This may be the Olympus viewfinder of the future…really?
Back in summer Olympus surprisingly showed their Google Glass version (more on that on CNET). Now I spotted a new patent that combines that futuristic technology with the use of an Olympus camera. The glass works as a sort of a viewfinder positioned directly over your eye. The electronic image appears as soon as the camera will be hold close to it. The Olympus patent describes how this also helps to miniaturize cameras because you will not need any built-in viewfinder nor LCD screen.
You can read the details fo the patent at freepatentsonline.
alexander
5 months ago |not tomorrow, probably after tomorrow
CanonEosHole
5 months ago |I can hear all the pervy boners going up if this device should be made. I can also envision “photographers” using this device getting the snot beat out of them by angry people. I can also envision scandals and new camera laws and lawsuits appearing if this device is ever made and used.
Do
5 months ago |As I understand it, this is not about pic-taking glasses, it only works when you hold the camera close to your eyes, so the photographer wouldn’t look different than now, with the exception, that the glasses would look more flashy than normal ones, at least in the beginning of this technology. Of course that could be changed, but in any case you need an extra camera.
Any way, wearing special glasses is much more intricating than a viewfinder, so I wouldn’t give this idea any chance – except if the data/video glasses that Google and others developing get popular, which I guess is the background of this patent.
I vote for a Wi-Fi chip transplanted in the brain
CanonEosHole
5 months ago |Pervy device makers will find a way to make such a device or alter an exisiting device. Take a look at the net, its a world full of creeps and pervs..waiting for more pervy fetishes.
HighStreet
5 months ago |They already have regular (sun)glasses that you can wear and use to take photos and video. You can even buy them from highstreet stores nowadays.
digi2ap
5 months ago |Ridiculous idea.
Miroslav
5 months ago |LeoLensen
5 months ago |I can see uses for this in difficult angles; say hanging over an bridge to get a different view from a stream of stuff, low view points on muddy roads. This could save me a lot on dry cleaning bills!
But if the eye piece needs to be “near” for the camera to work…than i don’t see the point. What is “near”? If I have to raise the camera to eye-level, i don’t see the point. For a low view point I still have to get down on the ground.
TheEye
5 months ago |I don’t care for enhanced or augmented reality. And that idea falls into that category. I don’t want to join the Borg. Fight the future!
PS: I always make fun of people with Bluetooth earpieces. Can’t wait to mock three-eyes.
marsupial2go
5 months ago |Resistance is futile?
TheEye
5 months ago |Ask that Jean-Luc Picard!
The Real Stig
5 months ago |Then you are foolish. I was recently on a bus in Austria that was hit by a stupid taxi driver overtaking in unsafe conditions – loads of slush on the road. The bus driver made great use of his blue tooth headseat to continue driving the bus safely and to report the incident to the police and make other related calls.
lnqo-M
5 months ago |Nice idea, i hope this is the new EVF in E-P5.
avds
5 months ago |Nah, that’s so lowly. We need EVF implanted directly into the retina.
Ant
5 months ago |It shouldn’t be restricted to only activating when the camera is approached to the glasses. That way it can even open the possibility to lot of weirder angle (like pushing your camera on a stick).
But the military should have such technology already, such as mounting the camera at the end of the rifle to see over the corner without risking getting shot by the opposition.
avds
5 months ago |Make no mistake, the military has much better camera technology than that. It allows us to see a lot of fighting where there wasn’t much fighting in the first place.
amalric
5 months ago |By the response here, it seems again a case of ‘disruptive technology’, not exactly welcome.
And yet if you think of the Pen concept – shooting at any angle it could be a winner. It wouldn’t increase the size of the camera at any rate.
Think of it as one of those hearing aids so many use with cellphones.
But really Admin is tantalizing us. Does he mean that it could come at the end of this January with the new Pen?
Tsk, tsk…
Yun
5 months ago |Sounds terrific but is future , 2114 or 2015 or more ?
