smart glasses as ebook reader - intelligente Brillen als ebookreader

[skillachie]

Originally Posted by mdp

No, strain noted and actively managed only the first day. You learn how to use them.
As per the "in my face", the experience was actually beautiful, fulfilling, completing, "this is what I needed, this is what I longed for".

Anyway to see screenshots of what it looks like from your point of view when reading? Also how does it look on the person? Is it clunky?

[mdp]

Originally Posted by skillachie

Anyway to see screenshots of what it looks like from your point of view when reading?

Not directly, but it can be reconstructed to give the idea. I will post it later.

Originally Posted by skillachie

Also how does it look on the person? Is it clunky?

If you need to ask, you probably do not want to be seen wearing it ; ) .
The IT identity of the product is not concealed. (It has a cable going down from the left...) The design is very (in absolute terms) to extremely (in relative terms) good, and yet it could look much better if the glasses were shorter (width-wise): the 15cm length may remind of Hajime Sorayama's mortgage paying sales strategy products.

Mine are with silver body (instead of black) and I normally wear them with the lighter sun-filter plugin (instead of bare, fully transparent, or with the heavy sun-filter plugin), so they may look like this pictures (the first edited from available stock, especially to add the "shades", the others from video):



Given the vastly different effect of the available pictures, maybe you are better off with checking the available videos.

[mdp]

Originally Posted by skillachie

Anyway to see screenshots of what it looks like from your point of view when reading?

Posted in the original thread.

[a12k]

The screenshots from the original thread show the background is still not dark nor opaque enough. I like the overall idea though.. anyone know what causes the lack of background opaque/darkness (/ overall contrast) and what needs to happen to improve it

[mdp]

Originally Posted by a12k

The screenshots from the original thread show the background is still not dark nor opaque enough. I like the overall idea though.. anyone know what causes the lack of background opaque/darkness (/ overall contrast) and what needs to happen to improve it

That the background is transparent is a feature, not a bug: that is an Augmented Reality device, not a Virtual Reality device - they are made to merge environment and computerized information. If you want the Moverio to hide the environment (which would be your personal customization), attach the darkest shades plugin which is packaged with the device. More clearly, you can use them as they are - full clear semi (say 90%) transparent screens -, or with the "sunshades" plugin, or with the "very opaque shades" plugin.

Contrast, you have a control (it makes the brights brighter). It seems to definitely impact on the battery.

[Raphi'Elohim]

Originally Posted by Philippe D.

What a horrible idea. "Smart glasses" in themselves are already something that I'd positively hate, but using such a device just to read without having the page at normal distance... ugh!

I don't think they would be good for reading books. They would be good for using extensive crib sheets for cheating in college classes, though.

[mdp]

Originally Posted by Raphi'Elohim

I don't think they would be good for reading books

I have been there, they do - they can be very good for reading books. They are the solution if you are moving. What we originally, for centuries, did with manuals, after the peripatos met the miniaturization from mechanized printing (which remarkably allowed for abandoning miniatures), can be done much more comfortably now with Augmented Reality.

It must be noted for the unaware that one of the most remarkable outcomes of the recent science of adult neurogenesis appears to be how movement is critically important for constant neuronal development (caveats applied). It is not irrelevant to also mention how intellectual activity is also critical for neuronal survival.

[kenmac999]

I would definitely be interested in smart glasses with the ability to switch from being regular/prescription glasses (when off for example) to a "screen" for displaying "pages" of a book or even replacing computer/tablet/tv screens. My concern would be over implementation (have to have a Facebook, similar account to use). A fictional example is in the "Cyber Seed Quadrilogy" by Craig A. Falconer

[binaryhermit]

It'd be cool if it worked well, but I doubt it'll work well in my lifetime.

[mdp]

Originally Posted by kenmac999

I would definitely be interested in smart glasses with the ability to switch from being regular/prescription glasses (when off for example) to a "screen" for displaying "pages" of a book or even replacing computer/tablet/tv screens

The eyeset of the Epson Moverio BT-300 is, as said, transparent when not powered or sleeping: on → transparent plus info, off →just transparent. Si-OLED pixels are transparent when black, and they are black when off [in power].

You would carry your corrective glasses anyway behind the (Moverio) AR eyeset, otherwise, of course, your vision would be impaired in the act of accessing the displayed information. Note: the kind of regulation needed from the corrective glasses during the AR session is "for distance", the content of the display is brain-interpreted as a far object, not a near one.
I logged in to post about it in the parallel, dedicated thread.

I think I see your point about a discreet eyeset working as both sight corrective and memex, but we are at the beginning of Augmented Reality so it's surely premature. And I find it tricky, though it's not my subject, to have both correction and information in the "same" block: you need the correction [when myopic etc.] to properly access the information; currently it's serial and I am not sure that a display could be optically properly placed "in" the corrective lens.

EDIT: I forgot: the experience (the one I know - the Moverio) is not exactly "when off/sleeping, transparent as if unworn", because I use the darkening shades applied to the AR eyeset. The Si-OLED is still "light which fights with light", so the experience is much better if the last layer, fartherst from the eyes, are the "sunglasses" shades. They are applied optionally, sold with the equipment and come in two versions, mildly-darkening and darker. I have no problem in "seeing the environment" with the darkest ones, and if I need to see more clearly I just tilt and look under them (the Moverio are a stripe, you can look above and below when needed).

