in 2012 for $5,000 to $10,000.

Vuzix has been developing their display technology for military and industrial applications since 1997. In 2005 they jumped into what they call the “consumer Video Eyewear market”. The company is focused on making its video eyewear the standard mobile equipment for watching news, sports, music videos and movies, and for playing video games on the go.

More info: http://www.vuzix.com/

SENSICS

SmartGoggles are by far the ugliest head mounted display I’ve seen but they have some cool features including a 360 degree view, 720p display, built-in Android 4.0, head & hand tracking 3D processing, Wifi and Bluetooth. They appear to offer an immersive virtual 3D environment and use 11 cell phone cameras mounted on the front to detect hand and arm gestures allowing the person to interact with what they see. So far they haven’t announced a price but they should be available later in 2012.

Sensics is also developing a see-through SmartGoggle for augmented reality applications.

Click here to view the embedded video.

More info: http://smartgoggles.net/

SONY

According to announcement made on Jan. 5, Sony is working on a 3D head mounted display and has already released a prototype. There’s no word on when it be available but it appears to be intended for watching videos and playing video games.

Click here to view the embedded video.

More info: http://www.pcworld.com/article/215745/sony_shows_futuristic_3d_headmounted_display.html

KOPIN

“Golden-i is the world’s first hands-free and wireless headset computer. Golden-i will revolutionize the way we naturally interface with computers and intuitively interact with our virtually enhanced surroundings.”

The Golden-i device has been out for awhile but was on display at CES. Like Sensics SmartGoggles, the Golden-i device has a built-in processor, Bluetooth and Wifi. It runs Windows CE embedded and is controlled by gestures and voice. This device’s display sits just below your natural line of sight and appears to be 15″ when it’s in focus.

Credit: Techiser

More info: http://www.mygoldeni.com/

EPSON

These glasses didn’t make it on stage at CES, I just really like the picture. According to The Verge, they went on sale in Japan back in November for around $643. They simulate a screen that is 320″ wide from about 65 feet away at a resolution of 960×540 and have built-in Wifi.

Credit: PC Watch

More info: http://global.epson.com/newsroom/2011/news_20111109.html

One of the things I found most interesting while researching these displays is that the software needed for augmented reality is far ahead of the hardware. The companies like Recon that are actually creating new markets have integrated software and hardware while other companies like Lumus are just focused on creating the best display. At this point it’s still hard to speculate just how viable head mounted displays will become, but if they’re anything like Bluetooth audio headsets we’re in for a major transition in how we communicate and see the world around us.

Always interested in hearing your thoughts. Would you drop some cash on a head mounted display device and what features are you interested in? Have you heard of any others that looking interesting?

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This week, I’ve selected a commercial video which has gone gangbusters. It was released only a month ago, and has seen more than ten million hits–and those are only the views on the primary YouTube upload. Wowzer.

Obviously, someone at Sony is doing something right. Not only are people watching this video, but they’re talking about it–arguing about it, even  (read the comments).  All this spells advertising gold.

Well played, Sony.

Click here to view the embedded video.

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Here are two videos I watched today that particularly standout because they infuse sounds from older 1980s video games such as Tecmo Bowl and Super Mario Bros.

And here’s Marshawn Lynch in “star” mode from the video game, Super Mario Bros.

(via Kottke)

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What if you no longer needed a cellphone, computer, computer mouse, iPad, digital camera or any number of other devices. What if you replaced a whole stable of hardware with a small wearable gizmo around your neck that interacted with your hand gestures.

A lot of us recall those scenes of Tom Cruise waving his hands to operate a computer in the 2002 film “Minority Report.” But MIT’s device, even as a prototype, does things even Steven Spielberg couldn’t have imagined. It allows you to:

• Use a blank sheet of paper, wall or any blank surface as a computer screen.

• Lift words and pictures from a printed page onto a blank sheet with a mere “pinch” of your fingers.

• Transfer information from that blank paper to a real computer screen, also with a “pinch.”

• Watch movies on a blank sheet of paper. Watch news videos on a printed newspaper.

• Play video games on – yes, also on a blank sheet of paper.

• Take a digital photo – merely by framing your hands like a movie director.

• See your flight status projected onto your airline boarding pass, or the price of a good, or see the latest temperatures dancing on a newspaper weather page.

• See a person’s name and biographical information displayed on his shirt the instant you encounter him. No more forgetting people’s names!

• Dial a phone number – on the bare palm of your hand.

• Check your wristwatch – while not even wearing one.

The technology is called SixthSense, and it’s billed as bringing “intangible, digital information into the tangible world.” And it’s built from what basically are bits of junk from Radio Shack.

