December 20, 2005, Shenzhen, China--Shenzhen Oriscape Electronic Co. (Shenzhen, China) has unveiled a 3-D stereoscopic head-mounted display (HMD) that incorporates VGA color displays produced by Kopin Corp. (Taunton, MA).

The HMD offers users a high-definition virtual image equivalent to a 40-in. flat-panel screen at a distance of seven feet, enabling gamers to experience immersive stereo 3-D at a price that is not prohibitive. The personal-computer (PC)-compatible headset can be used with many computer games and is now available to consumers.

Oriscape President Bill Ho noted that the device is compatible with all PC games supported by Direct3D and OpenGL, the industry's major language platforms.

The display is built on a page-flipped 3-D stereo VGA signal format, which was developed for the liquid-crystal-display (LCD) shutter-glass system. The headset uses a signal format that is available on NVIDIA-based graphics cards. The device also has an automatic scaling function that makes it compatible with various VGA display output formats; it can also accept composite video and S-Video, which can be driven by many game consoles--including the new Microsoft Xbox 360 that has been one of the best-selling consumer-electronic products of this year's holiday season (at least in the US; in Japan, the Xbox 360 has not been selling like hotcakes).

The transmissive Kopin microdisplay products can use simple, thin optics, which are well-suited for compact wearable devices, viewfinders for camcorders and digital still cameras, and most portable consumer, military, and industrial applications.

Tue Dec 20 12:42:00 CST 2005