3D Monitor

jed101 writes "I just stumbled upon this news release by Sharp introducing a 3D monitor that doesn't require special glasses. The technology was devised for high end medical instuments and such but this could be the gamers new dream toy."

Comments

Notebook Version

[Klar]

Is this the same technology that has been around on Sharp 3D Notebook LCD's since last year and just brought to the desktop market, or are there any hardware advances?

Re:Notebook Version

[DarthStrydre]

While I have not seen one of these monitors operational, it sounds like the technology is something thats been around for quite awhile, albeit in cheap children's toys and advertisements. The toy images are non-holographic where there is what looks like a linear fresnel lens adhered to a specially printed paper. These are able to give multiple images if you move your head, and some are intended to simulate 3D, depending on the shape of the lensing and printing on the paper.

If this is the case, then the sweet spot for these monitors may be quite limited to a certain distance, and angle, but this does not limit the coolness factor.

This is just conjecture, however, based on their claim of using parallax.

Re:Fourth post plus

[iocat]

I saw it at ComicCon! Or maybe it was E3. But I think it was ComicCon. Anyway, it was kind of nifty, but you had to be right in front of it for it to work well. I have pretty shitty depth perception to begin with (although I can see those Magic Eye things great... go figure), but it was neat. It was hard to imaging a great application though, because it felt like looking at one of those little lenticular things, and it was kind of an effort for me to keep the 3D in view. The monitors (a laptop and a PC monitor) were just showing stills, not moving images, so I can't evaluate that, and also they were on a table and I was standing, so I was not at all at an optimum viewing angle (I had to crouch down, which is not a super sustainable posture at which to evaluate a monitor).

Re:Obligatory Futurama reference ...

[mskfisher]

Funny, yes, but true for me. I was cross-eyed at birth, and in the course of my surgeries, I lost stereoscopic vision. I have vision in both of my eyes, but it isn't in 3d. All of my 3D vision is from learned depth cues and unconscious motions.
The upside, of course, is that Doom, Half-Life, and any other FPS is more fun for me.

Holograms are effectively 3d for me - I can see the change when I move my head. But the Magic Eye posters and anything with red-blue glasses doesn't work at all.

So I always keep a watch out for these 3D monitors and any new 3D tech to see if it'll work for me - I'd love to see something that actually did change depending on what angle you viewed it.
It doesn't look like this one will do the trick - it still depends on stereoscopic effects.

Oh - neat party trick I gained from this, though, is that I can change my dominant eye at will. Quite fun - and useful, since I'm nearsighted in only one eye.

Re:Still need two good eyes?

[pclminion]

It really sucks being blind in one eye sometimes.

I would think it would be easier to create 3D display technology for one-eyed individuals than for people with two eyes.

For people with two functioning eyes there are three major depth cues: stereovision, focus, and attenuation. With one eye you still have focus and attenuation, but no stereovision. (You also have parallax as the eye is moving, but this isn't as helpful.) So a one-eyed person doesn't rely on stereovision at all to gauge depth.

Notice that it is only the stereovision which is hard to simulate with a display device -- software could be written to simulate focal blur and distance attenuation, and since these are the only depth cues available to people with a single eye, this should be a pretty convincing representation of a 3D scene.

Re:Obligatory Futurama reference ...

[peculiarmethod]

nope. he means he can change his brains focus between the two eyes. camera 1, camera 2. i can do the same thing, and i also have one near sighted eye. interestingly enough, i also see differnt hues of colors between the two eyes, so when i pick a different eye to focus on, i get slightly redder purples, or greener blues, etc. strange how cones and rods work.

pm