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360-Degree 3D Imaging

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the still-waiting-for-my-holodeck dept.

CompSurfer writes "Yesterday, 3Dsolar released information about a new 3D imaging system, it works by somehow projecting onto a rotating screen. According to the story the "Prototype debuts at NVIDIA Oct. 25 in Santa Clara, California and [at] Innovact in Reims, France, October 5-7" I wonder where they are hiding the force field emitter..."

7 of 133 comments (clear)

  1. Re:In depth technical analysis by jepaton · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Found their website:

    3dsolar.com

    But good luck in finding technical details there

  2. Re:In depth technical analysis by aklix · · Score: 3, Interesting

    All the images look photoshoped...

    How would an image project on to a rotating screen work? I just can't see it happaning, it would have to be spinning pretty fast. My poor monitor...

  3. I am sceptic by uncl_bob · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I still remember those "super-cool" (according to the salesman) 3D-glasses with two tiny lcd-displays. After standing in line for like an hour I was allowed to try them on, and playing the coolest game there was at the time - hexen. And I still remember how worthless they were and how ripped-off I felt waiting that hour. This new thing is probably nothing like that piece of shit, but salesmen are still salesmen so I am sceptic.

  4. Won't This Need Tactile feedback? by StateOfTheUnion · · Score: 3, Interesting
    "Imagine a 3Dsolar screen displaying selected store products 8 inches away from the actual retail store window and offering the passerby the possibility to interact with the virtual objects."

    Without tactile feedback when interacting with virtual objects, is this really a practical thing that users would embrace? Or is "interact with virtual objects" just a euphemism for using the mouse and keyboard?

  5. Old Hat by FoboldFKY · · Score: 3, Interesting

    This isn't exactly new. It sounds like this system I saw a while back. I'm sure I'm oversimplifying it, but it basically has something akin to a thin pane of glass that spins around really fast.

    What they do then is project a different image at each angle onto the glass. The images themselves are kinda like slices of a 3d volume (think volumetric textures). It spins just fast enough to fool the human eye into thinking it's seeing something hovering in midair.

    I saw a few QuickTime VR demos of one of these a while back... they showed it with some wireframe terrain and a little purple jet thing in midair, as well as showing the sugar molecule.

    Also, if I remember rightly, Nintendo had one of these puppies up a few E3s ago, with a model of that Star Fox character in it. Quite cool.

    As for manipulating it by hand, I sure hope I'm wrong about the spinning glass bit...

    --
    We're geeks... We're the sorcerers of the modern-day world. --
  6. Solar, sun .. Helios? by joe+user+jr · · Score: 4, Interesting
    Noting the semantic compatibility between "solar" and "helios", could this be a development based on (or just a re-hash of) the heliosdisplay technology that's been mentioned here before? (to get the nyt article without a login, just google this and click on the link, at least that works for me.)

    At least one blogger seems to be equating them.

    --
    .sigs: Just Say No!
  7. Re:In depth technical analysis by eMartin · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Well, it does work.

    http://www.inition.co.uk/inition/product_stereovis _volumetric.php
    http://pc.watch.impress.co.jp/docs/2004/0224/hitac hi.htm

    But in neither of those case can you interact with the image with your hands, because either the image is enclose in a glass sphere or it would be pretty dangerous to try to "interact" with an screen spinning fast enough to create the illusion. And in both of those cases, it's clearly based on multiple images, which 3DSolar claims they don't need.