FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Just a few days ago, Microsoft’s new launch of its magic holographic glasses, named HoloLens, makes the company sexy again! The demonstration is absolutely exciting. Some say Microsoft is going to change the world again but some argue that HoloLens is still far from what it could accomplish in the videos.

At the same time, SEER, an augmented reality helmet similar to HoloLens, is crowd funding on Kickstarter now. SEER claims to have the largest field of view in the world, which turns out to be a surprising 100 degrees FOV, and it provides a truly Iron Man experience. Sounds familiar? Yes, it is same as what HoloLens tries to achieve. But what are the real differences between these two? Let’s make a comparison.

First of all, HoloLens is a transmission-type glass that can see holographic images. It is equipped with a CPU, GPU, HPU (what they call Holographic Processing Unit) and various sensors that include six cameras.

In terms of optical imaging, it adopts two 2.5-3.5mm thick optical lenses that utilize refractive-diffractive imaging and has two nano projectors located on top of left and right lens that serve each of your eyes. It is widely concerned that such display structure will significantly limit its field of view, which could be around 40-50 degrees. HoloLens is also equipped with infrared TOF Camera and multiple other cameras to achieve 3D modeling, position tracking and gesture recognition. As there are so many integrated sensors, the power consumption will be large and heat will become a big problem as well.

So how does it really feel to wear HoloLens? As Ben Gilbert from Engadget put it: “I say this in the nicest way possible: Using Microsoft HoloLens kinda stinks”. He believes that HoloLens is still at a very early stage in this new field that Microsoft creates and there is a long way to go. But nevertheless, HoloLens is something sexy and worth waiting.

And what about SEER?
So instead of being a goggle that looks similar to HoloLens, SEER is designed to be a helmet or a visor and it is much bigger. However, such a design has its benefit, as it will not press your nose when wearing it.

SEER has only one piece of optical glass in the front and it utilizes a display method similar to the air force pilot helmet. It consists of a piece of free-form surface optical lens that is reflective and one way transparent. It uses the smartphone as the processing and displaying device and you have to slip in your smartphone in order to use SEER. So what SEER really does is to enlarge your smartphone screen and make it 100 degrees field of view. According to the maker Caputer Labs, it is the largest FOV in the world and its screen size is 80 times larger than Google Glass. It is big enough to cover the most view of human eyes, so that the screen frame will fade out and you will be immersed into the world. According to their videos, the experience looks promising. Although it shows some slight distortion, Caputer Labs says it will be solved after they have the mold.

SEER currently sells at 79 USD on kickstarter. Considering its impressive viewing experience, it is a reasonable price and this price is certainly much cheaper than HoloLens. This version is a developer kit so as a developer, you may add some sensors, such as EEG, ECG and wireless camera etc, and DIY your own SEER. Caputer Labs tries to build it an open platform for both hardware and software development. To see more information, here is their Kickstarter page: http://kck.st/1uk9HGp

To sum up, what Microsoft focuses on is a large and comprehensive system integration and it may take some time before everything can be accomplished, while SEER focuses on the sole problem of enlarging the field of view. SEER has no intention to develop large and comprehensive products, but to provide the basic development kit that enables everyone to tinker and experience its so-called truly immersive Iron Man feeling.

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