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3D Display a Little Bit Closer to Reality

Posted by CowboyNeal on from the reaching-out-and-touching dept.

arielsebbag writes "According to CNET, Several high-tech companies including Sony and Sanyo have officially unveiled a consortium to create technical and safety standards for bringing three-dimensional displays to desktops, laptops and cell phones. They are probably focusing their efforts on the technology developed by Sharp. It looks like they are actually good to go and hopefully the 3D display will hit the market by 2004."

22 of 206 comments (clear)

  1. Non-gaming usage? by httpamphibio.us · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Is there going to be any legitimate non-gaming or high end science usage for something like this? I can't see this being relevant to any more than 1/100 of the computer using populace.

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    1. Re:Non-gaming usage? by MisterFancypants · · Score: 4, Interesting

      I work for a company that creates software for the scientific community. You'd be surprised how many customers use our OpenGL-based 3D molecular modelling solution using stereo-3D display devices of various kinds (most often they use high-end shutter glasses). They would be all over this type of technology.

    2. Re:Non-gaming usage? by Angry+White+Guy · · Score: 5, Informative

      Cad/Cam Medical Research engraving engineering model building mapping weather forecasting physics civil engineering automobile manufacturing shall I go on?

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      You think that I'm crazy, you should see this guy!
    3. Re:Non-gaming usage? by Wraithlyn · · Score: 3, Interesting

      You've got to be kidding. You're telling me you can't think of countless applications for painlessly and naturally being able to view something in 3D? How about checking out an item on EBay and being able to look at it from any angle? 3D videoconferencing? How about a 3D user interface where you can look "behind" things? 3D porn! 3D movies! Hell, even with just games... I think that'd be a bit more than 1% of users.

      And best of all, this might finally give Slashdot some real depth. ;D

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      "Mind, as manifested by the capacity to make choices, is to some extent present in every electron." -Freeman Dyson
    4. Re:Non-gaming usage? by isomeme · · Score: 5, Funny

      Four words: "Blue Cube of Death".

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      When all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a skull.
  2. What does this mean? by epiphani · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Can someone explain to me a little better what a 3D display is exactly? I dont get it. As far as I'm concerned, my monitor already does 3D.

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    1. Re:What does this mean? by Yosi · · Score: 5, Informative

      These 3-d displays that they are talking about send two different pictures in different directions. In that ways, you get an illusion of parallax so you see depth.

      On a regular moniter, things may be rendered in 3-d, but they are displayed in a flat method. This can be approximated in the real world by closing one eye. With these screens, you get the asme 3-d illusion that you get in a "magic eye", where your brain interprets slight differences in pictures between you two eyes as depth.

      The problems mentioned, such as the fact that it does not know where your eyes are to send the right images to the right places, are being worked on, but eye tracking makes the system much more complicated.

      There are other, more fundemental problems with screens. Among them are that the focus plain is still on the screen, eevn while the sterio says that the image is somewhere else. This can give people headaches.

      <SHAMELESS PLUG>
      I work at that MIT media lab Spacial Imaging Group, who were mentioned previously on slashdot They have a holographic video which in theory works, It has many other problems, including that the person who built it has graduated and moved on. But in theory, that would be the ideal solution.
      </SHAMELESS PLUG>

    2. Re:What does this mean? by jtdubs · · Score: 4, Informative

      No, no, I'm afraid it doesn't.

      Ever watch a 3d-movie. The kind you need special glasses to wear. Like a 3D IMAX or some such movie. Or even the red/blue lenses kind. That's what they are talking about.

      Two different images are projected, one for each eye. This gives the illusion of parallax. You are tricked in to thinking the image is 3d because each eye receives a slightly different image.

      And, just as with a 3d movie, changing your viewpoint doesn't let you see the side of anything. It will simply make the illusion start sucking as you need to be in the middle for it to work perfectly.

      Justin Dubs

    3. Re:What does this mean? by Yosi · · Score: 5, Informative

      No. That was precisely my point. A hologram is a real effect to the point that it has focal planes. In an analog hologram, every piece of information about a light wave, including its direcion and intensity, is saved in a diffraction pattern, that can be read by shining the reference beam again. In a holographic video system, something is causing the exact same diffraction patterns that the holographic plate would have stored.

      The beam is never focused anywhere. It is brought back when the hologram is viewed. The loss of focus planes would come from projecting a focused image on a screen, the first place that happens is your eye. You can focus on the front of a hologram, and the back is out of focus, or visa versa. At my lab they have printed some holograms and messed up the focal planes so they just looked wrong.

