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Crystal Technology and 3D TV

deprecated writes "the journal of the american chemical society is running a story on a new crystal technology that could enable 3D-projection television and bring optical computing to consumers sooner. apparently the crystals are able to behave as both a solid and a liquid. neat."

68 comments

  1. Posts by aaronsb · · Score: 1

    Where exactally is the article at? I don't see it in this journal.

    1. Re:Posts by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Cant you read?

      "The advance is reported in the March 13 print issue of the Journal of the American Chemical Society, the world's largest scientific society. "

  2. Interesting... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    But wasn't 3D TV using little lenses alreday introduced in Japan ?

    I think Beyond 2000 had a news item on this

  3. Story is a repeat. by sanermind · · Score: 2, Informative


    Where have I heard this before?

    --

    ---
    the pen is mightier than the sword, the sword is mightier than the court, the court is mightier than the pen.
  4. Finally!! by glwtta · · Score: 3, Funny
    It's 2002 - 3D projection is waaaay overdue!

    Oh, and while we are on the subject - where the hell is my flying car?

    --
    sic transit gloria mundi
    1. Re:Finally!! by vreeker · · Score: 1

      You could wait until the sky car comes out... or just hold the Moller Engineers hostage with a large salmon until they give you a prototype...

    2. Re:Finally!! by ZaneMcAuley · · Score: 1

      and where are the flying cars :D

      --
      ----- Whats wrong with this picture? http://www.revoh.org:1234/whatswrong
    3. Re:Finally!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yeah, well, most of us rational thinkers weren't banking on a cartoon show to provide a viable glimpse into the future of technological development.

  5. The long path to my living room by KFury · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I'd be interested in seeing if this goes anyhwere. The article is pretty light on tech and detail, and smacks of those 'terabyte in a sugarcube' articles. It doesn't really give detail on how 'shaping light' can be used for a 3-D TV, or what any of the constraining statistics actually are.

    I'd love to see this kind of thing be a reality, but this reads like a small-scale experiment that a reporter caught wind of and extrapolated into a world-changing invention...

    1. Re:The long path to my living room by 56ker · · Score: 1

      "apparently the crystals are able to behave as both a solid and a liquid. neat." - I thought this was what's generally termed liquid crystal - ie not new at all - someone correct me if I'm wrong though.

  6. immersive 3D TV, and... by ralian · · Score: 4, Insightful

    guess what, immersive 3D ads.

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    -raph

    1. Re:immersive 3D TV, and... by BlueFashoo · · Score: 1

      mmmm...immersive pr0n

      --
      Nice Marmot
  7. I wonder how long the effect lasts. by tsornin · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I wonder how long the crystals retain their dual-phase properties. Will your 3D-TV work for weeks? months? years? forever? Remains to be seen...

  8. Wow that's neat... by aozilla · · Score: 5, Informative

    I wonder how it compares to this.

    --
    ok then your [sic] infringing on my copyright! Could you as [sic] me next time before STEALING my comments for your own?
  9. Holographic, Schmolographic by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I say we just abandon the holograms and link the computers straight into our brains. Have a globe-encompassing wireless network, and a complete intertwining of the man and machine, and you wouldn't need any holographic emitters. The images would be projected onto the "true" vision. Television could be 50 feet tall, fully 3D, and interactive if you wanted.

    1. Re:Holographic, Schmolographic by Scrameustache · · Score: 1

      Resistance is futile...

      --

      You can't take the sky from me...

  10. passes the porn test... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    ...passes the Porn Test (as developed by some fellow Slashdotter whose handle I forget).

    Basically, the Porn Test says that unless a communications technology helps the dissemination of porn, it will fail. The applications of 3DTV to the adult entertainment industry are obvious, so the technology is bound to succeed.HDTV on the other hand (for instance) is much less useful, as most porn-watchers are too (ahem) busy to notice the higher resolution. So hold off with the $ until you see 3DTVs in Future Shop.

    1. Re:passes the porn test... by Dynedain · · Score: 3, Insightful

      HDTV on the other hand (for instance) is much less useful, as most porn-watchers are too (ahem) busy to notice the higher resolution

      Or maybee its because HDTV reveals all the blemishes, and the garish amounts of makeup used to cover it up to a level of detail that the human eye normally wouldn't pick up. While Cindy Crawford's mole is considered a "beauty mark", I'm sure many porn stars have less than flattering blemishes.

