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Acer To Launch 3D Notebook In October?
An anonymous reader writes "Acer is planning to announce a 3D notebook computer by end of October. If Acer indeed comes out with a 3D laptop then it'll be the world's first manufacturer to do so. The most interesting thing about Acer's machine is that it requires no special glasses. The 15.6-inch notebook features built-in software which can convert regular 2D movies to 3D and directly support 3D movies." Update: 06/08 23:18 GMT by T : According to the linked story, the no-glasses version is still in the works; the current iteration does still require special glasses.
Exactly. These "3D" systems have been coming for decades and in the end they have been total crap. I believe when I see one with my own eyes.
Fotowoosh?
Highly unlikely that it could work in a way acceptable for viewing movies. Cardboard cutouts instead of actual 3D at best...
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
I rented the Virtual Boy when it came out, and played it all that (long, Thanksgiving) weekend. I do not recall it shutting off and making me take a break. I do remember there were warnings about taking a break, which I completely ignored.
The VB was awesome. Too damned bad it was monochrome. The price (and weight) were just way too much at the time for them to go full color. And now that they already have the failure on record, there's no chance in hell they'll pursue a full color version anytime in the near future.
While the system was a failure and most of the games were shitty, the visual effect was actually pretty fucking cool, and remains one of the best implementations of 3D I've seen. I never had any problems with headaches / eye strain / etc., either.
I knew Sharp had made the no-glasses 3D display LCD panel. Didn't know they'd made an integrated version. As I recall, they use an integrated lenticular lens sheet. Unfortunately for Sharp, they're completely and utterly clueless about how to find a tolerable price point. People might pay a premium for a native 3D display, but they sure as hell won't pay as much of a premium as Sharp asked. So they didn't sell.
Worse, it's not hard to find out what lenticular lens sheets cost. They're the same things given away for free on cereal boxes for motion effects, and the same things used in promotional materials for motion and 3D effects. "Motion" Valentine's Day cards for children to distribute at school were available for a few dollars at Walmart. Meaning they're dirt cheap per square foot. For a corporation as large as Sharp, buying the extrusion machine capable of producing them at precisely the pitch they need should have been trivial, the PET plastic cost IS trivial, and so ultimately the price point they chose was absurd. They tried to play the "over price it so people think it's worth something" game and failed.
A shame, really. Reviewers said the effect worked quite nicely, without any headache inducing effect whatsoever. A far cry from every glasses-based effect ever tried. Of course what they trade off for 3D is resolution, rather than framerate. There's always something...
It's too bad "HD" flat-panel TVs have utterly destroyed the computer flat panel market. Manufacturers find it much more lucrative to crank out tons of crap-resolution TVs than to try to produce high resolution computer monitors anymore. If not for TVs, production processes might have pushed past the 30" widescreen at 2560x1600 resolution, getting us ready for built-in stereoscopic displays. Instead, average resolution has declined, crippling any idea to spend pixels for stereo.
I have seen a demo of realtime conversion - it actually works, but only about 80% good. Occasionally you'll see some problems. I saw a demo at NAB in April at Samsung's booth that blew my mind because it was actually that good, but it's still nothing compared to real stereoscopic capture. Basically it looks like a series of parallax planes, a step down from the real thing. But shockingly, it DOES work. My best guess is that it takes into account a variety of factors including haze and color, detail, dimensions and inference from motion.
I consider it to be a gimmick that distracts from real 3D content. It's -very- clever, but it is no substitute for real stereoscopic content.
I would love a 2 - dimensional laptop. I envision something like a sheet of paper that accepts input from my fingertips or from a stylus or from a virtual keyboard.
Don't even worry about being able to fold it or roll it. If I can just slip it into a folder among sheets of regular paper.
Yes, I know that a sheet of paper is still 3D, but I've been waiting for the electronic "paper" for like 15 years now. I remember when I worked for a university as a director of computing and went out to Cupertino for a week. This is back when Apple was still interested in the educational market, so they took real good care of us, put us up in a nice bed and breakfast. But no hookers, damn it.
Anyway, they had some spooky Apple hardware developer talk to us about the things they were planning and told us we'd definitely have electronic paper by "2001". I always thought that guy might have been on 'shrooms or something equally entheogenic. When I asked him about the Newton, he developed a slight, but noticeable eye-twitch. My guess is that today that very hardware developer is working at a Potbelly's sandwich shop after completing court-ordered rehab.
Anyway, if anybody from Apple is reading this: Stop fooling around with the fucking iPhones and get me my iPaper! Or ePaper, or whatever you want to call it.
You are welcome on my lawn.
Lenticular actually sounds pretty promising. When we're talking about a 15 inch screen, it's not really that useful to move your head around too much. Also, assuming you're gaming on it (the only serious application I see for 3D at the moment) your head's position is actually fairly fixed anyway, since one hand is on the keyboard.
I'm not saying it's ideal (I'll certainly be sticking to my 25 in. desktop) but if I was in the mood to buy a gaming laptop, I might be inclined to do go with one that has 3D.
Obviously the claim that it can change 2D movies into 3D ones is bunk, but it does raise the question for CG titles. They're already rendering the entire thing, it would seem rather silly for them not to render in 3D, since it would cost them almost nothing to do. Anyone know if Pixar has a stockpile of 3D footage of all their films? I don't see much reason they wouldn't, other than simply not thinking of it.
Or is there a lot of rendering that goes on after they've fixed the shot?
I hope these notebooks come with three or four spare motherboards. Judging by their previous track record, that is what it takes to keep their notebooks running beyond the warranty.
http://techrepublic.com.com/5208-6230-0.html?forumID=101&threadID=243038&start=0
http://www.techspot.com/vb/all/windows/t-71394-Acer-5101-keyboard-usb-and-touchpad-are-dead.html
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/51337-35-keyboard-mouse-work-vista-login-screen
Google it, tons more...
Seems Acer preferred playing their customers along until the warranty ran out, then charged them for a new motherboard (that didn't fix the problem in most cases) rather then admit they had a pattern failure.
I don't care WHAT kind of product they have, from a purely moralistic point of view, I'll take my business elsewhere.
Err, 3D without glasses has been done before and is still a hot topic these days.
Look for "autostereoscopic" screens. (despite the name, actually more than 2 pictures are used to generate the 3D effect, more like 8 pictures)
Sharp already commercialized a 3D laptop some years ago.
McCartney fans pay bus tickets. [...] Lennon fans too, with discretion.