Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

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."

9 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 boesOne · · Score: 5, Informative

      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.

  2. Games... by Rumagent · · Score: 5, Funny

    Forget about games. This could usher in a new golden era of pr0n.

  3. Hope you've got a strong lap by Hieronymus+Howard · · Score: 5, Insightful

    but the monitor is actually an LCD screen placed on top of a conventional monitor.

    A laptop with an LCD screen and a conventional monitor! How big and heavy is this thing going to be?

    HH
    --

  4. All this talk of a visual implementation... by CrackedButter · · Score: 5, Insightful

    And yet no images of the device...ironic some might say?

    --
    Jonathanjk.com
  5. I already have a 3D Laptop by Avian+visitor · · Score: 5, Funny
    next year NEC is coming out with a 3D laptop.

    As far as I can see, my laptop has height, width and depth. So it's 3D, right? Does that mean that we can expect thicker laptops in the future (that are of course more 3D than thin ultra portables we can see today?)

    actually an LCD screen placed on top of a conventional monitor.

    This is a really clever idea. Now I can see how they managed to get that real 3D feel. Using a conventional CRT monitor in a laptop certainly adds some third dimension.

    Now I can see what they are planning to do:

    1. Use CRT monitor in a laptop
    2. CRT monitors are cheaper than LCD panels, but laptop with CRT is more 3D, so it can be more expensive than conventional thin ones
    3. ...
    4. PROFIT!! :)
  6. Not a monitor - another LCD by danila · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It's important to note that the extra LCD screen is placed on top of conventional LCD display (check the article), not a CRT monitor, as the blurb suggests.

    If it used a CRT monitor, it would hardly be a laptop, wouldn't it?

    --
    Future Wiki -- If you don't think about the future, you cannot have one.
  7. Oh, man by jcsehak · · Score: 5, Funny

    For once, I RTFA. And what do I get? About 5 more words than the Slashdot blurb. No pictures, no nothing. That's it -- it's hearsay and conjecture from now on.

    --

    c-hack.com |
  8. New improved crash screen by RickyRay · · Score: 5, Funny

    So the famous Windows "blue screen of death" will become the "blue cube of death"? ;-)