Development of portable Retinal Imaging Display by Brother
This is the third round of prototyping RID device by Brothers. The first prototype was showcased during the EXPO 2005 in Aichi which came with a huge light box. The second prototype was out at early last year. With a plan for its public launch by 2010, Brother needed to down size the light box and they did exactly that. This time around the size of the power source box is about size of a HD drive which qualifies it to be portable.
Company’s retinal imaging display (RID) is an image projection technology focusing light to a level that is harmless onto the retina and then moves the light at a high speed for creating an afterimages where the projected images onto the retina appear as if they exist in front of the user. This spectacle type wearable RID provides a transparent display enabling users to see RID images without affecting the visual field. The system allows user to view private images and confidential data at anywhere. In spite of RID’s small form factor and lightweight, user can view images on a virtual large screen at anytime and anywhere. (16 square inches screen viewed in 1m ahead)
The underlying technology in development of RID is optical system technology based on Brother’s laser printing technology and piezoelectric technology which is based on its inkjet printing technology. The RID consists of three modules namely a light source module, an optical scanning module and an eyepiece module. The light source module requires laser light source of the light’s three primary colors namely Red, Green and Blue in order to make it possible to view images in full color. Brother’s succeeded in downsizing the light source module by adopting a green laser diode for the first time in the world. Additionally, the optical scanning module and eyepiece module wee both downsized by applying scanning system technologies based on the laser printing technologies. The size of the light source box is approximately 95×170×30mm weighing only 350g. RID comes with SVGA 800 x 600 resolution and frame rate of approximately 60Hz.
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