IEEE Spectrum March, 2007 - 45

RESOURCES
search for extraterrestrial
intelligence, the planetQuest
software doesn't rely on
direct user intervention but
runs as a background process or screen saver on personal computers. currently in
development, a beta version
is scheduled to be released
to the public this summer.
"We'd like little Johnny
in Madison, Wisconsin, or
little Sally in bombay, India,
to be the first to find a
planet-that would be very
cool," says doyle.
building on the experience gained from SEtI@home,
the computing algorithm
behind planetQuest isn't
itself very groundbreaking.
Leslie Lamport, a researcher

at Microsoft research, in tors, some potential private
Mountain View, calif., says planetQuest funders have
the principal challenge that balked, because they thought
such projects face these the computing requirements
days is getting the word out were insurmountable.
and convincing users to sign
"there are some who
up. "this is a fairly straight- say...'this isn't that techniforward coding problem," he cal a problem,' " Ninkov says.
says. "there aren't many "then you get the other guys
really interesting ways to with backgrounds in mathescrew up."
matics who say, 'Impossible.
Still, says Zoran Ninkov, you can't do it. What's the
a professor of solid-state point?' Somewhere in the
imaging at the rochester middle, there has to be an
Institute of technology, in answer." And that answer
New york, and a member of could soon be on your very
planetQuest's board of direc- own computer screen.
n

About thE Author
MArK ANdErSoN is a science and technology writer whose
work has been published in Wired, Science, New Scientist,
Harper's, and Rolling Stone, among others.

For Your
Eyes Only

a heads-up display with an
eye-opening price
By stephen cass

tOOls & tOys

Apple's video iPod and iTunes Store
put legitimate downloads of commercial movies and television shows
on the map. They made it possible
for an entire movie collection to
be carried around in your pocket,
ready to help you while away the
time during a long train commute or
plane trip. Now seeking to capitalize on this new video market is the
Myvu personal media viewer from The
MicroOptical Corp., in Westwood, Mass.
The company is promising users of its
wearable head-mounted display a "largeTV viewing experience."
The idea behind Myvu is that instead of
watching your movie on the video iPod's
2.5-inch display, you don what looks like a
pair of thin, wraparound sunglasses with
attached earbud earphones, and the resulting image appears to hang in front of your
eyes. The iPod's video signal is piped to
two LCDs-one for each eye-with a resolution of 320 by 240 pixels, which is the
same resolution as the video iPod's screen.
The Myvu relies on the iPod to generate
the image, so it can't be used to view movies stored on other iPod versions.

Looking for the best eyes around, we
asked members of IEEE Spectrum's art
department to try out the Myvu, and
Assistant Art Director Brandon Palacio
took it home for an extended test.
In the end, the Myvu turns out to be
something of a curate's egg. (For those
unfamiliar with the term, it comes from a
19th-century cartoon, in which a curate-
a junior clergyman-is having breakfast
with the local bishop. The bishop worries
that the curate has been inadvertently
served a bad egg, to which the curate, not
wishing to embarrass his superior, replies,
"Oh no, my lord, I assure you, parts of it
are excellent!")
The excellence of the Myvu comes
from its technical execution. Installation-
which requires encasing your iPod
in a housing unit
that contains the
rechargeable battery driving the
Myvu persOnal
Media viewer
US $300
http://www.myvu.com/

http://www.myvu.com/

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Spectrum March, 2007