      --
      I'm out of my mind right now, but feel free to leave a message.....
    2. Re:passes the porn test... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You forgot to copy the "Junior! Stop trying to fondle the Wonderbra commercial!" part

      Ah.. the joy of a Slashdot repeat story. Because of you I got confused between the two threads and kept reloading yesterday's thread wondering why no new posts were appearing.

    3. Re:passes the porn test... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      HDTV fails the porn test because there are no porn stations broadcasting in HDTV!

  11. Neat post... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I wonder how it compares to this.

    1. Re:Neat post... by aozilla · · Score: 2

      touché

      --
      ok then your [sic] infringing on my copyright! Could you as [sic] me next time before STEALING my comments for your own?
  12. this was just posted yesterday by c0enzyme · · Score: 0, Redundant


    http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=02/03/30/1243 20 4

  13. Much more than just TV by Bowfinger · · Score: 5, Insightful
    From the article:

    In addition to the possibility of 3-D TV, the solid-crystal molecules could act as ultrafast switches in optical computers. Stacked in a cube several inches high, they could provide unprecedented storage potential, perhaps many billion times that of current devices. Speed of access would prove dramatically faster than is possible with current computer designs.

    Seems like this is a much more significant application than fancier television. We can't even get any momentum behind HDTV, and that technology has been available for years. What are the odds of getting any real progress on 3D-TV in the next 20 years? (Unless this stuff can make hands-on porn - then look for it in Best Buy by Christmas.)

    On the other hand, optical switching and high-capacity storage could deliver practical benefits much more quickly. If this is more than another April-fools claim, I would look for the first developments there.

  14. prnicess leia hawking used cars by davejenkins · · Score: 2, Funny

    Help me, Obi wan Kenobi
    You're my only hope to move THESE USED CARS DIRECT TO YOU at LOW LOW PRICES!

    hurry now!

  15. liquid crystals? by Scrameustache · · Score: 5, Funny

    apparently the crystals are able to behave as both a solid and a liquid. neat."

    WOW! This is revolutionary! This could create such incredible technologies as digital watches and even colour Liquid Crystal Displays! This is new and exciting! Never heard of this before! ;-) Imagine, we could make computer screen that would be flat...or even small portable computing devices with coulour displays...maybe even videogames that could fit in your pockets!

    The futur is now indeed!

    (Ok, ok, I'll stop now...)

    --

    You can't take the sky from me...

  16. Whee! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    Yes! Oprah now officially in-your-face!

    Thank you technology!

  17. First Test Broadcast of 3D-television by glomph · · Score: 1

    "Save us, Ben Kenobi, you're our only hope...."

  18. POPUP Ads :D by ZaneMcAuley · · Score: 2, Funny

    This could give a new meaning to a POPUP advertisement :D

    --
    ----- Whats wrong with this picture? http://www.revoh.org:1234/whatswrong
  19. Re:this was just posted yesterday by Radical+Rad · · Score: 2

    Oh well, I thought this should have made the front page the first time.
    But it does make me feel like a redheaded stepchild.

  20. s0000 exciting by oo7tushar · · Score: 2

    This is s00 exciting, can you imagine Virtua Fighter in a 3d environment? Or...Super Smash Brother M3l33?

    of course the medical benefits are enourmous, you can completely see where specific t00ls exist in 3 space.

    and yet, it seems that James Bond and MI6 already have this technology (The World Is Not Enough) (g00d 0ld Q)

  21. AGAIN, MODERATORS ARE FUCKING IDIOTS by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    This is offtopic if you're a jackass and don't get the joke. Otherwise, it's on-topic and funny.

  22. Idea doesn't make much sense... by pseudofrog · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Aside from being a neat novelty, is there any practical value to this concept? With the TV being in 3d, I don't think the brain would correctly put into perspective how large the filmed area is unless it happened to be the size of your TV. I seriously doubt this will even match your current TV experience. And with the lack of shows or movies that use 3d glasses, maybe people just don't care about watching shows in 3d. Aw well...I could be wrong... Matt

  23. hrm... by labratuk · · Score: 1

    apparently the crystals are able to behave as both a solid and a liquid. neat

    Kinda as if they... ...were... ...some kind of crystal that were.. ..liquid. A Liquid... ...Crystal, if you will. Well, this seems like some revolutionary technology to me.