Says MIT Ph.D candidate Pranav Mistry, “I think that integrating information onto everyday objects will not only help us to get rid of the digital divide between these two worlds, but will also help us, in some way, to stay human.”

Remembering this is a prototype, you have to ask: How real is all this, or rather, will it ever be? It seems like magic. But then, an iPhone would have seemed like magic 15 years ago.

Check it out here.

And if you want to be really amazed, be sure to see SixthSense in action in this video.

My daughter’s gonna have to get one of these.

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While Microsoft only has a 3% share of the smartphone market now, it does have experience in disrupting the market when video gaming is involved. Remember, in the 1990s the video gaming market was controlled by three Japanese companies—Nintendo, Sony, and Sega. Then in 2001 Microsoft came out of nowhere to release the Xbox. The next year it introduced online social gaming to American households with its network Xbox LIVE.

If you had told me back then that Microsoft would become a big player in the video game console wars, I would have never believed you. But the Xbox 360 has outsold the Sony Playstation 3 for years, and this year it finally caught up with the Nintendo Wii to tie as the best-selling console of 2010.

Xbox LIVE is the backbone of the gaming experience on Windows Phone 7. Your gamertag (gaming identity), friends list, and gaming achievements are all available on the device. With more than 23 million members, LIVE is one of the best online gaming experiences you can get. Instead of playing a game alone, you can play online with your sister who lives across the country or with friends down the street. It makes gaming social, which is just plain fun.

Does Apple, RIM, or Google have anything like Xbox LIVE in place? Not yet.

There are a ton of great games available for the iPhone and iPad, but Apple’s social gaming network, Game Center, is just getting off the ground. Apple could implement features similar to Xbox LIVE, but it could be awhile before they are able to rival the LIVE community.

RIM is all about business. There are some games for the BlackBerry, but RIM probably won’t even attempt a gaming network.

Google hasn’t announced any plans for an Android gaming network, but not long ago, Engadget broke the news that Sony is working on a Playstation Phone rumored to be based on the Android operating system. A Playstation Phone would be able to play the massive back catalog of Playstation 2 titles and tap into the Playstation Network, Sony’s gaming network. While this could be a big gaming move for Google’s Android, the Playstation Phone is currently just a prototype and may never be seen by consumers.

If Microsoft wants to increase its smartphone market share, it should push it hard on the gaming front, where it now has an advantage. The smartphone is clearly the new gaming device. A recent Nielsen study found that 61% of surveyed smartphone users had bought and played a game in the last month. Mobile social gaming is the next logical step. The network effect is powerful, as are gaming addictions. If Microsoft is smart it will use LIVE as a disruptor again.

Brian Johnson is a recent graduate of the MCDM program with an interest in video gaming and social media. His Xbox LIVE gamertag is thepiecesfit. His favorite video game is “The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time.”

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The bundle initially consisted of five indie games: World of Goo (2D Boy), Aquaria (Bit Blot), Gish (Edmund McMillen), Lugaru (Wolfire Games), and Penumbra: Overture (Frictional Games ). Later, Amanita Design kicked in a sixth game, Samorost 2. All the  games run on PC, Mac, and Linux platforms.

People could literally pay anything they wanted for the Humble Indie Bundle, starting at $.01. The largest single donation rang in at $3,333.33. I personally paid $10.01. You could choose to allot part or all of the price to the two charities, Child’s Play and the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF). While you could have bought the games or donated to the charities separately, the combination of the two made the bundle appealing. You can’t deny the power of one -stop shopping.

John Graham, Chief Operating Officer of Wolfire Games, was kind enough to answer some of my questions about the Humble Indie Bundle campaign in a post-promotion debriefing.

How did the idea for the pay-what-you-want Humble Indie Bundle come about?
Ever since the success of 2DBoy’s pay-what-you-want experiment and our Organic Indie Preorder Pack [a game bundle of Wolfire’s Overgrowth and the Unknown Worlds’ Natural Selection 2], we had this feeling that independent developers could really do a lot to promote themselves.
How did you decide what games to put in the bundle?

Our main requirement for this bundle was that we needed awesome indie games available for Mac, Linux, and Windows.  We didn’t have a fancy rubric, and weren’t maximizing any kind of bundle hotness equation, but I think it’s fair to say that we ended up with a group of games that are all different but very awesome.
Have you ever tried anything like this before? Did you learn anything from the Radiohead pay-what-you-want experiment?

Well, our theory was that a pay-what-you-want bundle would maximize participation and also allow people to feel like they were getting their money’s worth, and I think this proved true.  With pirated copies already easily available for all the games, we figured our biggest risk was not piracy but rather that we would spend a lot of time on this promotion, and then no one would hear about it.

