BUDAPEST -- Hungarian computer firm Albacomp Rt last week demonstrated what it said was the world's first video display to be mounted on eyeglasses.

"No one else in the world has such a light, versatile, comfortable product," Janos Minarovics, Albacomp's managing director, said at a news conference in Budapest.

The appliance, which the company calls a "personal monitor," weighs one ounce and uses a miniature, 0.4-by-0.55 inch liquid crystal display (LCD) made by Japan's Sony Corp.

Users would mount the unit on a pair of eyeglasses and could receive information from the screen while being able to see everything else around them, the designers said.

Company officials said that Albacomp's contract with Sony limits the use of the screen to specialty-market products.

"Sony only gave us the screen with the proviso that we do not use it in general consumer products," Minarovics said.

The officials said the 180,000-pixel backlit screen projects the image through a lens and mirror system to both eyes, resulting in a perceived image the size of a large television screen.

Albacomp planned to sell 10,000 units this year.

"If we are able to establish a worldwide distribution network, this would be a realistic target," he said, adding that Albacomp had already found a distributor in Britain.

Minarovics said the company was aiming at specialty markets such as surgery, aviation, security services or special police units, all of which could benefit from the display that can replace conventional monitors.

Surgeons from Budapest's SOTE medical university, the first ones to test the device, said it was particularly useful in laparascopic surgery, where a small probe is inserted in the body and doctors previously had to use a monitor for guidance.

"This display frees us from the burden of having to turn away from the patient," surgeon Peter Metzger said at the same news conference.

Minarovics said that more rugged prototypes for military use have been constructed and that the company was assessing demand from other fields as well.

The display does not harm the eyes, one of the inventors said.

"We have already received the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's approval," said inventor Endre Nagykalnai.

The product was developed at a cost of $481,000 and was ready for production, Minarovics said.

He said Albacomp had registered or was in the process of registering the product in 25 countries.