Computer displays that project images directly onto the viewer’s retina, Terminator-style, are expected to be available this fall.

Microvision Inc., based in Bothell, Wash., plans to market Nomad, a single-color version of that kind of display. A tiny laser projector inside a head-mounted display beams light through the pupil and onto the nerve cells in the retina at 800 x 600 pixels resolution.

Uses include data for surgeons during operations, in controls for industrial machines and aviation, and in dangerous situations, giving firefighters in a smoke-filled building a floor plan, for example.