This week, a Brother Industries, Ltd. (Nagoya, Japan) press release announced that a prototype of the company’s mobile spectacle-type wearable Retinal Imaging Display (RID) will be on show at the "Brother World JAPAN 2010" in Tokyo on September 15th. This product-to-be, the AiRScouter, is interesting in itself. Its origin and development are also interesting.

Art Berman
Insight Media Consultant

The Product
The RID display is mounted directly in front of the eye and focuses a spot of light directly onto the retina. The intensity of the light is designed to be harmless to the eye. The light spot is then scanned at high speed to create an image. Images projected onto the retina appear as if they exist in front of the user.

The idea of a RID based product in a head mounted physical format is not new and was probably first proposed by the University of Washington’s Human Interface Technology lab over a decade ago. Microvision currently offers military versions. A consumer product of this type is new, however.

Features of AiRScouter include that:
* The transparent image allows an unimpeded view of the visual field
* The images are private, not viewable by others
* The optics produce an image that appears on a 16 square inch virtual screen viewed at a distance of 1 meter

AiRScouter consists of three modules: a light source module, an optical scanning module, and an eyepiece module. The display utilizes red, green and blue laser diodes as light sources. An optical Micro Electro Mechanical System (MEMS) scanner is used to steer the light beam. The resulting display has SVGA resolution and a viewing angle of about 18°×13.5°.

The product is expected to launch later during this year. No word yet on price.

The Development Process
Why did Brother choose to develop the AiRScouter display? The public history is along these lines.

The product is based on optical technologies used in the company’s laser printers combined with piezoelectric technologies used in the company’s inkjet printers. Brother created a stir by demonstrating a stationary retinal imaging display at EXPO 2005 in Aichi, Japan.

In 2008, Brother succeeded in developing a spectacle-type, wearable RID prototype. The light source module included a green laser. The physically large green laser made it difficult to downsize the light source module. This, in turn, presented a big hurdle in developing a commercial product.

In October 2009, a new and dramatically downsized prototype was accomplished by adopting a green laser diode. Brother claims this as a world’s first. The use of the green laser diode reduced the RID’s volume by a factor of 20 and the weight by a factor of 13 compared to the previous prototype.

The earlier prototypes had been driven by an AC power source. The new mobile prototype was driven by batteries.

Compared to the prototype shown 2009, the AiRScouters has a redesigned, in-house optical MEMS scanner that improves image quality. A new mechanical design supports corrective lenses and allows attachment of a micro camera.

It will have taken Brother 5 years to evolve and perfect the technologies first utilized in their printer products into the AiRScouter display product. This level of vision, commitment and technical accomplishment is highly commendable. IM will report on AiRScouter developments in our newsletters.