On Friday I had the opportunity to witness Microvision's brand new Spectrum SD2500 display first-hand -- the same unit that will be demonstrated at the SID show in Boston this coming week.
It's hard to describe the experience, but I will do my best. The control box that housed the light sources and electronics was about the size of a big toaster. The box is black and super rugged looking. There are some switches on it and a 'Spectrum SD2500' logo printed on the side. This box looks like you could bash it with a sledgehammer and it wouldn't miss a beat.
The Microvision engineers told me that the display control box was previously as big as a refrigerator -- and that the effort to shrink that control box down to its current size took 12 months from inception to the extremely slick and strong looking box on the table before me.
I sat down at a table where the display unit was stationed. This unit looks just like the military version of the Nomad, a little window that clips on to a helmet. As I peered into the eyepiece, I saw bright, high-resolution full-color graphics floating in space before me. The initial set of graphics were flight information. This showed what looked to me to be a little path through the sky, as well as some sorts of statistics that presumably would be of interest to pilots. I was initially struck by the brilliance of the colors -- red, green, blue and white -- and just how bright the display was. There was no doubt in my mind that the information would be clearly visible even in the brightest sunlight.
Then they switched the graphics input to show a slideshow of different scenes to really show off the capabilities of the display. And this is when I totally freaked out. The slideshow cycled through images including a bowl of luscious purple grapes, some golden pears, a black and white image of a woman's face, and a close up of a bald eagle's head. The eagle was the one that really sticks out in my mind. I could see each feather in stunning detail -- the intense stare from his shimmering golden eye looked right into my heart. It spoke to me with a silent voice: 'Yes'.
After a couple of cycles through the slideshow, and more 'wows' than I was probably aware of exclaiming, I stood up. I told the guys around the table, 'you get this thing down to five hundred bucks, we're all millionaires'. That got some smiles -- but the truth of that statement was inescapable to me after having seen the unbelievable SD2500.
The Spectrum's ultra-brilliant full-color laser display was unlike anything I have ever seen. It is the highest quality display Microvision has ever created. To be among the first people outside the company to see this product is truly awesome and I'm deeply grateful for the opportunity. When this thing is showed off at SID next week, jaws will hit the floor.
When the technology in the SD2500 is filtered down to consumer devices over the next couple of years, there will be no limits. In the meantime, I have no doubt that the SD2500 will find an eager market in the many thousands of military aircraft for which it was designed.
I feel like I got a glimpse into the future of the information economy -- full-color see-through scanned beam displays enabling head-up, hands-free access to a global grid of internet services. The display is there -- by the time the grid infrastructure is able to be used on a massive scale by millions of people, Microvision's engineering team will have reduced the size and cost of the Spectrum to something that everyone in America will need to own to participate in the economy of the near future.
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