The Raspberry Eye Sees All

[Roman Rolinsky] wanted to try to do something interesting with his Raspberry Pi and a 2.4″ LCD he had laying about… So he made a rather bulky version of Google Glass.

We’ve seen a few examples of home brew Google Glass before, or even real-life subtitle glasses used for translation on the fly, but what we really like about [Roman’s] project (besides the fact he hosted it on our very own awesome project hosting site) is that he’s put together the projection system himself out of basic components.

To create the HUD, he’s using a semi-transparent mirror which he took out of a game of Khet 2.0 called the Eye of Horus Beamsplitter — which is a really cool real-life puzzle board game like those games where you have to reflect the laser to solve a puzzle. He’s then using a 3x Fresnel magnification lens which is placed over top of his 2.4″ LCD in a 3D printed enclosure. This magnifies and reflects the image onto the mirror which is placed directly over his eye, allowing for a see through display.

Stick around after the break to see a video of the Raspberry Eye in action!

28 thoughts on “The Raspberry Eye Sees All

  1. I don’t think we need to call every HMD a “DIY Google Glass”. This kind of tilted combiner is old. It’s not seem much commercially because it’s bulky as hell at larger sizes. Just call it a head-mounted display because that’s what it is.

    1. It’s also more what I want from Google Glass. A whole eye augmented reality headset would be so much cooler than the tiny HUD thing the Google Glass has.

      Now if he can find a way to make it all more compact…

  2. Needs a Camera fed to an OCR data-logging the recognised text while a second camera monitors what you stare at and a Heart beat logger and blood pressure monitor EMF meter + a Gyro meter and a Infrafed spotlight.. and object recognition with a GPS receiver.

    1. exactly!! if that kind of “lens” or “mirror” or “combiner” or whatever it is capable of producing the image representation somehow “further” from our eyes, then it will be perfect! Does google glass have this focusing problem?

  3. Why mount everything on the head? Most of that could go in a container and clip onto your belt and then have the wires running up to the unit (perhaps inside a cable tidy so it acts like a single cable).

  4. I’m just wondering, would this be easier if he used a pico projector instead of an LCD?

    Seems like a way to reduce the bulk of the project considerably but I’m not 100% sure if it would cause any additional complication.

    1. I’d like to point out that he made it, you didn’t. He has the skills, and you don’t. You don’t have a whole lot of room to criticize. I don’t think his intention was to make a stylish piece of technology to market to the masses. He was doing what any hacker would – experimenting. I guarantee you Google Glass looked a whole lot like that at one point in its development cycle.

  5. Is the eye of whatever part custom made for the game, as linked, out of a cd case, or is some other special material required? The fresnel is not a common item so I’d not be suprised if the lens was special too.

  6. This is awesome! It looks like it wouldn’t have any of the fogging problems that my HMD has, and the overlay looks good.

    How heavy / lopsided is it? It it comfortable to wear for long periods (>4 hours)? I may need to build one of these.

    1. It is 140g without the head strap. I did not try to wear for long periods yet, the wireless keyboard I have is not really good for normal use. If you need to see the screen only occasionally then some kind of flip-mount would be useful, but this would require using precision metal parts. Constant use for long periods may be unsafe for the vision.

      1. I use a twiddler2 for mine — which I find more comfortable. It might be worthwhile, but it costs $200 and you have to learn a new key layout.

        I’m seeing some places suggesting substituting plain plexiglass for a half-silvered mirror, by the way — which is less than half as expensive as the Khet mirror.

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