San Diego, Ca.
– At the DemoFall 2006 conference here HEADPLAY, Inc. unveiled its Personal
Cinema System -- a portable, visual headset and media center that delivers an
immersive, high resolution, cinematic, big screen experience for gaming, movie
watching and Internet use.
The Personal Cinema System
is comprised of three major components: the Viewer, the Liberator and the
Navigator.
The Viewer, or headset, is
worn by the user and displays a virtual 52" screen, providing an immersive,
movie theatre-like experience. The Viewer is being designed by industrial design
firm, IDEO, to provide the ultimate style and comfort for extended wear and
viewing.
It allows for the
simultaneous use of a game controller or keyboard and weighs a mere five ounces.
The Viewer incorporates truly amazing optical technologies, such as a LCOS micro
display and it will support various resolution levels including 640 X 480, 800 X
600 and 1024 X 768. HEADPLAY's patented technology delivers separate but
identical images to each eye from a single micro display, thereby reducing
eye-strain.
The Liberator is both the
brains and the heart of the Personal Cinema System. The Liberator is
battery-powered to deliver up to 6 hours of playtime between charges.
It accepts a composite
video, component video and S-video signal in the formats of NTSC, PAL and SECAM.
It also enjoys universal connectivity, making it compatible with virtually any
device that has video out, including video game consoles, DVD players, video
iPods, PCs, cell phones and USB storage devices such as an old iPod, thumbdrives
or any MP3 player. Just plug and play, with no special drivers required.
The Liberator also runs the
software for managing the system and allows for reading and displaying content
read through its Compact Flash slot or two USB host ports. It can also
accommodate universal adapters to allow reading from SD, X, X, so users can get
their content to go and are free to enjoy it without requiring any additional
hardware beyond the HEADPLAY Personal Cinema System itself.
The Navigator is a tethered
remote control that allows the user to select and control content and screen
settings. It also serves as the connection point for the Personal Cinema
System's high-performance, noise-suppression ear-buds that will be available
with the product.
Connecting directly to game
consoles, DVD players, iPods, PCs and cell phones, the Personal Cinema System is
capable of reading stored media using compact flash or USB and via a universal
adapter to use SD, XD, Memory Stick or Smart Media.
The Personal Cinema System
provides universal compatibility with hardware platforms worldwide. In addition,
the Personal Cinema System displays, with content availability, true
stereoscopic 3D.
"Portable media devices are
making a tremendous impact on consumers' consumption of entertainment content,
but up until now the viewing experience has been limited by screen size," said
Glen Ward, Co-CEO of HEADPLAY, Inc. The HEADPLAY Personal Cinema System will be
available to consumers in Q1 2007. To learn more, go to
www.headplay.com.
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