If you mourn the demise of the optical viewfinder and hope the electronic viewfinder (EVF) will never take over completely (especially in DSLRs), here’s some news that may help you change your attitude toward EVFs. In fact, the EVF technology is coming to eyeglasses, in this instance to help those with poor vision.
The eyeglasses use technology developed for mobile phones and computer gaming, such as video cameras, position detectors, face recognition, tracking software, and depth sensors to help those who have just a small area of vision left, have cloudy or blurry vision, or can’t process detailed images. The eyeglasses use video cameras mounted at the corners to capture what the wearer is looking at, while a display of tiny lights embedded in the see-through lenses of the glasses feed back extra information about objects, people or obstacles in view. A smartphone-type computer (in your pocket) recognises objects in the video image and tracks where a person is, driving the lights in the display in real time.
Read all about the bionic glasses at: physorg.
We can see this technology quickly taking over “ordinary” eyeglasses. Imagine electronic eyeglasses that know where your eyes are focusing and always give you a bright clear image. Imagine being able to zoom in (even if it is digital zoom) for a closer look for delicate work. Imagine information overlayed to help you remember a face (face recognition), find your way in a city (GPS) and even read the mood of the other person (infrared sensor). Now imagine this technology displayed on a motorcycle helmet that can see thru the dark, fog or even correct the image for rain. The optometrist of the future will all hold digital imaging degrees.