Meant to be Seen

This post is mostly just to stroke my own ego, but you might be interested:

Just showed my latest prototype to one of the people who designed the Wide5, he liked it quite a bit:

To be honest, there is no reason for anyone to ever buy another Wide5.

Bring it on...

Ok, you certainly got my attention. Sounds promising.

"And like I said, recreating an ancient supercomputer is one thing, processing video is another. The Wide5 uses an FPGA to do its video processing (So you have less strain on the computer), and that one costs thousands of dollars. Unless you made an ASIC that functioned the same way, every single Wide5 needs one of those FPGAs, and nice ones like that are $,$$$ at a minimum."

I was probably being over entusiastic. Really, my point was that once the high res, super high cost displays are down to $3000, the fpga will likely be only another $2000.

When I mentioned the old supercomputers, I wasn't talking about the processing power, just the sheer complexity.


"To be honest, there is no reason for anyone to ever buy another Wide5."

Would you like a tissue? Dont stroke it so hard next time

I am not going to pretend I am some optical/electromechanical genius, could not be further from the truth. I really only have a rudimentary understanding of most of the things I am dabbling in. The Wide5 was designed years ago, and the parts inside it even more years! This is just a result of a lot of technologies jumping way ahead (High PPI displays, wireless video transmission, cheap-ish aspheric optics).

It is an exciting time, for sure.

I talked to my optician last week and he told me it is now possible to have high power plastic lens with min distortion on the edge (as the lens is relatively flat) using double aspheric lenses. Each pair of lens cost around USD 400.

Great to hear Palmer, man I was hoping your system would be able to compete with the Wide 5, which was my choice for my gaming.... Until I saw the over $30,000 price tag in my price quote

@pierreye: I have looked into those, and as far as I can tell, they are not suitable. They are considered high magnification in the world of eyeglasses, but we need at least 5x magnification! Plus, I have not been able to find double aspheric lenses in large enough sizes (50mm diameter would be the bare minimum). If you could find any suitable ones, though, that would be great.

@Zim: It cannot beat the Wide5 in terms of FOV (Yet!), but it has a much higher contrast ratio, and is easier to drive as well. It should be a great solution for us.

FYI, I should have a few demo units to lend out to people sometime in January, maybe February.

That's Awsome news Palmer, I can't wait!! It may not reach the 150 degree FOV of the Wide 5, but it sounds like it sure comes close enough! It's perfect timing too. Just upgraded to a 7.1 surround sound system for my PC, had to RMA the PC and getting the new and improved PC this next week.

Also got my copy of the A-10 Simulation this week, so that'll give me some time to try and get stereo working before the HMD would arrive.

@Palmer - I'm not so good with lenses and according to my finding, a +16 diopter = 5x magnification at focal point of 2.5". My question how do you calculate your focal point? The problem with HMZ-T1 there is already a lens in the optics so stacking the lens would increase the magnification? I can talked to my optician further if I had some idea what type of lens we need to increase the FOV for HMZ-T1.

Hello again.

Good to hear stuff is progressing. Any of them demo units heading to UK?

Yes, definitely.

Sorry for not updating, I have been really busy of late. The good news is that I should be able to make quite a few of these units, and the PR4 is going to be involved in something that is very well known. Can't say more at the moment, I will when I can.

Really looking forward to your work here Palmer. I would absolutely throw money your way and your solution is 5 to 10 years ahead of the market. I had high hopes for the HMZ-T1 but yeah, we all know how that one turned out. I desperately want to step into Skyrim and be completely surrounded by that reality