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Re: A thought on HMD's/HUD's

From: "R. Paul McCarty" <>
Date: Wed, 29 Apr 1998 15:13:51 +0000

Mark Willis wrote:
> 
> As I've been in the aerospace biz, and know that G-force sensors are
> relatively cheap nowadays (used for Automobile Airbags, for one thing,
> so they're a mass market item not a custom sensor anymore, thus a lot
> cheaper) so a thought comes to mind;  Partially from Steve Mann's &
> other folks' posts.  (I haven't lived with a HUD yet, but this is an
> intriguing thought to me...)
> 
>   <Warning, TechSpeak follows>
> 
>   The thought of having my Linux system watch a 3-axis accelerometer and
> shift to lower heads-up display resolution automagically when I am in
> motion, then shift back up to higher resolution when I am at relative
> rest for over 30 seconds, has come to me.  (Place the sensors in the
> belt or on the vest, not on my heads-up display, BTW, so this can work
> right!)  This way, if I am walking, the display resolution can go down
> to 60 or 40 characters & to "essential information only" mode;  If I sit
> down to do some text editing (coding, look at my schedule, whatever) I
> have high resolution.  A simple asymmetrical digital low-pass filter
> could be used to change the X, Y, Z inputs (read peak values, 4 times a
> second or so?) then square & sum them into a gate value to determine
> whether I am "moving" enough or not (I'd want 3-4 seconds of movement
> before a shift down, and 30 seconds or so of stopping before a shift up
> in resolution when I stopped;  I imagine the resolution shifts could be
> distracting if they happened more often!  But maybe do a quicker shift
> up in resolution, if I'd only moved for less than 15 seconds, so if I
> answer the telephone here I can get it & be in high-res mode.)
> 
>   <TechSpeak ends>

<Friendly criticism and mocking your idea begins>

It doesn't sound too undoable, but ctrl-alt-+/- is pretty easy to type
to change resolutions if your are running X.  If you are in text mode, I
don't think changing columns is very easy to do, and may not be possible
without some serious kernel hacking. Although I remember some sort of
display program that lets you switch text modes.

There's also the problem of what happens when you are riding a moving
object, like an escalator or a train? wouldn't it think you were moving
really fast and switch to an undesireable mode? 

<Friendly criticism and mocking your idea ends>

-Paul

-- 
R. Paul McCarty / DARS Coordinator /  / x52059
317 Lattimore Hall, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY 14627
Computers don't make errors; what they do, they do on purpose.-Dale/KOTH

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