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NEC to Introduce 3D Laptop Next Year?

Posted by michael on from the eyestrain dept.

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."

5 of 103 comments (clear)

  1. Huh? by Empiric · · Score: 5, Interesting

    NEC Corp. plans to market a laptop computer next year that can display 3-D images without requiring special glasses... The new laptop will feature a special liquid crystal display panel that is placed on top of a conventional screen. Users will be able to view digital photos of [sic] play online games with the 3-D image display or use the standard panel for viewing Web sites, Nikkei said. ... Mercury3D, a software company in Chiba Prefecture, Japan, will also provide a program that converts standard 2-D images to 3-D on the new laptop, Nikkei said.

    How is this supposed to work? No glasses, a special LCD on top of a standard monitor. How do we get actual or simulated 3D out of this? If it doesn't provide two different perspectives to each eye (as shutter glasses do), presumably the LCD must project the 3D image into midair. And how does the software generate 3D from a 2D image? There isn't enough data in the source image to do this properly. I'm betting vaporware here.

    Anyone have an insight?

    --
    ~ Whence do you come, slayer of men, or where are you going, conqueror of space?
    1. Re:Huh? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

      I'd like to know too. Does it have any relation to this ?

    2. Re:Huh? by PetoskeyGuy · · Score: 3, Interesting

      I've seen these before. The interesting thing is that they are putting them on laptops.

      It works by having 1 standard LCD monitors and one special LCD monitor, one on top of the other. The top one is designed so that the color white shows up as transparent. You need a video card capable of driving two monitors at once, and to take advantage of the effect, you will need software that knows how to display each image. The slight difference in distance between them can make for some interesting 3D displays because your can tell that it really is overlapping.

      Mouse control is a little weird because you have to tell the computer your using top monitor or bottom monitor since they are more or less dual displays. Once software knows how to handle this hardware that could be fixed.

      The projected use I saw was using Maya with your controls on the back monitor and your 3D rendered creation showing up on the "front" monitor, rendered in real time. That was a stand alone monitor, but I'm guessing it's the same technology.

      There is a company that sells desktop LCD monitors for this right now. See http://www.deepvideo.com/

  2. Ummm ... by BillsPetMonkey · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Will it be able to display hi-res jpg and mpeg images? Will they be better than these 3D jiggly pics?

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    "It's not your information. It's information about you" - John Ford, Vice President, Equifax
  3. Puffy baseballs by mesmartyoudumb · · Score: 1, Interesting

    "presumably the LCD must project the 3D image into midair. And how does the software generate 3D from a 2D image? There isn't enough data in the source image to do this properly. I'm betting vaporware here.

    Anyone have an insight?
    "
    The monitor stacks images - think of it as a 3d baseball card with puffy "3d" baseballs..

    Mmm...3d pr0n.

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    "Comedy's a dead art form. Now tragedy, that's funny."