OSAKA -- Mitsubishi Electric Corp. has developed a headset-mounted liquid crystal display that does not block the viewer's field of vision, making a radical departure from the goggle-style displays being marketed as portable movie theaters.
The device, called Eye Vision, looks like a typical hands-free telephone headset with a boom-mounted microphone. But the boom is actually a display screen measuring 1.5 cm high and 2 cm wide -- a size the manufacturer says allows viewers do two things at once.
"Conventional wearable displays completely cover users' eyes," Mitsubishi Electric spokesman Kanji Azuma said Wednesday. "But the new product makes it possible, for instance, for firefighters and police officers to access vital information as they carry out their duties."
The display, designed to sit 3 cm from the right eye, could be used to watch closeup shots of a live sports telecast while sitting in the crowd at the same game, he said.
It could also be used, Azuma pointed out, to perform surgery using magnified images of the area being worked on.
Azuma said Mitsubishi Electric plans to conduct market surveys in the summer to see whether the product will attract interest from individuals and companies.
If the results are favorable, Mitsubishi Electric will probably put Eye Vision on the market by the end of the year.