He's watching "Harry Potter" through a pair of eyeglasses under development by his small company, MicroOptical. The glasses project an image from a DVD player or computer screen into optics-embedded lenses. The image covers only a portion of his field of vision, so Spitzer can still see the room around him.
MicroOptical rolled out its first product this past week, $995 eyeglasses designed to help factory workers -- such as circuit probers who test electronics -- keep their eyes on the product and a computer monitor simultaneously.
Down the road, cheaper consumer versions could entertain children on car trips or even let football fans sneak a peek at the game while stuck at dinner with unsuspecting family members.
One particular area where Spitzer believes such "heads-up" products could really catch on: the converging world of cell phones and handheld computers. Consumers are demanding more and more features and bigger screens in their handhelds; yet they want the devices to stay light.
"This is a way to get around it," said Michael McGuire, an analyst at Gartner Dataquest who has examined MicroOptical's prototypes. "Frankly, nobody's going to want a bigger phone."
Still, McGuire remains skeptical on consumer appeal and says the company is right to focus on industrial and medical uses until prices drop.
"If you asked your average consumer, even heavy mobile phone users, even text messagers, it's not going to be blindingly obvious why they need this," McGuire said.
MicroOptical is also trying its hand at fashion, working to make its product as indistinguishable as possible from regular glasses. Its partner is French lens maker Essilor.
For now, the gadget still looks a little bulky to pass for a regular pair of glasses, though it's only a fraction heavier. A wire runs from the image source to the temple of the frame, and the image is projected into optics embedded in the plastic lens. Also in development is a wireless version that uses Bluetooth, a short-range radio transmission standard.
Spitzer was partly inspired by an old "Mission Impossible" episode in which such technology helped a secret agent escape -- Tom Cruise used something similar in the movie "Mission Impossible II." But Spitzer was in another business at the time and shelved the idea.
The push came from the military.
Fighter pilots were using similar technology to superimpose target data over the view through their helmets. But the technology was too bulky for foot soldiers, who sometimes carry 60 pounds of equipment. The Pentagon began talking with Spitzer after he founded MicroOptical in 1995. It told him it wanted the technology built from the glasses up, not from the helmet down.
Two contracts later, the Army is testing a newer version of the glasses, one with facial-recognition software to help soldiers identify suspected terrorists. Those contracts and some venture capital have the company off the ground.
In a similar vein, the U.S. Navy is spending $2.5 million a year on a technology called "augmented reality" that allows people peering through computer-fueled goggles to overlay virtual images atop those of the real world.
The technology uses computing, Global Positioning System navigation and a device that tracks a person's head movement to augment the real world with a continuous flow of computer images. The military hopes to use it in urban combat situations, and figures it has consumer applications -- perhaps displaying virtual cafe menus to a wandering tourist.
Spitzer believes consumers, like pilots, will want to keep a little reality amid their virtual reality.
"Most people want to be aware of what's going on around them," Spitzer said. "You don't want to be immersed."
Mike Bernardo, a software programmer and handheld user in Cambridge, thought the idea was intriguing -- at the right price.
Otherwise, he said, "I'm not sure it will go over too well, but I'm sure it will be cool to the geek-type crowd."
To appeal to finicky handheld consumers, Spitzer knows he'll have to keep things light and cheap.
MicroOptical's display is 640-by-480 lines, sharper than a handheld display but not quite as sharp as the standard desktop screen. A sharper image, though, would require bulkier electronics.
Spitzer hopes to bring the price down to a few hundred dollars. Potential Japanese partners want it lowered to double-digits -- the threshold, they say, for mass adoption.
Copyright 2002. Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
