Yes, I’d like to see some people using this HMD at CES (or before) and viewing their responses. It looks like an exciting ‘true’ 1080 portable viewing system. I’m anxious to learn the US price and experience a pair for myself.

Previously considered the new S*** personal 3D viewer, but couldn’t get past that it must always be anchored to the wall. The upcoming E**** glasses look interesting, but they’re only half the resolution of the ST1080.

We’re at the dawning of the golden age of HMD’s. The technology and price points are where anyone who wants one of these systems can now afford it. And finally there’s one HMD available that has full HD resolution.

David S. -- We agree! The new momentum in the HMD market is really exciting. We are very glad to be a part of it and to set new benchmarks on how far we can take this technology.

Julien -- Great observation. My opinion is that in the past, microdisplay technology did not have the resolution that was needed to satisfy the very high standards that consumers had about what an HMD should be. This new acceleration is (at least for us) possible because of the advancements in CMOS technology. We are able to create 1080p microdisplays at consumer prices because of the latest CMOS technology. At this point, my opinion about the future success of the HMD market depends not whether the hardware technology will be available (because it is), but whether there will be content and applications that uniquely address unmet needs.

Jason - We are still on track start taking order in December.

System contrast ratio is 100:1. You are probably accustomed to seeing very high numbers for contrast ratio because most HDTV manufacturers use various measurement techniques to boost the numbers. We're going to write a blog post about contrast ratio that'll explain our view of how contrast ratio should be reported. Stay tuned for that.

Regarding your question about transparency, the answer is that the entire image is 10% transparent.

Jason - The screen door effect that you see is the result of two key factors. The first and obvious reason is because of the lack of resolution. An average person will see the pixels at 720p (1 million pixels), but is unlikely to see them at 1080p (2 million pixels). This is why Blu-ray videos are so much more rich, smooth, and crisp when compared to the best DVD videos.

The second and less obvious reason is the difference between display technologies. OLED displays have 3 color-pixels (one red, one green, one blue) per image-pixels, so, at 720p, you will see a lot of lines between the color-pixels and image pixels. This is similar to the RGB pixels you see when you get close to an old-school CRT screen (or even most LCD monitors). Our LCoS displays work in sequential color mode, so each pixel is just a pixel (no color-pixels inside an image pixel) and we flash each image's red, green, blue components in sequence rather than simultaneously. Additionally, the gap between are pixels is very small, so this helps with reducing the visible lines between pixels. To be fair, there are some trade-offs with a sequential color mode versus 3 color-pixels, but we believe we've made a good choice for where we're going with our microdisplay technology.

In short, we believe you will not see the screen door effect on the ST1080.

Lastly, regarding your commented about the "focus sliders", the sliders on the HMZ-T1 adjust the interpupillary-distance (or IPD) so that the two OLED displays are aligned properly for your eye distance. When the IPD is not properly adjusted, your eyes will have a tough time merging the two images into one. So, the IPD adjustment is not so much a "focus" issue, per se, as it is an issue with image alignment. If there are unfocused areas, it is more likely an optics or lens issue in keeping the entire image in focus. It is exceedingly difficult (and expensive) to achieve focus throughout the entire image area, especially when products are made in large volumes because of the tooling and materials needed to keep the cost down. We feel we have some of the best optics around for this type of device and that you will not be disappointed in your viewing experience.

I hope I answered your (really good) questions.

Can you turn off the transparency? I would think that there will be times when you don't want this, and it would detract from the image quality, contrast etc. If it was a setting, I think that would be desirable.