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MicroOptical Introduces Eyewear-Mounted Instrument Viewer for Test and Measurement Portable Display Provides Technicians Hands-Free Information Access Westwood, Mass.--The MicroOptical Corporation, the world's leading developer and supplier of eyewear displays, announced the availability of its Instrument Viewer (Model SV-3), the first eyewear-mounted display for test and measurement applications. The Instrument Viewer is a hands-free, portable, color display that connects to test instruments such as oscilloscopes and flaw detectors. MicroOptical's Instrument Viewer is the world's smallest, lightest, and most ergonomic display. A patented combination of optics, electronics, and a microdisplay allows technicians to put color text and graphical images continuously in their field of view while they work. The large, virtual image created by MicroOptical's Instrument Viewer appears with no obstruction to vision, so users can still focus on their work. The Instrument Viewer connects to equipment with a VGA output, offering benefits both for bench and mobile applications. Easily read in daylight, MicroOptical's Instrument Viewer reduces mistakes and saves time by providing information directly in the worker's field of vision, avoiding the need for the worker to constantly look back and forth between a monitor and the equipment under evaluation. "MicroOptical's Instrument Viewer places the waveform directly in users' fields of view, and allows them to focus on their work," said Mark Spitzer, CEO of MicroOptical. "This innovative display will make technicians and engineers more productive, efficient, and comfortable performing their jobs." Mobile workers performing nondestructive testing with a flaw detector can also take advantage of the Instrument Viewer's highly portable, lightweight displays. Professionals using ultrasonic testing to seek structural flaws often find themselves in remote locations where it's difficult to set up a bulky monitor. By using MicroOptical's Instrument Viewer, this is no longer a concern because a bright, color, and hands-free image is always in front of the user. "In our marketplace, the goal is making information portable. Customers are often working in inconvenient places and have to get the data," said Paul Travers, president and CEO of Interactive Imaging Systems, Inc. "MicroOptical's Instrument Viewer provides increased productivity, higher accuracy rates and, most importantly, safety. What makes the MicroOptical display better than anything else is that it's 'nonimmersive,' so users can still see everything around them." Pricing and Availability MicroOptical's Instrument Viewer is currently available at a price of $995. To learn more, visit www.microoptical.net/products.html on the Web or phone (877) 326-8111 x2. E-mail: sales@microoptical.net

While not an item of test equipment per se, MicroOptical's Model SV-3 Instrument Viewer is being billed as a test-and-measurement adjunct. As MicroOptical says in its press statement, engineering folks sometimes work in inconvenient places. Although color head-mounted VGA displays have been around for quite some years, I don't recall any company slating them specifically for test equipment such as oscilloscopes. Good marketing aside, MicroOptical's SV-3 is small enough to clip onto eyeglass or safety goggle frames to depict a scope's waveform or any other aspect of an instrument's display that's fed to an external VGA jack. In fact, the company ships the viewer in a kit that includes a pair of ANSI Z-87.1 spec'd safety glasses. Weighing in at just a tad over 1.2 oz. (35 g), the SV-3 virtual display can provide six to eight hours of continuous operation, powered by a 2-cell rechargeable 7.2 V Li-ion battery. An optional battery can extend the unit's run time. Configurable for either eye, the Instrument Viewer proves a 6-bit (64-color) 640 × 480 pixel image, refreshing at a 60 Hz rate. The field of view is about 16 degrees in the horizontal plane, and about 19 degrees on the diagonal. That's roughly the equivalent of having an 8" CRT about two or three feet in front of your eyes. As Mark Spitzer, the company's CEO points out, 64 colors are really all that most users need when working with test equipment. "16 million colors is overkill for most test applications," says Spitzer. "As such, that keeps the cost of the SV-3 relatively low. It also keeps dissipation down." Spitzer also told me that the SV-3 uses a transmissive 3/8" LCD to generate its images. The LCD works in conjunction with an LED that shines through it, and the SV-3's optics are attached directly to the LCD. MicroOptical also offers a variety of other virtual display products. Its ¼ VGA virtual display, dubbed the Model CV-1 Video Viewer, is priced at $1650. It provides a 320 × 240 pixel image, and also attaches to a pair of eyeglasses. The CV-1 accepts NTSC or (optionally) PAL video. Kopin In Sight Although the company's press statement doesn't say so, MicroOptical's Instrument Viewer is based on Kopin Corp.'s transmissive active matrix LCD (AMLCD) technology. Kopin has been making special transmissive LCDs for quite a few years. Its systems produce clear and seemingly large images when viewed through the right optics. Kopin's patented technology actually transfers or "floats" its CMOS circuits onto clear glass substrates and, significantly, the company's wafers are processed on standard CMOS-foundry fab lines. The displays also integrate some electronics on-chip, a move that simplifies interfacing. For more details about the SV-3, contact Spitzer at The MicroOptical Corp. 33 Southwest Park Westwood, Mass. 02090 Phone: (781) 326-8111 FAX: (781) 326-4111 Web: www.microOptical.net For more information from Kopin Corp., contact the company at Kopin Corp. 695 Myles Standish Blvd. Taunton, Mass. 02780 Phone: (508) 824-6696 FAX: (508) 824-6958

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