Introduction
One thing that is always supposed to happen in the future is that everyone will wear an eyepiece that projects a virtual screen. While monitors have slowly evolved from bulky CRTs to thin LCDS, there has not been too much mainstream progress to developing a virtual headset. Olympus realized that people want big screen televisions to watch their DVDs and TV on. However, people can't bring that "big screen" feeling with them when they have to go on airline trips and watch DVDs on their laptops or portable DVD players. Olympus's answer is the Eye-Trek, a virtual 62 inch wide screen headset that can be plugged into a variety of audio/video sources.
Setup and Appearance
The Olympus Eye-Trek is a relatively nice looking set of glasses; however, no one will ever mistake them for glasses. Depending on the model you order, there are different styles. We reviewed the FMD-250W model. It comes with a power adaptor, A/V connector cable (RCA plugs and S-video), and the headset. Depending on the model purchased, Eye-Trek can have more video inputs like a VGA connector to connect to directly to your computer.
The Olympus Eye-Trek is one of the absolute easiest devices to set up and start using. Because it seemed like a really cool device, we did not actually read the instructions to set it up. They were not necessary; this is how easy it is to get up and running. (Of course, we would never recommend not reading the instructions!)
To hook it up, you basically just connect the power cable, A/V cable, and headset together. You have the choice of either using an RCA or S-Video plug to connect to your video source. This can be anything from a portable DVD player, VCR, TV, Playstation, etc. As long as the video source has an output jack, you should be able to use the Eye-Trek. Olympus sells other versions of the Eye-Trek to allow you to connect to a computer with a VGA connecter, but check to see if your computer's video card allows you to use other type of video out before you buy the more expensive one. The Eye-Trek worked fine with our test system, which has a Radeon 8500 video card, even though it did not have the VGA connector.
Because Eye-Trek can interfere with the development of young children's eyes, it includes a password protection feature. Unless the user keys in the right password (using the control knob), Eye-Trek will not start broadcasting the image. This security feature could also be useful just to lock up the system as well though. As soon as you turn on the power and enter the password, you are suddenly immersed in Eye-trek's virtual world. It starts playing exactly whatever your video source is showing immediately. The total time from taking it out of the box to watching TV was less than five minutes.
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