March 30, 2005
What are the front-runners for the future of mobile displays?
Siemens demonstrated a prototype cellphone with a built-in projector at CeBIT 2005 last week. (Thanks to Thad for the link.)
I'm curious whether this kind of technology will win out in the long run. It's clear it fills a need — the PDA/cellphone small screen is fine up to a point, but in general we want big screen real estate in a small package, and you just can't get that with today's rigid screens. There are a few competing models though, each with their own strengths and weaknesses.
Ordered from most personal & on-the-move to most public &apm; in situ:
- Head-mounted displays: good for private information and information on-the-move, bad for showing anything to someone else.
- Roll-up or fold-up displays: small when being carried but still gives however much screen real estate you need when you need it.
- Projector systems: good for turning any table or wall into a touch-sensitive display, but require a flat light-colored surface and can't be used on-the-move or privately. Unclear if they could ever be as good resolution as the other options unless you carry your own high-quality screen as well (making it something of a hybrid projector / roll-up display).
- Ubiquitous displays: great resolution, requires that you're somewhere that has accessible displays at your disposal. Can't be used on-the-move at all and also requires that you trust the infrastructure you're using.
Of course we might also wind up with several systems and use whatever works best in a given situation, just like we have both laptop and PDAs today. But if one niche winds up being vital (say, everyone needs information while on-the-move so everyone wears an HMD) and if it winds up being good enough for the other niches then that tech will eat the others, just like we're seeing laptops more and more often being used as desktop-replacements today.
Posted by bug to Wearable Computing at March 30, 2005 11:28 AM | TrackBackI really want decent head-mounted displays. I can't wait until I have to carry around a small memory/processor combo (the size of the iPod, or not much larger), a set of goggles, and a fold-out keyboard. In addition to the privacy angle (which I'm of course very interested in) it would be significantly smaller & reduce the fragility of the big laptop. Not to mention that by disconnecting the screen and the memory/processor, replacement of either becomes much easier/cheaper. We're moving towards a desktop paradigm of replaceability.
Posted by: Judith at March 30, 2005 2:01 PMI tend to think we're moving in the direction of uber-cell-phones that will have bluetooth or other means of hooking up to what you call ubiquitous displays. I use my Sidekick with its mini screen on the subway, I get to work, I set it down on my desk, and it automatically finds the LCD monitor and keyboard and mouse there. Maybe with one multipurpose connection cord. Or maybe that's just what I want. I expect that we'll end up with a variety of systems, as you say. We're getting close.
Posted by: Perlick at March 30, 2005 5:07 PM