Head Mounted Displays

Elbit America recently showed off its X-Sight Helmet Display (HMD) system to customers in Huntsville, Alabama to showcase how the bug-eyed visor can provide helicopter pilots tactical displays and 360-degree super-vision.

The Cinera Edge is a light personal cinema headset that packs a 5K(ish)-resolution display and Dolby Surround Sound. It uses two OLED displays measuring just 0.83 inches with 2560 x 1440 pixels each, creating the equivalent of almost an IMAX screen.

Oculus has provided details on the latest version of its Rift virtual reality headset. The product features 3D audio support alongside improved ergonomics. Unveiled at the Oculus Connect conference, the company also took the opportunity to detail its enhanced relationship with Unity.

Tokyo-based startup Fove is working on a head mounted display that boasts eye-tracking capabilities, adding another level of user input and promising applications for not only gaming, but medical applications as well.

Researchers at the University Teknologi Petronas, Malaysia, are developing a Smart Veins Locator, that will allow them to see a patient's veins through their skin, regardless of their skin color.

Gizmag gets some hands-on time with the Avegant Glyph, a virtual retinal display fused with a pair of high-quality headphones that replicates the experience of sitting in an empty, darkened movie theater, except with a better picture.

Epson has announced the follow up to its Moverio BT-100 augmented reality glasses. The BT-200 smart glasses are reported to be 60 percent lighter, and include a host of new features aimed at changing how customers experience the world at large, and delivered entertainment.

The Glyph headsets from Avegant look like a pair of rather bulky headphones, but the headband can be pulled down over the eyes to project video images directly onto the wearer's retinas. Pre-production prototypes are currently being assembled in readiness for a CES debut in a few weeks.

Not one, but two devices that offer an affordable VR experience through a smartphone recently popped up on Kickstarter. Both the vrAse and the 360specs are a pair of goggles that can be fitted with a smartphone or tablet to view 3D movies and games with no additional hardware required.

Sony Europe has announced a November release for the third generation of the company's head-mounted personal 3D video viewer. New to this release is a wireless model ... sort of.

Sony's new "head-mount image processing unit" gives surgeons virtual X-ray vision by means of an endoscope feeding images to a pair of head-mounted monitors. This setup allows surgeons to view high definition 3D images from inside the patient while carrying out laparoscopic surgery.

FlyViz captures vision on a 360-degree camera attached to the top of a helmet that is processed in real time and displayed on a Sony HMZ-TD to give the wearer a 360-degree panoramic view of their surrounds.