10Meters News Report / May 19, 2003 -- Keep your eyes on Bluetooth – it may be the next big thing in fashionable eyewear.

MicroOptical's Bluetooth viewer

Fashion, of course, is a relative term. In this case, the trendy runway is primarily made up of applications in markets such as test and measurement, wearable computing, security, law enforcement, military and medicine.

But those markets will suit the MicroOptical Corporation, a Massachusetts-based electronic optics developer, just fine as it demonstrates its new Bluetooth-enabled viewer, the DV-1.

On display at this week's Society for Information Display Conference in Baltimore, Md., the DV-1 is an eyewear system that allows wearers to view content transmitted from electronic devices, including PDAs and PCs, via a special viewer attached to eyeglasses.

It features a 12-bit VGA color display and is capable of handling both bit map and text input from compatible PDAs and PCs.

Offered as a development kit, it is MicroOptical's first digital wireless eyewear viewer.

"Our developer's kit will allow the development community to evaluate the technology and create business and consumer applications that require mobility, situational awareness and privacy, such as public safety, inventory management and medical data viewing, all with the user untethered from the image source," said CEO Mark Spitzer.

The kit provides developers with a protocol for transmitting images over a Bluetooth serial link and uses a patented optical system that allows the images to be projected onto a monocular viewer. The viewer clips to either side of eyeglasses and gives the user "the impression of a free-floating monitor," according to MicroOptical.

The DV-1 viewer is battery powered and readable in all lighting conditions, the company said.

MicroOptical, which offers optical products for law enforcement, medical and military uses, also has a strategic alliance with Essilor International to deliver images through true ophthalmic eyewear devices.

For more information, visit www.microoptical.net.