Please allow me to nerd out for a moment. Remember the 1984 film The Terminator – where the audience can see the world from the T-800’s POV and there is all sorts of pertinent information, like instantaneous analysis to determine who’s an enemy and who’s not, written in that funny 80s computer font (text and font actually taken from the Apple II’s assembly code)?
In the eighties, lots of films painted a portrait of a distant, utopian future and it’s radical technologies, but the future seems to be creeping up to us faster and faster. The day is here when we all might soon enjoy the same advanced vision with readily available and purchasable devices for augmented reality.
Out of the hands of the military and imaginary robots from the future, devices like Google Glass are making it possible to view the world like we’ve never seen it before. Yesterday, Vuzix unveiled its own version of see through augmented reality video eyewear with a futuristic name the Star 1200 XL.
The Star 1200 XL uses Vuzix’s “award winning technology” in a display that “allows users to view the real world while simultaneously viewing relevant computer generated information, graphics and alerts.” Vuzix, with the tagline “View The Future,” looks and sounds like a company 100 years ahead of its time until you stop and realize for a moment that its about the be the year 2013. And as if our own biological vision isn’t complicated enough, Vuzix’s new binoculars tout a 35-degree field of view “for use in a wide variety of industrial and commercial applications.”
In the press release sent out yesterday, it mentions some pretty impressive specifications like a full color 16 to 9 format and a 1080p detachable camera and also “an inter ocular adjustment to match the users pupil spacing” that provides a viewing experience similar to watching a 76 inch plat-panel television from 10 feet. Finding real world applications for these glasses might prove difficult beyond the novelty aspect, but you can begin to imagine the possibilities and the price you better.
The Vuzix Star 1200 XL is available now to pre-order for a mere $4,999 on the Vuzix website.
