Fraunhofer IPMS is first off the blocks yet again with their latest thingamajic – the first OLED microdisplay-based eyetracking Head Mounted Device (HMD) in the world over at SID 2011. The Fraunhofer IPMS has been working on integrating both sensors and microdisplays on the CMOS backplane for some time now (running into several years), so it makes perfect sense for something like this eyetracking HMD to be part of the fruit of their labors.
This will be a bi-directional microdisplay, where it will naturally see action in HMDs for gaze triggered augmented reality (AR) applications. You basically would end up with a smart monocle of sorts, where everything that is part of the AR universe will offer more than meets the eye with but a glance in the right direction.
This is made possible as the chips in action will hold not only an active OLED matrix, but integrated photodetectors within as well. Since both matrixes have been merged onto a single chip, theoretically it makes it possible for system integrators to design smaller, lightweight and portable systems that caters for both functions. With a front brightness of at least 1500 cd/m², we can’t wait to see more Borg-like people walking the earth in the near future.
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