    --
    Malike Bamiyi wanted my assistance.
  24. How this applies to holograms by ThesQuid · · Score: 5, Interesting

    This is really stupendous news. A hologram is, for all intents and purposes, just a pattern of light and dark bands on a piece of film. Since they've been able to create these patterns on demand at the molecular level (which is necessary because of the size of the visible wavelengths of light), you essentially get a computer generated hologram. Coupled with the switching speeds they are speaking of (billionths of a second) you could easily make fully immersive displays from this. (holodeck anyone? Reminds me of the walls of the houses in Fahrenheit 451).
    Only problem is, the processing power needed for such things is enourmous. They'll have to first use this technology in the back-end processors to get the necessary oomph to be able to produce killer apps like immersive tv and such. It'll be an interesting chicken-and-egg problem for them.

    No to speak of what kind of camera could make such full motion 360 holograms? I didn't see mention that the crystals also could act as sensors....such a thing would be needed unless you want ALL your programming to be computer-generated images. (now there's an idea...)

    1. Re:How this applies to holograms by Mr.Sharpy · · Score: 1

      Now, we just need to figure out how to make a force field like technology so we can interact with the images. Incidentally, I always find it curious that I hear about all sorts of sci fi technology like antimatter, transporters and holograms; but I have never seen anything at all about one of the most fundimental sci fi technologies...the force field. Anyone have any idea as to whether or not people are working toward such technology?

  25. I Like AeroPlane Jelly! by TommyBear · · Score: 1

    New revolutionary crystal, simply heat it and it melts! ;-)

  26. Holographic printer by Chayce · · Score: 5, Insightful

    If these crystals do what they claim, although a holographic monitor may be a few years off, a printer that prints 3D images onto holograhic paper may be in stores quickly, all you need is to be able to give every square millimeter, the light it recieves from the virtual object and apply a reference beam thats out of phase. Then we can have holographic pictures taken by a digital cameras using sterioscopic setup, put through a simple 3D extrapolation program. Oh well my spelling sucks, but you get the point.

    --I like replies much more than I like Karma

    --
    I like replies better than Karma, even if they are flames, because that tells me I got someone thinking.
  27. How is the video to be displayed generated though? by Fuzion · · Score: 2, Insightful

    This technology is pretty impressive, and if it does enable 3D television, then I'm just wondering how exactly we'd record video to be displayed using this technology. I know it'll probably work for 3D computer generated videos because you can just send it the raw data, but how exactly do you film something in real life so that viewer can walk around the object and see it from a different angle? Or am I not understanding this correctly?

    --
    "Knowledge makes us accountable." - Che Guevara
  28. Uhh, people - 3DTV is already avaliable by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    Check out the 3D monitors at www.dti3d.com. Yeah, these crystals sound cool, and the possibilities for optical computing are amazing, but don't get too excited over 3D tv/monitors, 'cuz they're already around

  29. Damn Skippy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Swedish Bikini Team v 2.0 with new and improved 3d jiggle action.

    Beer commercial? Naw, new one hour variety show on Fox's fall line-up 2012.

  30. 3dtv? by vanyel · · Score: 1

    How does shaping the light source help with 3dtv? To achieve 3d imagery, you have to get different signals to each eye of each member of the audience. I suppose you could do it with a spherical crystal of some sort, but the focusing optics will be "interesting" and everyone has to look at the light source. The other way is to get the beam of light to bend (reflect) in 3-d space somehow (which is how most sci-fi shows it working). Good luck! And the light source has nothing to do with that.

  31. Re:How is the video to be displayed generated thou by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Yeah, there are definately going to be some limitatation to 3D TV it ever come around... it won't be as cool as in the movies.

