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Video may have killed the radio star, as the song says, but television has only bruised the movie screen, despite 70 years of trying to offer an experience to rival the cinema experience. Now cell phones and other mobile devices are competing with television.

Technology gurus have been trying for decades to create personal virtual screens that you can use to watch TV or video anywhere, with disappointing results. Most of the limitations have been solved with developments of the technology needed to drive gadgets such as iPods and 1-Seg mobile TVs.

Japanese technology distributor iSonic is boldly going where some have failed before with the recent release of Myvu Corp.'s personal media-viewer glasses — binocular head-mounted video displays. Plug these special glasses into a video source and the image is projected onto a small screen inside the visor.

Wearing a Myvu set is like wearing a pair of sunglasses with a rectangular screen taking up about one-third of the view. The picture is claimed to be like sitting 2 meters in front of a 37-inch TV screen. Stereo noise-reducing earphones by Ultimate Ears, which are attached to the frames of the glasses, complete the package. The devices can be used with various portable-media players, DVD players, mobile phones and game consoles.

iSonic is rolling out two models of the Myvu device in Japan: the Crystal 701 and Shades 301, both of which work with the various video-capable iPods, but not the much-heralded iPhone.

The larger 301, with its rather dubious dark lenses, has a battery life of 10 hours, a resolution of 320×240 pixels and costs ¥34,800. The more stylish 701 lasts up to four hours, comes in amber or black, has a resolution of 640×480 and costs ¥44,800.