An
EyeTap is a device that is worn in front of the
eyeEyes are organs that detect light, and send electrical impulses along the optic nerve to the visual and other areas of the brain. Complex optical systems with resolving power have come in ten fundamentally different forms, and 96% of animal species possess a complex optical system...
that acts as a
camerathumb |right|Cameras from Large to Small, Film to Digital A camera is a device that records images, either as a still photograph or as moving images known as videos or movies...
to record the scene available to the eye as well as a display to superimpose a computer-generated imagery on the original scene available to the eye.
In order to capture what the eye is seeing as accurately as possible, an EyeTap uses a
beam splitterA beam splitter is an optical device that splits a beam of light in two. It is the crucial part of most interferometers.In its most common form, a cube, it is made from two triangular glass prisms which are glued together at their base using Canada balsam...
to send the same scene (with reduced intensity) to both the eye and a camera.
An
EyeTap is a device that is worn in front of the
eyeEyes are organs that detect light, and send electrical impulses along the optic nerve to the visual and other areas of the brain. Complex optical systems with resolving power have come in ten fundamentally different forms, and 96% of animal species possess a complex optical system...
that acts as a
camerathumb |right|Cameras from Large to Small, Film to Digital A camera is a device that records images, either as a still photograph or as moving images known as videos or movies...
to record the scene available to the eye as well as a display to superimpose a computer-generated imagery on the original scene available to the eye.
In order to capture what the eye is seeing as accurately as possible, an EyeTap uses a
beam splitterA beam splitter is an optical device that splits a beam of light in two. It is the crucial part of most interferometers.In its most common form, a cube, it is made from two triangular glass prisms which are glued together at their base using Canada balsam...
to send the same scene (with reduced intensity) to both the eye and a camera. The camera then digitizes the reflected image of the scene and sends it to a computer. The computer processes the image and then sends it to a projector. The projector sends the image to the other side of the beam splitter so that this computer-generated image is reflected into the eye to be superimposed on the original scene.
Stereo EyeTaps modify light passing through both eyes, but many research prototypes (mainly for reasons of ease of construction) only tap one eye.
EyeTap
is also the name of an organization founded by inventor
Steve MannSteve Mann , is a tenured professor at the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Toronto.-Education:...
to develop and promote EyeTap-related technologies such as wearable computing.
Possible uses
An EyeTap is somewhat like a
head-up displayA head-up display, or abbreviated as HUD, is any transparent display that presents data without requiring the user to look away from his or her usual viewpoint...
. The important difference is that the scene available to the eye is also available, now, to the computer that projects the Head-up Display. This enables the EyeTap to modify the computer generated scene in response to the natural scene. One use, for instance, would be a Sports EyeTap: here the wearer, while in a stadium, would be able to follow a particular player in a field and have the EyeTap display statistics relevant to that player as a floating box above the player. The EyeTap Criteria are an attempt to define how close a real, practical device comes to such an ideal. EyeTaps will have great use in any field where the user would benefit from real-time interactive information that is largely visual in nature. This is sometimes referred to as "computer-mediated reality", commonly known as "
augmented realityAugmented reality is a term for a live direct or indirect view of a physical real-world environment whose elements are merged with virtual computer-generated imagery - creating a mixed reality. The augmentation is conventionally in real-time and in semantic context with environmental elements,...
".
Eyetap has been explored as a potential tool for individuals with visual disabilities due to its abilities to direct visual information to parts of the retina that function well. As well, Eyetap's role in
sousveillanceSousveillance as well as inverse surveillance are terms coined by Steve Mann to describe the recording of an activity from the perspective of a participant in the activity, typically by way of small portable or wearable recording devices that often stream continuous live video to the...
has been explored by Mann and
Barry WellmanBarry Wellman, FRSC directs as the S.D. Clark Professor of Sociology at the University of Toronto. His areas of research are community sociology, the Internet, human-computer interaction and social structure, as manifested in social networks in communities and organizations...
Principle of operation
External links
- http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/01/15/captain_cyborg_faces_canadian_challenge/
- http://www.ottawacitizen.com/Part+Everyone+watching/1253557/story.html
- http://www.vision-systems.com/display_article/310743/19/none/none/TECHN/GPUs-battle-for-imaging-applications