    For one thing, you would only be able to capture the front side of things which would still be wicked cool. It would just mean that you would have to watch TV from the front and not be able to walk all around it if you wanted to see it properly (just like normal TV, so that's not so bad). This could be done with a single lens and laser or radar range finder or multiple cameras and some more complex and computationally intensive mesh creation and texturing.

    I'm trying to imagine what type of device a news reporter could actually carry around. Realistically, a 3D news broadcast could be done with a hand held device containing two cameras spaced atleast 30 degrees from each other. Although 90 would be great... there would be missing data on only a small slice of the back of someone's head if filmed at normal TV reporter distance.

    The other thing is dealing with background like someone mention in an earlier post. I can imagine all objects that aren't the center of attention and that exist beyond some certain depth could just be displayed as a 2D canvas in the backgroud.

    Anyway, I've wondered about this type of tech since I was kid. I would be content with a 2D projection that somehow just projects into 3D space... like a floating image. I'm hoping that advanced optical/quantum breakthroughs will let this happen.

  32. Immersive ads, huh? by VIIseven7 · · Score: 1

    So I could, say, get engulfed by a giant virtual shark in a Jaws ad? Sweet!

    *waits for slashdot story about hoverboard development*

  33. Just Imagine.. by Bohemoth2 · · Score: 1

    what this could do for pron! OMG!

  34. Popular Mechanics 1958? by Baldrson · · Score: 4, Insightful
    new crystal technology that could enable 3D-projection television and bring optical computing to consumers sooner. apparently the crystals are able to behave as both a solid and a liquid. neat."

    Waking up bleary from Saturday night and stumbling to my computer before the first cup of coffee had taken hold, I pulled up Slashdot.

    "No," I said, "they wouldn't actually publish an article mentioning 'crystals' that 'behave as both a solid and a liquid' without mentioning 'liquid crystals' and the distinction between the two. I must have slipped a day -- it must be April 1 and they've taken advantage of my debilitated state to pull an April Fools joke. I mean -- this sounds just like something out of a 1958 Popular Mechanics article on the future in light of the revolutionary new material known as liquid crystals . That's it... the scumbags at the American Chemical Society News Service went and pulled an ancient issue of some popular rag from the archives of a venerable University, typed it in and presented it as a current article just to show how little things have actually changed in display technology over that time."

    But, no -- it is March 31 after all, Miguel A. Garcia-Garibay, who is not Glenn Brown, was born in 1960 and mere anarchy is loosed upon the world.

  35. Re:How is the video to be displayed generated thou by sgtsanity · · Score: 1

    Well, there was some technology that I saw a while back that would film it from many (100+) different angles and composite the completed film into a computer animation. However, this was very crude and probably will be for the forseeable future. So the only practical way to create 3d films will to go the completely computer-generated route.

  36. After 60 years, TV is finally cathcing up to radio by red_crayon · · Score: 2

    My grandfather had a crystal radio... it's nice to see TV finally catch up.

    --
    "Never bullshit a bullshitter" All That Jazz
  37. 3D? I can't even get my HDTV... by bitpusherdotorg · · Score: 1

    Before anyone gets excited about this stuff let me point out that I am remember the hype about HDTV and last time I checked we're all still waiting for it. Start talking to me about 3D television as soon as we are all watching HDTV.

  38. MEEPT!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Yes, this is a repeat post, but you must realise that cmdrtacky is new to slapdown, and doesn't really post a lot of stories.

    Oh what? He's been *told* not to post a lot of stories.

    Well, that'll piss people off. Not only has he posted a whole pagefull, but also reposted old news.

    *What an idiot!!!!*

    30% of your stock. What an idiot.

    MEEPT!!

  39. Let's not forget... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    ...that other 3D technology recently hitting the news.

    IIRC, it worked with an extra dimension -- they gave an easy analogy, comparing it to a normal TV requiring an orthogonal electron beam.

    Through some pretty complex quantum physics (which I don't grok), some russian guys made particles disappear and reappear at chosen (x,y,z) coordinates in a box. Their page has pics of 3d-splines, saddle-like figures, etc. and also a cat trying to drink milk from an holographic dish -- as a reference to Schoeredinger. Russian humour, I guess. Spooky.

    Look in Google for "3d-TV" and "4d". It's the third link on the 2nd page.

    But the real question is: does it run Linux?