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NEC to Introduce 3D Laptop Next Year?
Hoon Mihn Fao writes "For those of you for whom 2D laptops are not awesome enough, next year NEC is coming out with a 3D laptop. No, you don't have to wear those retro red and blue glasses, but the monitor is actually an LCD screen placed on top of a conventional monitor. The company is currently seeking gaming software companies to produce games for its technology. Each unit will cost an estimated $200 more than a conventional laptop."
The original article says:
special liquid crystal display panel that is placed on top of a conventional screen.
A laptop conventionally has an LCD, not a CRT. I don't think they are talking about the Osborne 1.
I dunno the exact method used.. but found this on my fav dutch hardware site : "The monitor contains two TFT panels separated by a parallax barrier, which directs pixel images to two separate regions so that each eye receives a slightly different image. In the end, the brain formulates the signals so that the image appears to be a three-dimensional object, Nakagawa said." So it seems that it is possible to project 2 slightly different images to both eyes without shutterglasses.
I read the original japanese nikkei article. Looks like the special LCD is not on ``top'' of the regular monitor, but ``over,'' or covering the first one. I assume that those two screens can produce slightly different images producing 3D illusion.
Couldn't find anything about this at NEC site
Lenticular images
Remember those little stickers, covered with ridges, where you turn them and watch the image change to one of 5 or 6 possibilities? If a computer screen is covered with verticle ridges, you could control the flow of light to left and right eye from limited viewing angles.
Such a monitor would only work if the person's head was in certain positions.
Other technologies are possible which would allow the viewer to be in any position and orientation. Think tiny lenses instead of long ridges.
Seems this page and this one have more info and piccies on this technology. In Japanese, but readable with babelfish.
Oh no... it's the future.
Check here: http://www.lenticular.biz/3dlcd.html for 3-D monitors for your desktop. I would imagine the laptop is just an extrapolation of this technology. However, I am sure it will be thicker than normal. but for people with "gaming laptops" such as the alienware area-51m, the extra thickness probably won't even be noticeable. it's still easier to lug a thick laptop to a lan party than even a micro desktop.
Basically, this is correct. Here in Japan, Sharp (at least) has been doing these for a while; my current keitai even has one! I don't know the grisly details offhand, but from what I can tell, there are two layers, each of which are angled towards one of the two eyes; displaying stereoscopic images, one eye's worth on each layer then gives you essentially the same result as those old red+blue+purple displays with the red-and-blue glasses. It's certainly not perfect, but it's an acceptable imitation.