Sure, there’s plenty of portable media players out there for you to watch your favourite videos on the go, but who wants to actually carry those things around? They might look a little dorky, but head mounted displays (HMDs) give you handsfree viewing, and Japanese startup Coccolo is about to release a monocular HMD for 29,800 yen (about $250 USD).

That price, according to Nikkei.net, is only 1/7th of what HMDs are currently going for in Japan. The battery provides about 6 hours of juice, and the OVGA resolution is decent. Early pictures of Coccolo’s Vcam CVC-4 HMD show a little black box and a thick wire attached to some rather plain-Jane looking eyeglasses: some enthusiasts have commented that the wire looks obtrusive, while others say it wouldn’t be too much trouble to run it back to the ear. Others still say that the monocular design provides for a rather unappealing eye-patch (read: pirate) look.

The Vcam CVC-4 will initially only be available in the Japanese market, and even then, the exact launch date is still unclear: some sites are reporting that the device will hit stores this December, others expect an April 2006 launch.