Epson & the Moverio BT-300
Is this the future of movie watching? As 360-degree VR video gains traction in Australia, delivered by organisations as diverse as YouTube (360° video), SBS (www.sbs.com.au/vr) and the Australian Museum in Sydney (David Attenborough’s First Life VR and Great Barrier Reef Dive VR now showing), Epson suddenly looks less out on a limb and more on the money with its ongoing development of the Moverio smart glasses. We reviewed the earlier versions and there was little hiding their clunkiness, but the BT-300 model is gaining praise for its lightness and speed of response.
The new glasses incorporate Epson’s silicon-based OLED digital display technology, a breakthrough “enabling truly transparent mobile augmented reality”, says the company, while the glasses employ a quad-core Intel Atom X5 processor and Android 5.1, enabling efficient rendering of complex 3D experiences. Head-tracking sensors combine with an upgraded 5MP front camera (as featured on the professional BT-2000 model announced last year) to enable the Moverio BT-300 to achieve precise location of objects in the real world. The Si-OLED projection system can then seamlessly render and lock 3D content to these objects, with no display background or edges in the field of view.
Eric Mizufuka, product manager of New Ventures for Epson America notes that “the transition from LCD backlit projection to Si-OLED enables higher contrast levels, a wider colour gamut and true display transparency – this is a game-changing technology that will accelerate the adoption of AR glasses.
Pre-orders are being accepted at www.epson.com/moverio.