[PLUG-TALK] Headmounts Re: How to hold a 2-in-1 computer

[Keith Lofstrom]

Sorry for the very delayed reply - I'm digging down through
an email queue that fills faster than I can dig.

On Sat, Jan 22, 2022 at 04:17:50PM -0600, Bill Barry wrote:
> How about instead of holding the computer in your lap you use a virtual
> reality headset and put the monitor on your head. This system claims to be
> able to display linux desktops.

DECADES ago, I designed a chip for an orientation sensor
for a headmount display, intended for the (vaporwear) SEGA
VR helmet.  Long story development deleted ... one of the
things we learned about was "barfogenicity".  

That happens when your visual field does not EXACTLY track
your head and body movements.  Humans did not evolve for
that, though we did evolve to turn our heads rapidly while
we run, looking back to see if the bear is catching up,
and decide which way to feint and which way to jag.  

In nature, when your eyes and vestibular system disagree,
you are hallucinating, and it is important to vomit out
whatever is causing you to hallucinate.  Otherwise, you
will become bear food.  It is better to hurl calories than
become calories.  Slow displays resemble hallucinations.

Anyway, even though we could present 120 visual frames per
second, the SEGA game box we connected to was WAY, WAY too
underpowered to render those frames, much less with proper
motion blur.  And even if it could, the artifacts would
have been unpleasant and distracting.

So, SEGA demo-ed the VR helmet at the Consumer Electronics
Show with the display TURNED OFF.  It was worn by an actor
pretended to be responding to it.  SEGA did a lot of crap
like that; this scam was intended to retain independent
game developers who were migrating to the Sony Playstation.

The subcontractor I worked with ("Ono Sendai") was not paid
by Sega, and went bankrupt.  I did not get paid, and I paid
$30K to my own sub-subcontractors, out of pocket.  Boo hoo,
poor me.  

------

Anyway, the point of all this is that unless the headmount
can display frames INCREDIBLY fast, AND magically anticipate
how you are ABOUT to move your head, your reading experience
can range from annoyance to a neckache to a lap full of lunch.
Not a pleasant accompaniment to your William Shakespeare or
Danielle Steel.

Maybe displays are better now, but a long string of
headmount product fails makes me doubt it.  

Computer protectors have become cheap and high-res; perhaps
projecting on a screen a few feet away will be less tiring,
AND it will be better eye exercise.  Battened down for the
pandemic, we have fewer opportunities for distance vision.

I built a treadmill desk with a 1Kx768 projector display for
computer work.  It is OK for reading documents, but I make
too many typos when writing and fast-walking.  Mouse-work,
fuggetaboudit.  A big-clicky-button arrow pad would be nice.

Keith

-- 
Keith Lofstrom          keithl at keithl.com