What is a Virtual Retinal Display (VRD)?
A virtual retinal display (VRD) is a head-mounted display system that projects an image directly onto the human retina with low-energy lasers or LCDs. VRDs can give the user the illusion of viewing a typical screen-sized display hovering in the air several feet away. In principle the technology can provide full-color, high-resolution dynamic displays, but in practice the components necessary to achieve the full potential of the technology are either highly expensive or simply not built yet. Although the technology was invented by the University of Washington in the Human Interface Technology Lab (HIT) in 1991, development did not begin until 1993; the technology still needs much refinement and has only been commercialized in specialized sectors of the display market such as automobile repair and some parts of the military. A VRD unit consists of 4 modules; drive electronics to break down an incoming source image into an information stream, a light source made up of laser(s) or LED(s),
