Lots of ST1080 Info out of CES, Retail Launch Info Due by End of Month

Ben Lang
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Silicon Micro Display has been touting their ST1080 HMD for a few months now. Back in December they announced that the retail price would be $799 — pricey, but comparative to Sony’s HMZ-T1. Pre-orders were supposed to start in January, but on January 1st, the company sent a message via email saying that they would be postponing pre-orders:

…due to on-going supplier delays around the holidays, we were not able to get demo units into the hands of technology reviewers in December. This means that there are no third-party reviews to help you make your purchase decision. With the 2012 CES in about a week, we’ve decided to postpone taking orders until after the CES when there will be plenty of reviews. This gives you more information upon which to make your purchase decision and it will provide us with much-needed time to strengthen our inventory position.

We feel that postponing the start of pre-orders is preferrable to taking your pre-orders and delaying the shipment. When we are ready to take your orders, we want you to be confident that your product will arrive within a reasonable amount of time.

While not the best news for anyone who was interested in ordering, I think this is a smart move. Sony underestimated demand for the HMZ-T1, and even after taking pre-orders, they were unable to meet the demand. This made for plenty of uptset early adopters.

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Lumus Offers 720p LOE Head Mounted Display Development Kit

Ben Lang
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1

Lumus is an Israel based company that’s manufactures components for head mounted displays. Specifically, they’re offering what they call the ‘Optical Engine Module’, a display which uses ‘LOE’ (Light-guided Optical Element) technology to enable a lightweight head mounted display solution that’s fully transparent. The transparency means that Lumus is thinking about augmented reality applications for their product, rather than strictly gaming or cinema use.

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Returning From the Holiday Break, Content Incoming!

Ben Lang
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Hi folks. First thing — I’d like to apologize for the lack of content coming through Road to VR in the last month. The holidays were hectic as usual, but I’m back and you can expect news and analysis from the world of VR right here. Second — I appreciate your continued readership and would love to hear from folks. Don’t hesitate to leave a comment with your thoughts or questions!

I hope your holidays were enjoyable. You’ll be hearing from me very soon!

Sony Completely Revamps U.S. HMZ-T1 HMD Product Page, Better Appreciates Demand?

Ben Lang
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0

Sony seems to have majorly underestimated demand for their recently released HMZ-T1 head mounted display. Stock shortages were apparently worldwide at launch, and Sony’s US HMZ-T1 product page no longer lists 1/17/12 as the estimated ship date for new orders, instead saying “Temporarily out of stock. We will email you when your product ships”. Many of the international sites simply say that the unit is not available currently.

Interestingly, Sony has completely revamped the US HMZ-T1 product page (the old one is still hosted here, for comparison). Previously it was your typical SonyStyle product page with some basic information about specs and features. The new site is more of a micro-site experience with a lot of new graphics and several sections explaining specific features of the HMZ-T1. Quotes from both Engadget and Gizmodo reviews of the HMZ-T1 (and links to them) are also featured on the new page.

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Is This the Future of Augmented Reality Gaming?

Ben Lang
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1

One of my favorite YouTube directors, Freddie Wong happened to make a video that is quite relevant to this site. The video is called ‘Future Motion Control Gaming’ and shows a fictional augmented reality gaming setup. But is this really the future of augmented reality and motion control gaming? Will it be possible to achieve what’s been shown off on the video? Step inside to see the video and find the answer to that question.

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ST1080 and ST1080 DDK Head Mounted Display Pricing Announced

Ben Lang
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4

I’ve been tracking Silicon Micro Display’s ST1080 head mounted display ever since they announced it back in early November. We’ve already seen most of the specs, but one thing that was missing was the price. I was excited by the prospect of the ST1080 because Silicon Micro Display had claimed that “companies like MyVu, Vuzix, and eMagin have sold HMDs to the consumer market, but gained little traction due to high cost…”, then went ahead to say that the company would be addressing that issue with the ST1080. Did they manage to reel the ST1080 in at a reasonable price? Find out right after the fold.

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Astro Headset Accessory as Sony HMZ-T1 Stand?

Ben Lang
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0

About a year ago I bought myself the Astro A40 gaming headset which I’ve been quite happy with. I was browsing Astro’s website the other day and happened across a nice looking headset stand that is sold as an accessory for the Astro A40’s, but for some reason I immediately thought this attractive stand might be a great for showing off and storing the Sony HMZ-T1 head mounted display.

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Silicon Micro Display ST1080 HMD + Steel Battalion = Awesome

Ben Lang
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1


Today I was thinking about Silicon Micro Display’s ST1080 head mounted display. This unique HMD has a 10% transparent screen. When I first head about that feature, typical wearable computer / augmented reality applications came to my mind. Those are neat applications, but there’ a lot of development to be done in that department before we see really useful functions come from such applications of the ST1080. But then it hit me. There’s already a product on the market that would work perfectly with the ST1080. Enter Steel Battalion.

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Update: Sony HMZ-T1 Hands-on Test, Crystal Clear Image With No Crosstalk!

Ben Lang
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The Sony HMZ-T1 head mounted display is still almost impossible to come by right now, but my local store has one display unit. I finally made my way down, despite some nasty rain, so that I could give the HMZ-T1 a good hands-on test. I wish I had been able to spend more time with it (and perhaps I will soon), but I did get a solid amount of time to do some PS3 gaming (what else would it be in a Sony store!) on the unit and prepared a list of notes from my experience. I had hoped to bring you a video of the HMZ-T1, but unfortunately I was told that videography is not allowed in Sony stores, which I certainly wasn’t expecting. Alas, my notes will have to do! If you’re interested in hearing some honest hands-on info about the Sony HMZ-T1, have a read below!

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Contact Lens Displays One Step Closer to Reality Thanks to Recent Live Testing

Ben Lang
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1

If you’ve ever done any thinking about augmented reality seen a sci-fi movie, you’re undoubtedly familiar with the idea of a contact lens that provides the wearer with a super-futuristic heads up display that shows all sorts of awesome and useful information, augmented reality style. Well, we aren’t quite there yet, but work being done is bringing that technology ever closer to that vision. Today such devices are being tested, in several years we may see them available for consumer purchase.

Researchers have recently manufactured and tested a simple 1 pixel contact lens display. Though one pixel doesn’t sound very impressive, it could be used for something as simple as notifying the wearer of an incoming call, text, or email, or could be as useful as alerting a deaf person that a car may be coming up behind them.

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