I doubt such technology will appear within these 2 years time . Forget it , let’s focus on what is coming is more relevant approach for me .
Ulli
5 months ago |if its available as contactlens i buy it, because normal eyepieces get foggy or slip away because of sweating caused by photographing juicy photomodels.
lnqo-M
5 months ago |The eyepieces need be water sealed anyway, and also waterproof to 30 meter or 99 foot. ;-P
Maciej
5 months ago |This is no future. It is now. It is enough to connect camera with WiFi telephone hanging around Your head. The bad side of telephone is that it consumes more energy as opposed to this proposal version of Olympus where bringing camera close to Your face turns (WiFi) dedicated viewfinder on. Brilliant!
lnqo-M
5 months ago |Yes we need only WIFI and an APP, but if i will use my phone too finder tripod for the camera.
But waynot, the best will be if we can guad focus on camera too.
woof woof
5 months ago |So instead of increasing camera size slightly to incorporate a VF the user has to carry a slightly smaller camera and either carry or somehow attach a screen to their face?
Forgive me for thinking that IMVHO and for me personally it’ll never be a buying consideration.
T-L
5 months ago |Oi! Shiney kyborg partz!
Number one choice for upskirt shooters.. ;D
M43Photo
5 months ago |This is the obvious development of the viewfinder. Why make an articulated viewfinder when you can put the viewfinder where you can always see it: In front of your eye? The camera becomes smaller and more solid, while the viewfinder becomes more useful.
Olympus : vers un viseur détachable sur les APN ?
5 months ago |[...] Via [...]
Bob
5 months ago |OW. my eye.
Hifinut
5 months ago |@Bob
Did you see something you shouldn’t have through the eye-piece?
lnqo-M
5 months ago |Maybe you need glasses that tripod for viewfinder.
Matthias
5 months ago |Is it possible to make a patent for something that is not working yet???
Anonymous
5 months ago |‘@Matthias
manufacturers sometimes make vague design concept patents either with the long term intention of developing a product or mkre likely suing another company who produces a product that fits the loose definitions of the patent.It is pretty sad actually hello apple?
camaman
5 months ago |Wireless 4k eyeball coming up.
Nice upgrade from our standard ones. Hopefully below $1000.
Boooo!
5 months ago |This is commonly known as “a solution in search of a problem”.
Gato
5 months ago |I like the idea of a remote finder. The part that bothers me is how close does the camera have to be? Would it work for waist-level or overhead at arms-length?
Seems to me more like a worthwhile alternative to using a tablet or phone with wifi as a viewer/remote.
GaGa
5 months ago |heh that’s a great idea, if you want a camera designed for perverts, lol. bet it will be outlawed in Japan, just line silencing the shutter noise was
Esa Tuunanen
5 months ago |With live view of mirrorless articulated rear display already works for those hard angle shots and such where DSLRs optical viewfinder is annoyance.
Of course diversity/extra possibilities are good.
But for overall photography this is just another way to increase amount of camera shake because of less support points.
Anonymous
5 months ago |Yess!! The eyePad!
Anonymous
5 months ago |Verb: to goggle?
Anonymous
5 months ago |Sounds like Olypus wants you to pay for a Cyborg-Like Eye…
Wonder how much they’re gonna charge people for a Black version.
Izumi
5 months ago |Now I want an SD slot installed behind my ear so I can record directly to the card.
Then if I adapt one of my fingertips to a USB plug I can go from the card in my head to the computer.
Unless Adobe brings out Neuroshop for editing in which case I can go from my head straight to the printer.
Such a brave new world is coming up. By 2084 perhaps?
mewmew
5 months ago |http://ir.kopin.com/Investors/Press-Releases/Press-Release-Details/2013/Kopin-Announces-an-Agreement-with-Olympus-to-Jointly-Develop-Ultra-Compact-Display-Modules-for-Emerging-Headset-Market1132529/default.aspx
John
5 months ago |Nice idea. Could be integrated with Google Glasses. No one will carry multiple glasses from different manufacturers