• Tele Scouter: NEC Announces Transparent Head-Mounted Display

    Serkan Toto

    Dr. Serkan Toto is an independent consultant and advisor focusing on Japan’s web, mobile and social gaming industries. Based in Tokyo, he works together with financial institutions and startups worldwide. Serkan has been the Japan contributor for TechCrunch.com since 2008. He is sept-lingual, holds an MBA and is a PhD in economics. → Learn More

    Thursday, October 20th, 2011
    nec telescouter featured

    NEC announced the so-called Tele Scouter [JP] in Japan, a futuristic, see-through head-mounted display (HMD) for augmented reality applications. The device is based on the AiRScouter, which Brother has been working on for years (and which we covered here, here and here).

    The Tele Scouter, which NEC calls a “Wearable Computer”, is sized at 75×40×35mm and weighs 64g. Powered by a Windows Embedded CE 6.0-equipped (portable) terminal, it produces pictures in 800×600 resolution that can be superimposed onto the real world.

    The terminal (pictured below) features a ARM 500MHz CPU, IEEE 802.11a/b/g Wi-Fi, Bluetooth Ver2.0+EDR, a microSD slot, a mic, It’s sized at 140×90×55 and weighs 360g.

    NEC says that when worn, the Tele Scouter creates the impression of a 16-inch screen that’s about one meter away from the user’s eyes. The company sees the device used for device assembly, parts picking and selection, and remote operations in factories (battery life: 4 hours).

    No word yet on a possible international release, but the Tele Scouter will be priced at US$5,200 in Japan. The software goes for an extra US$24,000 (release date: December 26).

    Via AV Watch [JP]