Foreword: If you're not into sci-fi, this will be a boring entry, and a LONG read, so you may stop here. Are the rest of you Sci-Fi fans? (Or at least passionate about future trends?) Ok, on we go!
(This is currently incomplete. I'll be surfing and working on other things now, but it will soon be made whole. Some paragraph headers might remain empty at this time, but will be filled later.)
What it is
HUDs are found on fighter jets, other jets, and some luxury cars now. Soon, they'll appear on windows (houseware, not software), eyeglasses, and even Contact Lenses.
Others won't see it (unless they look REAL closely) on the contact lens. This display will tell you a lot of data about what you're looking at.
Future trends in miniaturization of technologies will make HUDs on contact lenses a reality.
Example Usages
Example 1: Commercial posters
Staring at a Burger King poster for 4 seconds will prompt the CLHUD (probably pronounced "clud") to load up this prompt:
"PARTICIPATE IN THE NEW MEAL DESIGN SWEEPSTAKES. Design your own new meal and submit it; the winning designs will win the submitters the following:
Grand Prize: $500,000
1st Prize: a brand-new 2023 Volvo XC100 SUV with all options and a 5-year hydrogen fuel card
2nd Prize: A week-long trip to the scenic coastal resort of Wonsan, in the Reunified Korean Republic.
To begin, eyeball-guide the cursor over this URL, and blink twice fast. Or use your hand gestures if preferred.
(Many don't like ads; if they wear CLHUDs, they don't have to stare at one for four seconds. Or, they may obtain some "Ad Off" accessory, either downloaded for free, or for a convenience surcharge. They can also shut off an ad that's already on the CLHUD by either looking away from it, or eyeball-guiding the cursor to an "X"-shaped shut-down symbol.)
Looking at a BK ad far from a BK may also ask you whether you want to order a delivery. You can fill out an order on a website (either by voicing it speech-to-text, gesture-typing in thin air, or having a saved form pre-fill it for you.) Or take the choice of phoning it in. (By then, probably with an earring-phone, collar-phone, or a wristwatch-phone.)
(Not a lot of BKs do deliveries, but some might somewhere, and more may in a few decades. Anyway, ads for restaurants who deliver will of course add a choice to order a delivery on your HUD.)
(Being in Japan, I MISS BK!)
Example 2: In-flight Eye Games
Airlines are CHOMPING AT THE BIT to save and make cash at EVERY opportunity, all thanks to SOARING fuel costs! Their frugality is nearing superhuman levels, and some won't know how to be frugal enough, and therefore go bankrupt.
By the 2020s, they will offer more paid in-flight services, many of which most haven't even imagined yet.
An unimagined example (until recently) is video gaming straight to your CLHUD. On them, a data submitter from somewhere in the plane will first ask you whether you want to buy and download any one of their selections of HUD games. After you choose, pay, and download the game(s), you play by moving and using a character or thing on the screen with the motions of your eyeballs (and by blinking, squinting, and winking.) Or use hand gestures if needed or desired.
(Think of "Minority Report," where users operate a computer with hand gestures. They use gloves, but I doubt a CLHUD, eyeglass-HUD, and any other personal HUD will require them.)
Playing flight-provided HUD games will do its part in bringing their fiscal reports out of the red. Any new service at all will be good enough for the airlines if providing them will make any more profits. This will be one of them, and charter buses, trains, and other forms of prolonged transport may provide the same things.
When it may be invented
We're miniaturizing real well now; Intel reports the development of 64-core processors (and even higher!)
For as long as electronic components keep shrinking, we'll develop display surface substrates thinner than the surface of a contact lens, and therefore have these CLHUDs.
Prototypes may first get developed in labs between 2010-2015. That's when Helmet HUDs scratch that; we ALREADY have helmet HUDs now! That's when eyeglass-HUDs will start being used by ground soldiers.
2015-2020 - Eyeglass HUDs go on sale in the civilian market for pretty high prices, probably in Japan first, then in the USA. Toward around 2019-2020, CLHUDs go on sale in Japan.
2020-2025 - Eyeglass HUDs and CLHUDs become more common in the 1st World with their prices lowered. They start making inroads in the 2nd and 3rd.
How it will help in social situations
When talking to and looking at someone, it will measure their pulse, other medical vitals, and social vitals as well.
Eye movements- if their eyes aim straight toward you, it gives good indicators. If their "eyes aren't smiling" when their mouth is, it may say something like, "S/he doesn't appear to appreciate it as much as s/he wants you to think" on the display. If their eyes start to dart around or blink fast, "S/he probably said or heard something that made them uneasy all of a sudden."
Analyzing facial, body movements, tones, and so forth in real-time will allow it to tell you what their emotions are, what they might want to do, not want to do, etc. These CLHUDs will get the "socially unhealthy" to "get the hint" earlier.
If everyone uses CLHUDs that connect to a central, popular database like Facebook, Myspace, or a future, yet-to-be-conceived social network, looking at a person can get you to read their details- name, age, and whatever they choose to reveal about themselves. If you want to save their information, depending on the database's preferences, you might "Wink Right Eye Twice To Save," or "Save Info by Tapping Both Wrists."
If a situation makes it hard to start talking the old-fashioned way (like in a noisy crowd), the user may choose to "Submit Info & Request To Socialize" to desired user, and the other user will see a gentle "notification flash" saying, "Jorge Wausabino" wants to start talking to you. Age: 26, (Other Info: That Info), Position: 105º to your right, 17 feet away." An arrow points off the screen. That guy/girl turns to face Jorge's direction. The CLHUD highlights Jorge in a telltale shroud to know it was that guy apart from the rest of the crowd, who sent the conversation request to him/her.
