SPECTACLES Autonomous Wearable Displays

Wearable see-through displays overlaying the user’s real view with computer-generated display output have gained as a potentially effective means for a variety of mixed reality applications (e.g. in medicine, industrial maintenance, mobile information systems). They allow to create a visual perception of the real world visually merged with a virtual world by attaching computer-generated data to real life objects. The user is enabled to access any kind of information, unobtrusively adapted to his current situation, while not having to give up paying attention to his environment or conducting his tasks. We propose SPECTACLES, a modular, autonomous, lightweight, wirelessly communicating wearable display device that can be integrated into the physical structure of a glasses frame. SPECTACLES shall operate autonomously, i.e. have local computation and communication facilities, integrated power supply, and shall be easily adaptable to a wide number of application domains. To enable the necessary flexibility in assembling and configuring SPECTACLES, we will develop a modular toolbox of hardware and software components. The device needs to be able to display different sources of information, be it (pseudo-static) 2D content, streaming media content (video), and 3D content for augmented reality applications.