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360 panoramic goggles
A half sphere suspended above the head is viewed through periscopic goggles for 360 panoramic vision | |
Every wanted to see what was coming up behind you? Or
from the side? what about both at once? Great for the foot
soldier and high school teacher alike, the 360 panoramic
goggles offer a full 360 field of view. This can be a little
disorienting at first, but after a little training you'll be able
to hit targets and identify troublesome students without
even turning around!
The device consists of a half sphere that is fixed above
your head, probably with a thin rod that is supported by a
hat frame. The goggles have reflective mirrors that
provide a view up onto the base of the sphere.
You can test the principal simply by holding a large shiny
spherical ball above your head and looking up.
The only problems I can conceive are:
1) you look like a dag
2) too much weight on your head.
3) bad for low headroom environments.
4) takes a while to learn
The first problem could be overcome with a well funded
marketing campaign featuring celebrities of various sorts
wearing the hat and saying how great they feel.
The second problem could be overcome by using a very
shiny helium filled balloon.
The third problem can't really be overcome without totally
changing the elegant simplicity of the technology.
The fourth problem is inherent with any such device.
Similar idea, but for driving a car.
http://www.youtube....watch?v=nIRUavithF8 Not 360, and not goggles, but related. And also cool. [swimswim, May 06 2010]
Rear view glasses
http://www.coolest-...arview-spy-glasses/ [afinehowdoyoudo, May 06 2010]
[link]
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No. 3 could be solved by replacing the hemisphere with a complex array of mirrors and lenses in a band around your head. |
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5) everything is extremely small, except the top of your head. |
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5 could be solved by flexing the part of the sphere where you have an interest, and effectively zooming in. |
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//after a little training you'll be able to...// That alone is
reason enough to implement this (I mean, finding out
whether it's true is reason enough). |
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This has two elements,really. First, it's a vestibuloocular
gain experiment taken to an extreme. Adaptation in less
extreme cases is well-established, so, by halfbakery
standards, you're on solid ground there. (But provide a
dozen free motion-sickness bags with every pair of
goggles.) |
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Second, since you're mapping from a 360 degree panorama
to the eyes' field of view, which is a bit less than 180
degrees azimuth, there's going to be a cut, or
discontinuity. Objects located there will appear to the
viewer twice, at opposite edges of the field of view. |
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I'd love to know whether people could adapt to *that* An
awful lot of technology works because, although the tech
is crude, the human brain is amazingly adaptable. |
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[mp], since (blind) people can adapt to viewing scenes through a camera connected to a dot-matrix array pressing on their skin, I think that this idea is ni hansa |
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This would be fun. [+] Could the camera(s) be hung from an overhead balloon? (But note, see link, that your idea could use more Yakuza.) |
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You could tackle the fourth problem by encouraging parents to give your goggles to their children while they're still as young as possible. I bet this would be easier for them than waiting until adulthood to learn about your device. |
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//ni hansa// no longer a hapax legomenon, but I'm as much
in the dark as ever. |
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