Originally Posted by kenmac999

My concern would be over implementation (have to have a Facebook, similar account to use). A fictional example is in the "Cyber Seed Quadrilogy" by Craig A. Falconer

Eh? Why on earth would anything like that happen, reading you literally? I clearly see that "we" are sliding towards a nightmarish hell of a future as a consequence of the 250 years of technological advance matched with disproportionally limited advances in the distribution of human wits. But the present times still allow for breathing corners in the dystopia. I use my Moverio airgapped without any problem - it never connected to the Internet in these years (unless it has a hidden radio). And Epson is not [your-mainstream-target-here]; to me their engineering seems relievingly classic (made with good sense).

I am not acquainted with the work of Falconer.

[mdp]

Originally Posted by binaryhermit

It'd be cool if it worked well, but I doubt it'll work well in my lifetime.

Not clear (what that 'it' of yours is supposed to refer to). If you are talking about AR to access information and, in particular, reading, I think I have stated clearly more times that the Epson Moverio BT-300 works incredibly well, remarkably well, amazingly well as a reading device: I have been using it for the past two years as an important section in my routine. I mostly use my own software, but I tested other and they worked well as expected. When I bought it, it was a bet (that it would work well), and I hardly remember a bet in which I won so massively. And I presume that subjectivity in the matter is limited: maybe one may subjectively not like the experience, but the device does its job as intended and more.

[binaryhermit]

Does your version of "work well" include battery life? Because mine does.

[mdp]

Originally Posted by binaryhermit

Does your version of "work well" include battery life? Because mine does.

Now you are informative enough ; )
As I just posted "nearby", my own software reports a consumption of 18%/hour, confirming those 5..5½ hours of duration.
And of course I also wish that to be more.
But: 5 hours of reading while walking for me is plenty. For many people, 5 hours of "intellectual endeavour while physically exercising or moving in the wilderness" is already luxury. (Sometimes I also use them while not moving/exercising, say e.g. reclined in the car seat "looking" at the car roof or anywhere, but it is mostly while taking a break. For every situation the proper tool: I sometimes use them also in situations in which I would more normally and properly use implementations of EPD, OLED, IPS, but that is more because I want to finish the session (the chapter etc.) or I will return to exercising in a few minutes and it would not be efficient to change.)

And: if needed, though hardly so - but I did in the past, at the beginning of this "AR experience" -, I carry an external battery charger. This of course would give you a potentially practically unlimited amount of charge - not my need, as said. You can charge the device while using it: the charging USB cable will be in the side of the handheld. It may not be fully practical, but it's something one may seldom use to finish a particularly long session. My routine involves a jacket appropriate to season, for the comfort of a left pocket in which I keep the handheld as I am holding it. The handheld has up, right, down, left, center, mousepad, tap (multitap, longpress, pinch etc.) "home", "back" and "tasks" - Android with a capacitive arrow pad and a button, plus a mousepad. My software uses the directionals chiefly as "line up/down" and "page up/down" ("move [scroll] a bit" and "move more"), so I operate the device mostly with a rested (in pocket) left hand, mostly tapping accordingly and sometimes using the button and mousepad to access parts of the options interface. That kind of "organization" is not fully comfortable with an extra cable out the handheld - but it's both doable and most infrequent.

When I stated 'work well', I was of course referring to the sides which were more risky: the quality and effectiveness of the display, the actual reading experience, the absence of bad surprises in the OS customization.

If they had to improve it (BTW they did: a new model is out as of a few months), remaining relevant to the specificity of the product (in which the battery, close as it may be to the centre, is marginal, as the AR parts will remain closer), I'd more focus on:
-- developing a taller, square-ish display - because there is potential real estate to be exploited there. The display seems as wide as it can be with the current display implementation, but it seems that one could get extra lines without visual distortions;
-- developing a good way to write on it. For example, using the gyroscope and positional sensors of the handheld to draw letters in the air (though I am not sure it would be the most physically comfortable practice). If typing on it were comfortable, I'd gladly use it for text editing in Office Automation.

[Renate]

I've always been tantalized by heads-up viewers.
I think regular VR would make me nauseous, I'm a bit susceptible.
I did see one home-brew of a one eye, low-res OLED readout for a voltmeter.
I tried somebody's Google Glass but the image didn't impress me.

I've thought about scrolling music/lyrics for when I play.
Right now I just use a tablet and a Bluetooth foot pedal (iRig Blueboard).
I don't know if the in-your-face aspect of glasses would be annoying, vs. glancing at a tablet when you're lost.
I don't know if being a space cadet would antagonize the public either!

I'd be happy to lay out some money for glasses if they had a money back guarantee if you just didn't like them.

The Moverio BT-40S is 1920x1080, $1000.
Is that what you meant by the "new" one?
Huh, they are all out-of-stock.

[Renate]

Well, a year later and things are just as murky as ever.
The Moverio BT-40S (top-of-line Epson + screenless Android) is not available.
The Moverio BT-40 is available (glasses only, Type C), but it works only on Alt Mode DisplayPort which has a limited following.
(If it were twin HDMI, I think that many Raspberry Pi 4 (with dual HDMI) users would think about it.)
The BT-40 says "3D with side-by-side", so is that saying that it can do 3D but only at 960 x 1080?
It's strange that they don't do twin HDMI or twin DP. That's the sort of stuff that would make it accessible to developers.

Regarding my last post on the iRig BlueBoard:
I've jumped into Bluetooth development, ripped out the guts of the BlueBoard and turned it into my own YellowBoard.
Now I can utilize it without needing any "helper app" to translate from BT GATT.