The Fraunhofer Institute for Organic Electronics, Electron Beam and Plasma Technology FEP has developed glasses incorporating OLED micro displays that could improve the interaction between humans and machines.
The bi-directional OLED micro displays include an image sensor on the chip, allowing the wearer to control machines based on eye movements. The glasses will be debuted at Augmented World Expo Europe (AWE) in Berlin on 18-19 October.
'Eye-controlled augmented-reality smart glasses using our OLED micro displays can be designed to be relatively small and lightweight since the display and image sensor are integrated on to a single chip. A new and improved development platform is now available to our clients for creating proprietary products,’ explained Judith Baumgarten, project manager at Fraunhofer FEP.
Suitable application software for guide-by-eye control was developed by project partners Interactive Minds and Mecotec. One application was a communications and entertainment platform for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis patients, a neurodegenerative disease that can affect the ability to speak, eat, move and breathe.
The platform converts pre-composed text segments, as well as those created by the patients, into audible speech signals. It can also select photographs for display, and videos and music to be watched and listened to, all through eye movements.
The new design for the data glasses originated within the FAIR Project which was completed earlier this year and funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research. The objective of the project was to develop smart glasses for human-machine interaction, with control based on visual information captured and derived from eye movements. Through the project, the electronics of the glasses were completely integrated into the design so that they can be connected to a PC without an intermediate controller.
The displays can be purchased in various evaluation kits for industry partners to test out their own ideas.
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