Goggles deliver big-screen fun
By Ric Manning
Louisville (Ky.) Courier-Journal
There are three good reasons that you should consider buying the new Eye-Trek video goggles from Olympus — and three more reasons that you probably won't.
Here's why the Eye-Trek is worth a look:
The Eye-Trekker Squadron showcases the Eye-Trek product during the Comdex conference earlier this year. The goggles, which are manufactured by Olympus, allow their users to play video games from consoles such as the popular Sony PlayStation. Eye-Trek retails for a steep $1,200.
• Privacy. How many times have you been working or watching a video on your computer on an airplane or in some other public place? Soon strangers are peering over your shoulder at the DVD movie or stealing a glance at the document you're writing.
The Eye-Trek FMD-700 keeps everyone out of your business. Whatever you're viewing — your company's financial spreadsheet or an R-rated movie — is for your eyes only.
• Picture quality. Hook up the Eye-Trek to a PlayStation 2, and you probably won't come up for air for hours.
The goggles contain a pair of tiny color LCD displays, one for each eye. Viewed together, the image looks as if you were watching a 52-inch TV screen from about 6 feet away.
Olympus has been making video goggles for a couple of years, but this version is the first to support the PlayStation video game player. It's also lighter and more comfortable than previous models, and the image projected from a game machine or DVD video player is sharp and crisp — the best yet from any video goggle manufacturer.
The goggles also deliver stereo sound. They have stereo ear bud headphones mounted on the goggle frames. You can leave the tiny speakers on the frame, pop them out and insert them in your ears or plug in your own headphones.
• Convenience. The Eye-Trek can be used with a wide variety of devices. It comes with a three-plug adapter for connecting to the output jacks on a TV set, VCR, DVD player or game machine. For a better picture, the Eye-Trek also accepts input from S-Video outputs found on most newer video devices.
The goggles also come with cables for connecting them to the pin plug output jack on a camcorder or to a Windows or Macintosh computer.
So why wouldn't everyone want one of these gadgets? Here are a few reasons:
• Price. The Eye-Trek's list price is an eye-popping $1,200. Pocket change for Bill Gates, but a big deal for the rest of us. For that price you could buy a nice portable computer, a big-screen TV set or several PlayStation consoles. Eye-Trek — or a similar device — will make more sense for consumers when its price falls to around $300.
• Inconvenience. The Eye-Trek goggles themselves are small and lightweight, but there's a lot of supporting gear to go with them.
You can't simply plug the goggles into the video output on your DVD player or the monitor plug on your computer. Everything has to go through a separate control unit that manages the links and controls the sound volume and other settings.
The control unit has to have its own power source. That can be a power cable connected to an AC outlet or you can snap on a camcorder battery pack. The battery pack is sold separately. It lasts only for about 90 minutes, and it can't be recharged from the control unit.
All in all, one of the great attractions of the Eye-Trek — using it with a portable computer or DVD player — turns out not to be very practical.
• The Geek Factor. Wearing headphones in public to listen to a personal stereo has become quite acceptable. But let's be honest — are you really willing to be seen in public wearing goggles? Only time will tell.