Very Important: Personal Stance Indicator
You've played "The Sims," have you? When you click a person and have them interact with another Sim, there's a number from -100 to 100 when two people socialize. That's their personal stance rating towards the other Sim. 0 is Neutral; they haven't met. 90 and higher are lovers - very happily married or engaged; they are really loving to each other. I don't have to explain the other end of that spectrum.
This CLHUD will (HOPEFULLY) have a Personal Stance Indicator just like that. If you're dating someone, their personal standing is, say, a 77.21 of 100. You both talk at a restaurant and your standing raises to 77.22, 77.23, etc. because listening to him/her helps your relationship.
Then you notice another hot man/woman walk by, and take a glance. You take a second too long and she notices. She (pretends to) clear her throat. You look back. The PSI on your CLHUD shows a sharp drop to a "17." You say, "Some men/women have an awful taste for fashion. Why can't they dress more like you??" Then (depending on whether the man/woman you're dating buys it), the PSI rockets up to a 79.
Another situation: You notice a wrecked car down an embankment off the site of a road. You help the victim out of there. (And of course you've never met.) After bandaging, comforting the victim and calling for help, the PSI raises from a 0 to (likely over 50.)
Some people are too good at hiding their feelings, and won't indicate with tone and body gestures, so such a PSI on a HUD like this would do wonders to my social health. Saying and doing what immediately lowers one's PSI toward me will tell me right away not to do it (that way) again. Likewise, an improvement of it will make unambiguous that the other person(s) truly appreciate what I just said and did.
Now one knows when the other has a bad day!
Say on Friday, you talk to someone and their PSI is at 61. Then on Monday, it's lowered to 16 and you didn't talk to them that weekend. They talk to you in an irritated tone. You wonder how you could've offended them without being present. You didn't; a misfortune harmed their emotions, and it had nothing to do with you. At least with the CLHUD's PSI, you got a little more warning than you would have without it. Some people will like EVERYONE less because of a situation that happened that had nothing to do with them.
Subtitles - How it will help users jump over language barriers
Looking at a dictionary (or an electronic pocket dictionary) will take too much time, especially when in a conversation- too fast for such actions.
Computed translating software (like the on-page one at http://translate.google.com ) is far from perfect but keeps getting better every year. Combining resources with supremely-developed Artificial Intelligence by the 2020s, such electronic translators will have been made perfect enough to translate accurately in real-time.
When in Japan, a tourist wearing a CLHUD can select "Show Subtitle in Romaji, Kanas, or Kanji when you speak" so they can speak their native language first, and speak from the Japanese that they read next. (Sounds awkward at first, but communications will go across and be understood. When millions wear CLHUDs, we'll get used to it.) That is, if the other person doesn't wear a CLHUD. If they do, then it becomes subtitled in real-time and they get to converse faster.
Then when the user listens to someone speak Japanese, the subtitle for what they say appears to them in English (or the specified native language.)
That feature would be the forerunner to the Universal Translator.
A Radar in the CLHUD- to help in fog and hide-and-go-seek
If you need to hike or row a boat in the fog, the CLHUD can give you an outline of everything ahead, so you can operate like there's no fog today. (Same for if you drive a vintage 70s muscle car and any old car that won't have HUDs on their windshields.)
If a kid is lucky enough to get a CLHUD or an eyeglass-HUD, they can always win hide-and-go seek. He may tell his girlfriend, "If I don't find you in 90 seconds, you win," then she goes to hide and start the timer on her hologram-projecting ring-watch.
Then he selects, "THERMAL INFRARED MODE" and shouts, "Ready or not, here I come" and finds her in 25 seconds.
Finding criminals, insurgents and many other things will have never been so easy!
Why else we may need it
Health warnings
An old man who averts the latest tech may be close to a heart attack. A passerby with a CLHUD on will get a warning that shows a flashing red shroud around the old man, with the caption: HEART ATTACK IMMINENT: ARTERY CLOG ESTIMATED AT 99.7%; ONLY 1.21 MILLIMETERS CLEAR. THIS SUBJECT MUST SEEK IMMEDIATE MEDICAL ATTENTION.
Medical details are of course confidential, so only life-threatening health hazards will cause warnings to display on a personal HUD. Another example is at a scene of an accident, a paramedic sees this display:
"CAUSE: FALL FROM LEDGE ONTO ROCKS
SUBJECT'S BODY PARTS HURT: (external parts, internal organs, or whatever etc. that injury happened on, and intensity of injury/ies. The visual area highlights body parts in colors that depend on intensity- from green, to yellow, orange, etc.)
SUBJECT'S BLOOD LOSS: ## (CENTI/MILLI/DECI)-LITERS PER MINUTE.
BLOOD REMAINING IN BODY: #.### LITERS.
ESTIMATED TIME TO FATAL LEVEL OF #.## LITERS: # HOUR(S), ## MINUTE(S).
Buying & Comparison
You look at two 4-D holo-TVs, from rival companies. It gives you a comprehensive analysis, product reputation, recall history, and compares performance. You can figure out the rest here.
Grocery shopping: You watch out for harmful chemicals in food, like mercury and other pollutants in fish and any other food. The CLHUD tells you how many milligrams of whatever pollutants are in the food you're looking at, after scanning them.
It also tells you whether you're getting ripped off, by listing the prices for the same product from other stores, and highlights the store with the lowest price. Say you decide to head there - you click on it by eyeball-guiding the cursor to it, blinking twice to load up a GPS map to guide you to it, with distance remaining, and you know the rest.
There are more uses, but it's so late at night now, I'll let you imagine them.
Relevant Links
*CNN story on "Augmented Reality," featuring an AR Visor
*From the University of Washington- EXACTLY what this article is about! {-- We have so much in common, I WANT TO MARRY HANNAH HICKEY!
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