Slashdot Mirror

They did, just not head-mounted: http://www.christiedigital.com/en-us/projection-solutions/medical-innovations/pages/default.aspx

Actually this sort of tech is available now, it uses a compact video projector rather than glasses. It works well, although it does have a tendency to make even tiny veins appear viable for cannulation. http://www.christiedigital.com/en-us/projection-solutions/medical-innovations/pages/default.aspx I can see the potential of using glasses, the good thing about the projection version is that other people can also see what you're doing, which is helpful for a difficult procedure (e.g. PICC lines) where a couple of people might be involved. I could also imagine it reducing litigation potential compared to a single person looking through glasses.

There is a company with headquarters in Kitchener, Ontario, Canada (just down the road from RIM in one of the few buildings in the area that RIM doesn't own) that has been doing this for many years now.

Check out the public docs at
http://www.christiedigital.com/AMEN/Markets/AdvancedVisualization/

Did you see the opening or closing ceremonies of the Olympics? All of that projection was done with Christie equipment. And their 3D submersive stuff is crazy. They have intentionally stayed away from more consumer stuff, so not many people have heard of them. But anyone in the industry has.

Full disclosure: I'm doing some contract work there right now. But what they are doing is really amazing.

Keep in mind we're comparing this to a $100,000 tv..

take a look at these: http://www.christiedigital.com/AMEN/Markets/Events LargeVenues/

Oh, really? No reason at all? About a year ago, I had to work on a project for Christie Digital through Alt Software. The project was about building software that controlled video input from multiple devices into the same computer (I tested with 70 simultaneous inputs, this was possible because the hardware used overhead busses from input cards to output cards,) and video output onto rear-projector TV Video Walls. The software had to be designed in a way that supported multiple different platforms (windows/linux/unix.) So the front end was written in Java - this piece handled the windows, channels and profiles, it handled all the user interface issues. In the middle there was cross-platform C++ for video thread handling and resource management, and the back-end was all platform specific C code (basically device drivers from different vendors.)

So I did prototypes with Swing and found that there were problems with JNI Canvas handling. It wouldn't work properly but it did work with AWT. The Canvas had to be drawn in a specific color (magenta,) so that when the window handle was passed through JNI to C++, that code could pass the window handle further to the C drivers, that would draw on top of the magenta color within the window (on the Canvas.)

I wonder why they completely dumped the 3d glasses, that worked just fine in theatres (the colorless polarised ones, not the blue/red)

Also where are the promised VR goggles?

Oh and where are the LCD shutter glasses? The ones that came with any higher end ASUS nvidia card?

First off the article makes it sound like IBM invented this when in fact all they have "invented" is a consumer way to utilize the real invention, DLP. Texas Instruments tied their Digital Micromirror Devices to two DLP processors quite a while back for the purpose of faster image processing, which would include 3D.

Christie Digital (3-chip DLP Cinema projector with the dual source inputs necessary), Dobly (media server), Disney (content creation) and RealD (active LCD panel and media processor) have already implemented this technology and you can view it for yourself if you go to see Chicken Little 3D. You are still required to wear a pair of cheap, lightweight polarized glasses but the active polarization portion of the image is being handled by an LCD panel placed in front of the projected image. IBM's version is placing the active polarization in the glasses, thereby creating a much more expensive pair of glasses (ok for home use, not practical for cinema).

Anyway, considering Disney's huge investment in outfitting theatres with 3D projection technology and the demonstration earlier this year at Showest of Star War's, Top Gun, and a few others in 3D, I think it's only a matter of time before we see more available 3D content. IBM's "invention" will be a good thing for consumers but it's certainly not the first implementation of this technology.

oh, btw...the key is DLP's ability to produce the 144fps needed by using dual processors but don't expect to see this in an LCD TV no matter what kind of video processing you put behind it. The crystals just cannot move fast enough.

As I understood it, most people use projectors for this stuff now.
Christie makes a DLP stereoscopic projector with a 150Hz vertical refresh rate:
http://www.christiedigital.com/products/mirageS14K /mirageS14KOverview.asp

Barco also makes a bunch: http://www.barco.com/

Virtual Reality is still very alive, only not on a consumer level. There are several companies still making advancements in the VR field, but due to the expense of the technology involved, VR in the home is still a long way off.

For example:
http://www.fakespace.com/
http://www.christiedigital.com/

The 2K resolution (2048 X 1536) 3-chip digital cinema projectors do a great job. I've seen "The Incredibles" on a Christie projector, and it looked great!

We also saw some live action test material as well. I can say that at the 2K level with the newest DLP systems, it looks great. Colorimetry and contrast (including dark detail) are there, about as good as a release print - with no scratches.

NOBODY and I do mean NOBODY writes Java Applets any more - I guess that entire suit of applications that the company where I am working now is building is just a hallucination caused by too much java?

It's just not true that NOBODY is building applets anymore. We are building entire control suits in Java, these control suits are used to control remote computers, something like VNC. We have applets that start and stop projection TVs and more. I am working on a Java app. that is the front end to a media application capable of playing various video feeds. It's bizarre, but it's happenning.

I have a contract with these guys and I am building software that can...
oh, wait, I can disclose it :)

but not that you can afford. Here's who makes them. Expect to pay over a $100,000. Note that only the first 2 have full 1080P resolution, not that you'd ever see the difference, unless you've got a bigger than 25 foot screen at home.

Not to mention that DLP is the technology in the projectors made by Christie Digital. These projectors are the ones used in select theatres across the world to show Episode 2 - AOTC in digital format. I've seen it. Quite nice.

Not to mention that DLP is the technology in the projectors made by Christie Digital. These projectors are the ones used in select theatres across the world to show Episode 2 - AOTC in digital format. I've seen it. Quite nice.