Mt. Rogers: Head-worn virtual displays

Mt. Rogers: Head-worn productivity displays

The Mt. Rogers research project is focused on improving traditional productivity tasks in mixed reality environments. It allows users to put on a head-mounted display and surround themselves with as many virtual monitors as is useful. Thus Mt. Rogers offers infinite screen real-estate in a portable and private manner. Our project goals are superb text readability, efficient user input and user comfort. By achieving these goals, Mt. Rogers can function as an effective monitor replacement while giving users access to the full Windows desktop and applications that they already know and love.

Our research interests include novel optics, new text rendering techniques and a user experience optimized for traditional productivity scenarios (ex. Office, browsing, development), while enabling new experiences that take advantage of the unique nature of our virtual displays.

A user sits in a café with three large and private virtual displays.

A cemented doublet is one possible optical approach.

Along with using the systems ourselves, we test and evaluate its capabilities with three target user groups:

• “Big Screen” Users:  Developers, data analysts and designers, who all demonstrably benefit from both more and larger monitors
• Mobile Knowledge Workers:  Users who benefit by taking their whole office with them everywhere such as while on a plane or in a coffee shop
• Low Vision Users:  Those who benefit by bringing virtual monitors closer and scaling text in ways that are impossible with physical displays

These tests have demonstrated that our current research prototypes allow for hours of continuous use in real-world conditions. But the future holds even more: Headset technology is getting smaller and lighter, while resolution is only getting better. In the future, you won’t need to worry about having enough monitor real estate at your desk or on the go. With Mt. Rogers, you can take the work space you want, wherever you want.