Interaction- Hardware Support

See-Through Video HMD

Researchers at UNC and Utah have been collaborating since the beginning of the Center on the building of complex mechanical parts. Recently, we designed and built a new compact video-based see-through head-mounted display (HMD). This breakthrough lightweight HMD, which was primarily designed for augmented reality enhancements in surgical procedures [STAT96B], provides the user with unprecedented visual integration of synthetic 3D objects with objects in the real world -- for example integrating an ultrasound image of a tumor with images of the patient's breast. We expect the new HMD to enable a host of new surgical (and other) applications, which have been stymied by lack of such a display device. Besides producing useful results, these joint design and manufacturing efforts teach us what aspects of remote mechanical CAD are more or less useful and help to establish the research agenda in this area.