The games bundled together were an $80 value, and people paid $9.21 on average. Do you consider the campaign a success?
I think it’s fair to say that the bundle exceeded all of our expectations.  I wouldn’t look at the average price as our main success metric but rather the overwhelming participation.  With over 100,000 contributions we managed to raise over $1,000,000 in just a week.  I don’t think anyone dreamed that this could be possible.

How much did you raise for charity, and how much for your company and the other companies? How do you think attaching charities affected contributions?
Our best guess so far at the final totals has been posted publicly on the site.  I think the charities were definitely one of the features which set our bundle apart from most other gaming bundles.  Chargebacks and refunds not withstanding, it looks like we will have raised over $180,000 for each of the two charities and over $160,000 for each developer.

Why did you pick those particular charities?
We thought it would be fitting to choose charities that were somehow related to the gaming industry.  Helping Child’s Play provide games to sick children, and giving the EFF more resources to use to defend people’s technology-related rights just feels good.  Thanks to everyone’s generosity, I think the bundle has raised enough money to actually make a significant difference in the budgets of these organizations.
How did you spread the word about the campaign?

We gave all our major press contacts an early warning that we were about to launch our crazy experiment.  So it was great to know that a few major sites were going to cover us at launch.  Reddit was easily the biggest single driver of traffic. However, the 20,000 bundle Tweets and 40,000 Facebook shares suggest that organic word-of-mouth was also a huge factor.

Why did you choose to make the games DRM-free ?
DRM is one of those ugly things that just doesn’t seem to be going away in the mainstream gaming industry.  The truth of the matter is that if giant companies like Ubisoft can’t make uncrackable DRM, we indies sure as heck aren’t going to be able to either.

In reality, DRM’s main function becomes aggravating honest users who actually purchase games while the pirates are free to do whatever they want with their cracked versions.  This doesn’t seem right, and we’d rather spend our time creating awesome user experiences rather than squander it in a counter-productive attempt to punish pirates.

Were there any surprises? Would you do it again?

We were surprised by how much support this humble indie promotion received.  I think this more than anything, validates the idea that it is possible for indies to reach out directly to consumers.  If we don’t try to do something like this again, someone else definitely will.

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Comparison of video size, iPad and iPod Touch

As far as tech toys go, I’m a late adopter.  I like playing with free betas, but when it comes down to handing over money, I become very conservative.  I like at least one Service Pack on my new OS, a critical mass of my friends on social apps, a solid couple of months post-release on a massively multiplayer online game, and a stalwart recommendation from my IT friends for new hardware.  I delayed my purchase of my Xbox 360 for almost two years; then shortly after I bought it, they announced the big price drop with the addition of the Elite model (shoulda waited longer!)

But this time, I threw the dice and pre-ordered a 32 GB Wifi-only iPad.  I even threw in a Mac Bluetooth keyboard, the dock, and a case.  There’s no super feature that made this the penultimate gadget for me; my desires were based around a great experience with my iPod Touch, a slowly growing interest in e-books (much to the dismay of my library card) and the ability to have a “one-stop-shop lite” computing device.  I game some, I email a fair amount, I watch videos while I travel or work out (no more tiny iPod on the treadmill – huzzah!) and I’ve been using the iPod Kindle app when I fly.

For me, the iPad gives me a richer media consumption experience than the iPod Touch I’ve been using. To Kathy’s point, this is my primary expectation for the device. I create content on computers and (to a much lesser extent) my Blackberry.  For me, my Apple products are one-way entertainment tools, and I’m fine with that.  Call me Gizmodo’s Reluctant Pragmatist (except for the pooping part; that’s just gross) – my iPad is a gadget that I expect I’ll get a lot of use out of.

So in that light, here’s a quick rundown of my thoughts on the three ways I’ll use it most, based on a weekend’s worth of play testing.

As a games platform
I played a few iPad-specific games: Party Pad: Marble Mixer, Worms HD, Command & Conquer Red Alert, Diner Dash: Grilling Green, and Aurora Feint 3.  Generally speaking games that were re-engineered for the iPad were pretty slick.  The graphics were pretty good and the controls worked well with the larger touch interface.  C&C was a little clunky responding but there’s a hefty amount of PC / mouse bias that I have when it comes to real-time strategy games.

I also imported my existing crop of games from iTunes.  These non-optimized games launch in an iPhone-sized window, but all loaded faster than my iPod and performed well (if small).  Due to the cost of retrofitting games with higher resolution art I suspect that we won’t see any free updates, but will see re-releases.  Compare, for example, the popular iPhone game Flight Control, which is currently available for $0.99 in the App Store with a new iPad version, Flight Control HD, selling for $4.99.

