Slashdot Mirror
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."
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).
Dude, I think I can see my house from here.
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.
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.
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