10 Tech Companies for the Next 10 Years

10 Tech Companies for the Next 10 Years

on November 08, 2004

IEEE Spectrum: 10 Tech Companies for the Next 10 Years

DISPLAYS: MICROVISION INC.

Bothell, Wash.

Display devices have a few weak points—they're bulky, hot, conspicuous, and power-hungry. Ugly, too. Microvision proposes to solve all these problems at a stroke by using solid-state lasers and LEDs to paint fine-grained pictures directly onto your retina. As John R. Lewis, a research fellow at the company, wrote in these pages ("In the Eye of the Beholder," Spectrum, May 2004), "Short of tapping into the optic nerve, there is no more efficient way to get an image into your brain."

It's a bit like the head-up display, which floats meter readings and other aeronautical data somewhere in the middle distance in front of a pilot's face. Even better, though, Microvision's system can superimpose graphical information on the real world, much as Walt Disney Co. animators had Mickey Mouse shake hands with conductor Leopold Stokowski in Fantasia in 1940. A surgeon (or a combat medic trying to act as one) might use superimposed anatomical information to guide a scalpel; an auto mechanic might use data positioned in this way to guide a wrench. The latter application is already in use, in Microvision's Nomad Expert Technician System.

The company uses microelectromechanical system (MEMS) devices to scan the beams back and forth and, where appropriate, to mix different colors to produce white light. Because the beam sweeps over the retina instead of dotting it, lines need not be serrated and images need not be grainy. Bright as the picture will seem to the naked eye, it will consume barely a microwatt, potentially saving hugely on battery power. And, by sending light only where it's needed, the system can keep nosy neighbors in adjacent airline seats from snooping on your work (or play). With a sufficiently inconspicuous eyepiece, one might even feign attention to a speech or lecture while, in fact, watching television.

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