Avegant Glyph: The Theater For Your Face That Surged 250K in 4 Hours


avagantIntroducing the Avegant Glyph, a head-mounted personal theater that differs from other headsets out there. Rather than focusing on VR like the Oculus Rift, or the 'forced' heads-up display Google Glass provides, the Glyph is known as media-centric. A new display technology is called “Virtual Retina Display”, which projects the image onto the eye's retina by using both (low-power) LED and mirror variations. To get very technical, the imagery is “passed through a first set of optics, gets reflected off a micromirror array with two million mirrors, and then the imagery is shaped for the eye”. Additionally, the high fill factor in micromirrors means it creates a solid image, rather than pixelated. This means there is no screen at all; meant to mimic how your eyes respond in real life. Without your eyes having to focus, you are simply experiencing light in a natural way, which is said to be far more graphic and exciting. Anyone intrigued by wearing a light-weight headband, capable of audio/visual convergence, that works just by plugging it in and pushing one button, will understand the success of the Glyph.

avagant1Costing $499, the Glyph blasted it's Kickstarter Goal of $250,000 in a mere four hours. With 27 more days to go, Avegant has raised over $617,000. At Avegant, the goal was to master fitting this technology into a portable, normal-feeling pair of headphones. Utilizing the Glyph is good for home and on-the-go. They can be worn as comfortable (noise-canceling) headphones, however the unique flip-down form factor is the real deal when in personal-theater mode. Anything you can hook up to a screen, the Glyph can quickly plug into and interface with. A simple HDMI input allows you to display anything you desire from your PC, laptop, or smart phone. Don't forget the ability to play streaming movies from either the web or your personal library. Sure you can watch, ahem, experience the heck out of a movie or TV show, but don’t you forget about gaming! Gaming is absolutely essential for the Glyph user. From playing Halo on Xbox to Angry Birds on your smart phone, an integrated '9 Degree of Freedom' head-tracker will mentally and (almost) physically place you into your game of choice.

avagant2Could it get more interactive? According to their Kickstarter page, “the future content possible with the Glyph is limitless”. Not only Avegant, but it's 950+ backers genuinely believe in this product. Because they have developers in mind, their product video mentions a number of ways the Glyph could surpass the video, music, and gaming world. From producing movies shot with 360 degrees of freedom, to incorporating an LTE chip to make phone calls from your headset, developers could come up with countless new ways to use the Glyph. Avegant isn't just about building another product, it is about building a platform no one has ever seen before. So far, the company has handcrafted a small number of prototypes, as shown at CES 2014. Their journey on Kickstarter was to ensure they can justify the volumes of manufacturing in order to get their product to an affordable price. Avegant is pioneering a brand-new generation of media. Therefore, it's easily predictable they will only continue to gain popularity and funding.

Topics: Technology News CES - Consumer Electronics Show Display Screen Technology Gadgets & Peripherals

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