$25 head mounted display

Posted Oct 7th 2007 9:47PM by Will O'Brien
Filed under: misc hacks, portable video hacks

[Jake] sent in his source for a cheap head mounted display. In his writeup he notes that the spy video car comes with quite a pile of handy electronics - video tx/rx, camera and this simple black and white monocle head mounted display. (Which happens to be available as a replacement unit for a mere $20) The screen is a Kopin 300M (Black and white, 300x240 pixels) The display is actually somewhat usable out of the box, but he takes the time to note some simple mods that'll improve the displays performance.

If you ever bought a virtual boy just to gut the display, then you know you want one. In fact, I've got a perfect project in mind for this particular toy.

Reader Comments

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1. Do you know what this means? Crap, I can think of about 100 ideas for this off the top of my head! Let me buy this buy a beer!

Posted at 12:09AM on Oct 8th 2007 by Weirdguy

2. Wow...I just watched that $25 replacement part go out of stock in 10 minutes...

Posted at 12:18AM on Oct 8th 2007 by Scott

3. You could wire in a switch or a non-momentary toggle button for the PAL/NTSC “resistor” rather than hard-wiring it one way or the other…

Also, using the middle pole for video and the end pole for the battery, isn’t that bad? As you plug it in you get voltage going in the video in, and back out the ground. Or between the voltage and video source pin… other such bad things.

Posted at 1:10AM on Oct 8th 2007 by Draeath

4. OF COURSE THEY'RE ALREADY SOLD OUT!!!

DAMNIT.....

Posted at 1:17AM on Oct 8th 2007 by Spadefinger

5. When you're done with the display, you could introduce the virtual boy to a virtual girl.

(Sorry, some typos are just too good to resist.)

Posted at 1:28AM on Oct 8th 2007 by Izzy

6. i'm not dogging this hack, i rather enjoyed it, but someone please post a use for this thing, honestly right now i can not think of a single use for this.

thanks

Posted at 2:19AM on Oct 8th 2007 by chewy

7. Hmm. Who wants a single Black and white screen! I built a better version myself.
At least my one was full colour and stereoscopic real 3D.
Check it out at my website!

Posted at 5:48AM on Oct 8th 2007 by Pyrofer

8. It helps if it's 1 screen for some applications cause at least then you have some view of the real world.

Posted at 9:36AM on Oct 8th 2007 by TheKhakinator

9. Hey, thanks for the kind words, everybody! I had a feeling they'd sell out pretty fast, as they had done so twice long before I posted anything. Luckily they do have a notification system, which is nice and spam-free.

@draeath: Putting a switch is a good idea. I had thought about doing it myself, but I've never had reason to use a PAL signal in my life :) As to the pin arrangement, I think you're looking at it backwards. The positive supply is on the tip, yes, but it's the female socket that's supplying this voltage. This means that the battery isn't connected to anything until the plug is all the way in. You get video going into the v-in and ground to video-in for a brief second, not the other way around.

@pyrofer: Nice hack, mate! I agree that stereo&color beats mono&mono, but yours is also a good deal bigger and more complicated. Still very cool though!

Posted at 10:16AM on Oct 8th 2007 by Jake H

10. I've been wanting a head mounted display for years, but I didn't feel they where worth hundreds or thousands of dollars.

This one uses NTSC/PAL scan firmware to display the picture on the LCD. If you're good at molding polymers you could make a far better one implementing 2 LCD's.

First thing I'd do is find another LCD with the exact dimensions with better picture quality and depth.

It'd be cool to implement a channel switcher so you could watch multiple feeds. I'd probably use one with surveillance equipment, or maybe a x360 since it supports NTSC and PAL.

Posted at 1:42PM on Oct 8th 2007 by TJhooker

11. This gave me a great idea. ive been looking for a miniature lcd with a decent resolution for an uber small projector project. what do you know, these mini lcd's are used in the viewfinder for camcorders. now picture a lumenlab style projector one 20th of the size. hell yeah.

Thanks for the idea jake

-Dane

Posted at 10:25PM on Oct 8th 2007 by emperor dane

12. Any way to strip the lcd and video receivers out attach the CCD to the other side of the "goggles" and add some more high powered IR LEDs to make a cheapo, but functional night vision system?

Posted at 10:39PM on Oct 8th 2007 by Tripp McNeilly

13. Sorry to ask, but don't head mounted displays cause some sort of eye damage if used for prolonged amounts of time?

Posted at 12:56AM on Oct 9th 2007 by Snazz

14. @snazz: A properly adjusted one shouldn't, because the optics make the image appear at infinite focus, so it will do you as much eye damage as looking at, I don't know, mountains. That said, an improperly adjusted one may give you mild eye strain from maintaining close focus for a long period, but I don't think it's actually possible to damage your eyes by looking at things that are too close, reading in low light, or any of the stuff that old wives' tales tell you can damage them.

Of course the part is out of stock, wait for a random time between 30 days and forever and come back, you might be lucky :)

@tripp: you have no idea how long I have wanted to do that exact thing for. If you can find a webcam that outputs TV signal directly, or a small board to convert from webcam output to NTSC/PAL, you're probably onto a winner, and there is no shortage of instructions for enabling webcams to see infrared. If you do make one, promise me you'll make the outsides of the eyepieces glow green, splinter cell / starcraft ghost style...

Posted at 10:11AM on Oct 9th 2007 by PKM

15. "any way" like totally..

"Sorry to ask, but don't head mounted displays cause some sort of eye damage if used for prolonged amounts of time?"

Poor refresh rates, and bright back lights inches from eyes, of course.. There may be some naysayers, but you can go look at actual research, and technical specs.

"@tripp: Me and mumsy are having pudding and tea, please do join."
sorry, I had to do that.

Posted at 11:28AM on Oct 9th 2007 by TJhooker

16. Eh, i wouldn't bother trying to mod a webcam. Google "board camera" for an alternative that is just as cheap, small, and already puts out NTSC/pal video. they're just as easy to infrared mod as webcams too--heck, some of 'em even come with super-bright ir illuminators built in!

Posted at 12:22PM on Oct 9th 2007 by Jake H

17. you can get wireless versions of what jake was talking about on ebay for around $30 shipped. (granted, they are of typical chinese quality)

Posted at 4:17PM on Oct 9th 2007 by wolf

18. I was thinking this would make a neat little "land warrior" type of setup for my kid's soft air guns.

I'm on the mailing list at least...

Posted at 1:40PM on Oct 10th 2007 by Spadefinger

19. headsets are available again...limit one per customer due to "high demand"..hehe, good job guys

Posted at 5:16PM on Oct 11th 2007 by Angus

20. They're out of stock again.

Posted at 1:09AM on Oct 13th 2007 by Tripp McNeilly

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