Microsystems-an enabling technology for virtual reality

Virtual reality (VR) technology provides a communication link between a human user and his/her computer system. For a VR system to be personal it has to fulfil the same requirements as the currently developed wearable computers, whereby the user wears a personalised and lightweight system available and accessible continuously, while at the same time designed not to prevent or disturb normal mobility. We put forward the idea that to achieve a truly multimodal, mobile and personal VR system, one has to rely on the use of microsystem technology for most of the interfacing devices. An example is the display unit which has evolved from the monitor or VDU to a lightweight head mounted display and which is now being mounted onto a spectacle frame. Further developments suggest the design of semi-transparent contact lenses that would display computer images. A microsystem is the integration of miniaturised sensors, actuators and signal processing units and involves the functional integration of mechanical, electronic, optical and other functional elements at the sub-millimetre scale. Microsystems technology for interfacing devices must be: expandable and upgradable; cheap, replaceable and disposable; low power consumption, strong recovery capability after power or control failure; and robust and capable of sustaining the different stresses caused by the user