VR/AR
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Mobile Cinemizer, A Great Device for Air Travel
March 06, 2017

Given my travel schedule, I’ve noticed that the airlines have been getting much better about supplying passengers with free TV in the form of a seat-back screen or a network that allows  the watching of shows or movies on a smartphone, PC or tablet. Yet there still seems to be plenty of distractions with no privacy at all. Which is why I was intrigued to hear about the Cinemizer OLED. Created by German optics legend Carl Zeiss, this futuristic-looking video headset offers a portable home theatre experience with a high-def. picture quality and built-in earphones. It looks a pair of white sunglasses with no lenses. The 2,500 ppi density -- according to Cinemizer -- gives users high image quality with no drawbacks like glimmerings, motion blur, reduced luminance or ghosting to detract from the experience. It’s supposed to be completely immersive. It is promoted as watching a 40-inch, 16:9 aspect-ratio screen in the living room from 6.5 feet away while everything around you is pitch black. However, light seeps through the device so dimming the lights are required for a better effect. There are optional light shields available for sale. The earpieces are adjustable and can be slid up and down the frame temples. Each eyepiece is independently tunable and the resolution is an 870 x 500 OLED panel, for each eyepiece. Depending on which attachments it’s compatible with HDMI, smartphones, iPods, Chromecast, and even old VCR’s. The product, being ~5 years old has too many cables and could use  a Bluetooth-compatible, wireless version.

One drawback is that the immersive experience is just not there even though the picture quality seems almost three-dimensional on some videos. The product can work with 3D stereo rendering. Battery life is 6.5 hours, which is convenient for long flights. The product might be a cool to play video games on, or use with a drone when you’re outside but the cables are a detriment and if the product was wireless it would be a slam dunk success.  Which leads to the next question, as to why the VR/AR products if designed properly would not serve as a device for mobile movie watching.

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