Imaging company sees future through its own lenses

WESTWOOD, Mass. -- Mark Spitzer has a vision. It appears to be dangling just a few feet before his eyes, but no one else can see it.

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 -- for instance, 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 taken a look at 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 lensmaker 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.

Projected image

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.

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.