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360 panoramic goggles

A half sphere suspended above the head is viewed through periscopic goggles for 360 panoramic vision
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Every wanted to see what was coming up behind you? Or from the side? what about both at once? Great for the foot soldier and high school teacher alike, the 360 panoramic goggles offer a full 360 field of view. This can be a little disorienting at first, but after a little training you'll be able to hit targets and identify troublesome students without even turning around!

The device consists of a half sphere that is fixed above your head, probably with a thin rod that is supported by a hat frame. The goggles have reflective mirrors that provide a view up onto the base of the sphere.

You can test the principal simply by holding a large shiny spherical ball above your head and looking up.

The only problems I can conceive are:

1) you look like a dag 2) too much weight on your head. 3) bad for low headroom environments. 4) takes a while to learn

The first problem could be overcome with a well funded marketing campaign featuring celebrities of various sorts wearing the hat and saying how great they feel.

The second problem could be overcome by using a very shiny helium filled balloon.

The third problem can't really be overcome without totally changing the elegant simplicity of the technology.

The fourth problem is inherent with any such device.

renewooller, May 06 2010

Similar idea, but for driving a car. http://www.youtube....watch?v=nIRUavithF8
Not 360, and not goggles, but related. And also cool. [swimswim, May 06 2010]

Rear view glasses http://www.coolest-...arview-spy-glasses/
[afinehowdoyoudo, May 06 2010]

[link]






       No. 3 could be solved by replacing the hemisphere with a complex array of mirrors and lenses in a band around your head.
pocmloc, May 06 2010
  

       5) everything is extremely small, except the top of your head.   

       5 could be solved by flexing the part of the sphere where you have an interest, and effectively zooming in.
Ling, May 06 2010
  

       //after a little training you'll be able to...// That alone is reason enough to implement this (I mean, finding out whether it's true is reason enough).   

       This has two elements,really. First, it's a vestibuloocular gain experiment taken to an extreme. Adaptation in less extreme cases is well-established, so, by halfbakery standards, you're on solid ground there. (But provide a dozen free motion-sickness bags with every pair of goggles.)   

       Second, since you're mapping from a 360 degree panorama to the eyes' field of view, which is a bit less than 180 degrees azimuth, there's going to be a cut, or discontinuity. Objects located there will appear to the viewer twice, at opposite edges of the field of view.   

       I'd love to know whether people could adapt to *that* An awful lot of technology works because, although the tech is crude, the human brain is amazingly adaptable.
mouseposture, May 06 2010
  

       [mp], since (blind) people can adapt to viewing scenes through a camera connected to a dot-matrix array pressing on their skin, I think that this idea is ni hansa
pocmloc, May 06 2010
  

       This would be fun. [+] Could the camera(s) be hung from an overhead balloon? (But note, see link, that your idea could use more Yakuza.)
swimswim, May 06 2010
  

       You could tackle the fourth problem by encouraging parents to give your goggles to their children while they're still as young as possible. I bet this would be easier for them than waiting until adulthood to learn about your device.
Wrongfellow, May 06 2010
  

       //ni hansa// no longer a hapax legomenon, but I'm as much in the dark as ever.
mouseposture, May 06 2010
  
      
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