DTI Stereoscopic LCD Virtual Window Review

Octavian Busuioc wrote to us regarding a review of the DTI Stereoscopic LCD Virtual Window. Now there's a mouthful - but it's also a very nice LCD screen with that has full stereoscopic effect without shutter glasses. Good background information as well.

Comments

Re:These things are dangerous

[Stephen Samuel]

By 'stereoscopic goggles' I presum you're talking about 'image in goggles' type VR systems

It sounds like you may have suffered from "VR sickness". It can also come from the delay betwen moving your head, and the having the image change. It's rather like sea-sickness. Your inner ear/kinesthetic system says you've moved thisesy, your eyes say you've moved that way and your stomach splits the difference, using your lunch as ballast.

I know of one person who did some masters research on the issue many years ago.

At that price I'd buy ...

[milkman1]

2 1024x768 Projection displays.
Add polarizers to both of them and behold a wallsized stereooptic display.

Behold the benifits of a nonshuttered 3d display which alows a good range of head motion (just no tilting)

Re:These things are dangerous

[kugano]

IANAD, but I wouldn't be so quick to blame those effects on stereoscopic imagery in general. I work for a research group at the University of Illinois that does some work with the Cave at the NCSA. The Cave is a virtual reality system that uses stereoscopic imaging on four projection screens that surround the user to create a VR effect. I've never heard of this problem from anyone that's used the system (although some people do get slightly nauseous or feel other side effects after prolonged usage).

I would imagine the side effects you mentioned are HIGHLY dependent on the specific hardware and on the person (just like pretty much anything VR-related).

Re:These things are dangerous

[KFury]

Let me warn you right now: stereoscopic vision is not the future.

Uh, oh. I guess I'd better pluck one of my eyes out then! We (most of us, anyhow) do have two eyes, and used in conjunction, that is stereoscopic vision.

As for making it work well, any raver can tell you that, done correctly, stereophonic sound can actually disorient and make you dizzy, and we only get 10% of our sensory information from our ears. Naturally, goggles simply have to be made better.

There's a huge difference between stereo goggles and a stereoscopic display. The goggles have to make sure that the horizon and field of vision changes in realtime with the movement of your head. A 3D monitor or movie takes care of that automatically: You tilt your head, the image tilts. Not so with goggles, where you 'take the image with you.'

So while with current technology goggles may be disorienting, it's only a matter of time before the precision is there to 'fool' the senses into playing along. As for non-immersive displays, well, there's no problem.

Kevin Fox

It's 11,000 freaking dollars!

[Chairboy]

Nice idea, but it's freaking $11,000! For that money, I'd buy myself a pair of Apple Cinema displays and a pair of good ol' shutter glasses for 3d.

Why two cinema displays?

Easy, one for my office, and one to sleep with, silly.

FYI, you can get the same effect as this 3d LCD display for a lot less. Simply purchase some crack-cocaine and take that while playing Quake. It'll also make the carnage much... meatier, I imagine.

These things are dangerous

[vertical-limit]

3-D steroscopic vision sounds cool and all, but, unfortunately, it's still way too early to be used properly -- right now, the technology just doesn't suit home uses.

I had the misfortunate of trying on stereoscopic goggles once during a tour of a university computer lab I took back while I was in high school. As soon as I put them on, I became dizzy and nauseous, and my heart rate and blood pressure increased. The tour guide assured me it was just a passing sensation. What I think he really meant was a "passing out" sensation; I blacked out briefly and had to go to the hospital. Let me tell you, I'm never trying on stereoscopic goggles again.

Later, I looked into the causes of this, and the technicians told me it was due to the 3-D image not being "enveloping" enough; that is, the brain realizes that the vision isn't "real", but can't pick out the "real" part. So unless we're capable of creating completely realistic 3-D images -- and we aren't (yet) -- stereoscopic goggles can be dangerous to large sections of the population. Remember Nintendo's ill-fated Virtual Boy system? A lot of people went into seizures while playing a Pokémon game on it in Japan.

Let me warn you right now: stereoscopic vision is not the future. Stay far away from those damn goggles.