Hi, I’m Paddy, Project Technician at Watershed. I work with people and creative technology on the complete journey from pontification to pixel, planning systems and workflows to translate the image (and audio) from the imagination in the easiest possible way.

As 3D bombards us from all angles, replacing our screens with almost identical 3D screens (and I thought we were trying to become greener?), I wonder what became of video goggles?

As well as the obvious factors of portability, low power and low price (when compared with screens and projectors) and hands-free wearability (when compared to smartphones and tablets), they have these two interesting possibilities:

i) To insert media into your environment; anywhere you go, whichever way you look, you can have media of your choice right in front of you. However you sit, stand, lie or hang, as long as your eyes are open, it’s there.

ii) To insert you into another environment: with the help of a bit of head-tracking and GPS or other position sensing, you can be in a whole different world in true 3D. Of course, even with the best haptic-feedback garments, the real world physical world will come into contact (probably with your shins) before too long.

With the right equipment the two can combine; glasses with cameras, or transparent LCDs can overlay cyberspace into "meat space", like in William Gibson’s Virtual Light.

Or, with the help of some tilt switches, how about flying a camera-equipped quad-copter (see recent blog) with tilts of your head, seeing what it sees as it flies.

Will there be a future when office desks no longer have ever larger screens on them? Will our desktops PCs be pocket-sized terminals, our keyboards and other equipment merely gesture-sensing pixels in augmented reality? Will we be "screen" sharing our work in real time with far distant colleagues? Will we even have a desk, or an office?

And for leisure, will we sync up with far-afield friends to experience events?

Will phones all be equipped with a goggle-port which turns the screen into a input-only pad?

Will podestrians become goggestrians, entirely blind and deaf to the outside world, up in the cloud with wifi-enabled smart goggles?

How will we interact when we don’t know what people around us can see or hear? Or even if there are people physically around us at all?

Of course, the screens are still small, and are struggling to reach HD levels; even though they’re close to your eye, you’re limited with how much you can fit on screen. And even the most stylish ones are a bit chunky. Blocking your eyes in public places is an invitation to bag thieves and worse. And your mobile is somewhate demobilised if you’re unable to walk around with it.

I confess, I’ve yet to try out video goggles, so maybe I’ll be less enthusiastic when I do. If you’ve got some, let me know!

Goggles on Google:

A few YouTube videos.



Alternatives to video goggles:

Posted by Paddy