  3. VirtualBoy by EverStoned · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Talk of 3D screens always make me think back to the failed Nintendo VirtuaBoy. It gave you glocoma (Yes, you can smoke pot legaly, but that's beside the point.)

    People don't want to watch TV/use a computer on a peripheral device. They want to do it sitting back in a comfy chair.

  4. Bah! by quantaman · · Score: 5, Funny

    It will never happen! Remember that no technology becomes popular without being embraced by the porn industry and how the heck will the porn industry work with 3D displays?!? It's pointless to think about it I mean it's completely and utterly ridiculo...
    ooh...
    ooohhhhhhh!!!

    ummmm nevermind

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    I stole this Sig
  5. Re:3D cellphones? Please NO... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Dude, time to come out of the closet, maybe?

  6. Re:Slashdotting by nfsilkey · · Score: 3, Funny

    And I bet the motivation for the engineers was 3D pr0n boobies.

  7. Does it hurt to use? by jericho4.0 · · Score: 5, Interesting
    We've been seeing 3D display technologies for 50 years. Some have been better than others, but they have all suffered from the same flaw. Namely, that using them for any length of time results in a headache/eye strain. The article notes near the end that this technology is not free of the problem.

    I'm not saying it might not be usefull in the same applications it's usefull in now, but untill I can use one for 6 hours with no eyestrain, I don't think I want one.

    UT2003/3D would be pretty damn cool, though...

    --
    "A language that doesn't affect the way you think about programming, is not worth knowing" - Alan Perlis
  8. What about poor MS? by Toasty16 · · Score: 3, Interesting
    They'll have to replace DirectX with "TotallyInYourFaceX" or "DirectAndToThePointX" or something similar.

    Seriously though, 3D displays are extremely useful for a variety of applications, from architecture (actual 3D renderings that you can actually walk around and see) to medicine (detailed and accurate 3D MRI imaging).

    Of course, this particular article deals with 3D for entertainment purposes, so of course I have to mention the most probable use for 3D displays, which is 3D pr0n (in case you didn't catch the 50 or so other posts making the same exact joke).

    I'm such a hack.

    1. Re:What about poor MS? by thynk · · Score: 5, Funny

      So what you're saying is that 3D pr0n would use... "DirectXXX"?

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      Good judgment comes from experience, and a lot of that comes from bad judgment.
  9. How is this better than a holo? by buffer-overflowed · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Cool tech, two LCDs seperated by a screen rather than glasses, but the eye strain problem seems to be a killer. Think of all the problems with eye strain from a regular monitor (ergonomics, hysteria to some degree, possibly law suits).

    The CNN and news.com.com articles were a little short on details, the each eye recieving a seperate image makes me think that the alignment of the two screens is horizontally side by side, rather than one behind the other with a slight offset.

    I could've missed something however.

    Anyway, I seem to remember a projection based holo game (was some kinda wierd space western) I played in the arcade in the early 90's, it used various projectors onto various pieces of glass to generate a 3D image (and looked pretty good if I recall). Isn't there better tech out there for true 3D rather than a flatscreen LCD?

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    The key to the enjoyment of pop music is to replace any instance of "love" with "C.H.U.D."
  10. You can already buy them by TunaTime · · Score: 5, Informative

    Seen 3D displays already from 15" LCDs to 50" plasmas from ddd. Check them out at www.ddd.com

  11. 3D displays could help me! by callipygian-showsyst · · Score: 4, Interesting
    I would really like there to be a practical 3D display technology.

    We've been working with 3D video and 3D live web cams for the past few years, and the biggest obsticle is the need to wear "funny glasses".

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    Best Buy can have you arrested
  12. 3dwm by theefer · · Score: 3, Funny

    Finally, we'll be able to use 3dwm in its full glory !

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    theefer
  13. Dimension Technologies by gmplague · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Dimentions Technologies Incorporated have been selling 3D monitors (without the glasses!) for years. When they first came out they got very favorable reviews, but the major quip was with the price. Well, the prices have come down significantly, and you can get a 15" True 3D flat panel monitor, for $1700, and an 18" for $5000. 32-Bit color, resolutions up to 1024x768 (for the smaller ones), and 1280 x 1024 for the big ones, that's not such a bad deal. Also, it goes from 2D monitor to 3D at the toch of a button. Not bad if you ask me.

    Site is here.

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    Take comfort in your ignorance.
    Grandmaster Plague
  14. What they fail to mention... by Jonboy+X · · Score: 4, Funny

    ...in the article is that, to achieve the illusion of depth, the user must continuously blink one eye, then the other, exactly 30 times per second.

    SIG FAULT

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    "In a 32-bit world, you're a 2-bit user. You've got your own newsgroup, alt.total.loser." -Weird Al