eMagin (AMEX:EMA) is not a bad transcription of John Lennon's hit; It is 10-year-old, publicly traded, and its technology comes partially from Eastman Kodak licenses. Most production goes to the professional market, such as manufacturers of commercial, industrial and military devices, so that it's probably better known in Baghdad, where US Army boys and Marines may well use eMagin main production.
However, Las Vegas and its world famous CES have been chosen to demonstrate the latest iPod-connected gadget, the EyeBud 800, an absolute must… only in case you can afford to sign a Pentagon-like check, with a pricing of $600 (almost £350, that's… £230 above the 60GB iPod!) for a device, the critical part of which is about the size of a US$ Quarter coin… –Ok, miniaturization comes at a cost. What is this?
Point one; it’s another add to the ever-growing family of iPod accessories. Whether all these gadgets are beneficial, handy, or even necessary or not is another question –maybe you should start with the compulsory leather case to protect your iPod from scratches, it does NOT need to come from Hermes or Louis Vuitton…
Point two; you want to watch your pictures in a ubiquitous way, where and when you wish… This, of course, should come with mobility. Then, you’re an early tech adopter, and you proudly stroll everywhere with the latest widget, and the iPod is one of them. Then have a look at the picture below, it shows what the “EyeBud 800” is: a wearable headset that connects to your iPod - or any other portable devices with NTSC/PAL or RGB output. It then projects Apple’s marvel video content on a “screen” which gives higher resolution to the picture so that it looks larger than it actually is.
eMagin CEO Gary Jones demonstrates the outer-space looking EyeBud 800
eMagin is a specialist of OLED (Organic Light-Emitting Diode) technology, which is based on (carbon-based) layers chemical compounds. They emit light when an electric current is sent to the device, and they are "emissive" (a keyword here), which means that, unlike LCDs that need a separate source, they can emit their own light. "Lambertian" is another keyword. A Lambertian light is equally bright from almost all forward directions, so that the movement of your eye has no consequence. eMagin has crammed its device with more than one million diodes (!) which represent as many independent light sources.
The consequence is that this little, so-expensive-but-so-cute device, while giving you this coveted alien look, provides you with the sensation of watching a 105-in (2.66 meters!) screen from a distance of 12 feet (3.65 meters). Gary Jones, eMagin CEO, who presented its newborn, said “Suddenly you've got this big-screen, movie-screen, home-theatre experience wherever you are.”
You'll have to carry your battery pack along with your iPod - but it's tiny
A detachable “Eyeblocker” allows for viewing images from a monocular optic without annoyance to your eye, or use the EyeBud in a virtual see-through mode. The EyeBud 800 provides a full SVGA (800 x 600) video image through its virtual imaging system, to compare with the iPod’s 320 x 240 QVGA. It can be used with PCs and is capable of conventional DVD output resolution. It comes with a noise-cancelling microphone, and high-quality stereo ear pieces.
This virtual screen, which is giving you this Terminator-like appearance, means something more to eMagin, since it is a big incursion in the consumer segment. They are betting that people will get used to such new-looking device, stressing that BlueTooth earpieces, which made early users look weird, are now part of the landscape -do you remember how creepy you felt when you took your first one on a street? A separate control module, about the size of an… iPod, comes with the apparatus; it contains the -6 hours- battery pack.
Let’s follow-up on this device, and check whether it can find its market, which will obviously be a niche, due to the high pricing.
Visit eMagin website here.
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