Comparison of games, Diner Dash Grilling Green on iPad, Plants vs. Zombies on iPod

We’ve seen iPhone games lead the way for the smartphone category in the mobile games industry.  The iPad’s faster hardware and lush screen is going to spur another gold rush for devs.  Due to the maturity of the App Store, however, it will be a much more compressed race from heady launch date prices ($13?!) back down to the sub-$10 impulse buy range.

As a media platform
The iPad is an awesome media player.  I’m watching my videos in a much bigger window; I’m reading my e-books on a hard cover-size screen.  Photos look really nice (but have to be managed through iTunes – a minor annoyance).  The Netflix app is nice, but not a big seller for me – we stream already through the Xbox 360 to our TV; when I travel I can watch via the Web on my laptop.  I haven’t used the iPad for listening to music yet; the much smaller form factor of the iPod wins here, when it comes to portable music while working out.

As a productivity platform
So far I’m slightly disappointed outside of the email / calendar apps (both of which were nicely updated to capitalize on the larger screen).  Google Docs is read-only within Safari; since I haven’t been able to swallow $9.99 for each of the iWork apps (Keynote, Pages, Numbers), I don’t have a writing app outside of Notes yet.  That said, Notes isn’t bad, but it’s a very rudimentary text application.

Comparison of email client

But Apple’s Bluetooth keyboard does a lot to help speed up the typing process, which is a boon to productively using these apps; the virtual keyboard is a little too small for touch typing, but 3-4 fingers is pretty good.  Once my iPad case arrives, that will help even more by propping up the iPad at a better viewing angle.

Overall, I’m enjoying the iPad quite a bit. For me, as I expect it will be for many people, its niche is the home reference tablet (email browsing, quick Google searches, etc. – things that you don’t always want to boot up a computer for) and mobile entertainment device.

Jeremy Snook is a third year MCDM student and an avid gadget junkie.  During the day he is the Director of Distribution at GameHouse, the games division of RealNetworks.

:: Follow me on Twitter!

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Like other social games, FishVille, developed by Zynga, leverages your social network for gameplay. Your friends help you obtain items and take care of your fish, and you help them in return. In that way, social games are more collaborative than other game genres. Social games are also built around the idea of playing regularly. Just like you feel compelled to check Facebook, you feel compelled to check on your fish tank or your farm. I decided to play FishVille for 17 days to see if it could keep my interest for the duration.

The Basics

Starting FishVille is easy enough. The game gives you a premade fish tank, but it ’s your job to customize it. You also start with a couple sand dollars to buy fish eggs. After you place your fish eggs in your tank, they grow into little fish. You then feed your little fish to make them grow into big fish.

The game does get more complicated. In order to level up and unlock more tank decorations and fish, you need XP (experience points). You can get XP by selling the fish you’ve grown, clicking on treasure chests, or–my personal favorite–giving your fish love. All is not well, though. After periods of inactivity, algae begins to invade your tank. And if you go too long without feeding your fish, they die. My little virtual aquatic cesspool is currently home to five dead fish, including my beloved orbiculate batfish.

Game Mechanics: The Good and the Bad

My favorite thing about of FishVille is how it makes you feel like you are building a real fish tank. The game uses common fish names , so you can stock your tank with your old favorites and bring in some new ones. The tank customization options are also deep. Zynga provides so many different decorations, fish species, and plants and other tank accessories that players can build the tank they want to build.

The customization of FishVille comes with a price, though. To get really cool decorations or certain species of fish, you need to buy them with “sand dollars.” By selling virtual goods to players in its games, Zynga makes about $250 million annually. Each time I wanted to add an exotic fish I got a pop-up asking me to buy more “sand dollars.” I suppose Zynga has to make money somehow, but I didn’t like the micropayment system; I felt like I was being nickel-and-dimed to death.

I was also offended by the sheer number of pop-ups in the game. Every time I played I got pop-ups asking me to help some sea creature. I just wanted to tend my tank without polluting my friends’ news feed or feeling guilty for ignoring a baby Manta Ray. I wonder if Zynga can get away with this kind of gameplay because the people playing this game on Facebook are not used to other styles of games that don’t include constant interruptions. Obviously, this is designed to use your social network to bring more players into FishVille, but I just found it irritating.

So, did FishVille keep my attention for 17 days? Yes and no. It is a fun game to play in one-minute bursts, but because it lacks a competitive element, it couldn’t keep my attention much longer. Like other social games, fun in FishVille must depend a lot on who you are playing with. If you have friends who play, then give it a try; otherwise, I would look elsewhere.

Brian Johnson is a recent graduate of the MCDM program who is pursuing a career in the video game industry. His Xbox LIVE gamertag is thepiecesfit. Brian recently started Grybo Productions to author music for the Rock Band video game. His favorite video game is “The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time.”

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