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3D Flat Panel With No Glasses
m4c north writes "From Japan Today: 'Toshiba Corp said Friday it has developed a brand-new flat-display that allows viewers to see three-dimensional images without using special glasses. The display is expected to be applied to arcade games, virtual menus at restaurants and simulations of buildings and landscapes. The company said it aims to commercialize the display within two years.' JCN Network offers a few more details than Japan Today's rather short summary. And Toshiba's [toshiba.co.jp] press release has some simple figures. Maybe pinball will make a comeback!"
Isn't Sharp already selling 3D LCD screens?
Real_men_don't_need_spacebars.
Sharp has had 3D Displays that don't require glasses for some time now.
More to the point, are there any applications that make sensible use of this ?
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If you RTFA, it becomes evident that this display technology isn't the same as Sharp's 3D LCD. Sharp's display requires you to be in center of the display, and at a certain distance, and the 3D effect works by projecting steroscopic images at each eye. They direct two different screen images essentially, but it's still the same old trick, just without glasses, instead, a diffusion filter angles the output to each eye.
From this article, it seems as if each pixel is a microlens that redirects the display to your two eyes on a per-lightwave basis. This obviously allows a much wider viewing angle, and for multiple viewers, while still creating the illusion of depth.
However, mainstream 3-D technology is limited in terms of the viewing angle at which it can display 3-D images, and the images are also tiring to view.
Toshiba's new displays employ an integral imaging system that reproduces light beams similar of those produced by a real object, not its visual representation.
But that's all they say. How does this work? Are they somehow able to emit light waves going out at every point from a flat surface, so that you see a 3D object with correct perspective no matter which direction you look at it from? I guess that isn't that unrealistic; I mean, mirrors do exactly that. But how does it work?
Is this for real or are they just being overenthusiastic in their own press releases?
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Yes, there is. But the article is describing a 24" flatbed display system that would sit on your desk or lap and is viewable from all directions within +/-30 degrees from perpendicular and distances over 30 cm. Apparently, the rendering software generates 12 to 16 different stereoscopic images which are combined to generate the different views for each eye. However, the resolution is rather low at 480x300 pixels.
Each pixel has a microlense that only allows light from that pixel to be viewed from a particular direction - it's the natural extension of the laptop screen system.
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not these, but i've seen a model from these guys on a fair in helsinki in late 1999. i always thought it would be nice to have a 3d display that worked without glasses, and all of a sudden i found myself standing right in front of one. it was quite impressive, good image quality and yes, a convincing effect. only when i moved my head it took a very short moment to retrack my eyes and readjust the prisms (there are prisms in front of each vertical pixel row. they direct the light so that one eye sees the even and the other the odd numbered pixel columns). the guy peresenting it told me they had played quake III on it :)
i came across their displays again on cebit a few years later, there also were some by the fraunhofer institute (the ones i've seen are probably not on the page, they had one or two that tracked your eyes and adjusted to your position, and one that only worked at a specific position, iirc).
anyway, while searching for the seereal link above, i came across this list of 3d displays, there even are price quotes for a few.