Disruptive technology....

I've been posting this around to various forums - I call it copy/paste evangelism. :) I want as many flight simulator builders as possible to know about this thing. It re-writes the book on DIY flight simulator visuals.

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Here's a message I posted on the simpits-tech list:
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Well today I had my mind blown. Not just a little either. We're talking
full skullcap separation here. :)

I've been peripherially aware of an augmented reality project called
castAR. I saw a still photo of it in action the other day and this caused
me to reach out to the designer with some questions about it.

Holeeee ****.

The castAR in its most basic form is a pair of 720p pico projectors
attached to what amounts to eyeglass frames, coupled with some glue logic
and a TrackIR style head tracker.

The light output of the projectors is so low that you won't see the image
they project on a normal surface. It requires what is called a "retro
reflective surface" It's essentially the same thing as a theatre's
projection screen.

Now think about this - you're in a cockpit with all these things that
won't reflect the light from the projectors, but "outside" is this
material. As you move your head around, you're going to see outside
visuals where ever the castAR output hits the screen material. Because of
the head tracking (accurate to .07mm apparently) you're always going to
see the right visual.

You see why my head exploded?

Now add to the outside visuals - instead of stuffing your cockpit with
LCDs for the various avionics displays, stuff properly sized bits of this
reflective material where ever the instruments go. When you're looking at
them, you'll be seeing those glass displays where they belong.

That's why the top of my head came off. :)

This is the most disruptive technology I think I've ever seen. This could
single handedly revitalize the whole flight simulator genre. From what
I've read, adding support for castAR isn't that difficult of a programming
challenge. I suspect that it won't take long for Eagle Dynamics and 1C to
add support for castAR once it hits the market.

The company is called Technical Illusions and the hardware is designed by
Jeri Ellsworth. The website is Technical Illusions | Home of CastAR

They're going to be opening a Kickstarter on October 15th - I would highly
recommend that you folks check it out when it goes up. Come **** or high
water, I'm going to figure out how to get my hands on a pair of these
things as early as I can.
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This morning, Technical Illusions posted a new demo video of the castAR in use with a flight simulator demo:

castAR Test Footage - Flight Simulator - YouTube

I think you can see why I'm so insanely excited about this thing.

Please sign up for the forum over there and cheer them on!

g.