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First Look At Acer's 3D Laptop
Barence writes "Acer today revealed the world’s first 3D laptop, the Acer Aspire 5738PG, which will launch alongside Windows 7 on October 22. It uses a combination of software and specially coated glass on the 15.4in screen, along with a standard set of polarised glasses. Initial impressions were a bit iffy, and whether anyone actually needs a 3D laptop is another question entirely, but we'll find out this month."
I wonder whats the use for 3D laptop, and if this works better than the existing tech?
NVIDIA 3D Vision is great with some games, but laptops aren't usually used for that and you would probably want atleast 17" screen if you'd get it for gaming. So whats the use?
Acer = Crappy WalMart Computer
Stereoscopic 3D = Novelty Technology
Windows 7 = Vista++
I think I'll pass on this one.
Aren't all laptops already in 3D?
Oups, sorry.
This would be a better idea for a desktop system since laptops are supposed to be portable. You'd have to be a pretty big nerd (even by Slashdot standards) to wear special 3D computing glasses in public.
Using 3D glasses in the privacy of your own home (on your desktop PC) makes far more sense.
Why do you need a laptop? Put a CPU several times more powerful than iPhone in glasses themselves and use a webcam/microphone to let you "type" on any flat surface or give voice commands. Sounds like another case of trying to glue in a new technology without thinking how to integrate it.
I'm on my third Acer laptop in 4 years (one for work, one for personal use, and a spare). I do not by any means consider myself an Acer fanboi -- they just keep coming up with the features I want at a good price point, and they seem to last a good long while (yes, I still sometimes use the one I bought in 2005).
This 'feature', however, is not likely to be among them. Might be cool for gamers and/or designers, though.
Il n'y a pas de Planet B.
...I can hardly wait for the holographic laptops like in the movie Paycheque.
Then I'd be impressed.
Oh BTW, Acer isn't the first with a 3D laptop.
I do 3D modelling, and I'd love to do it at the beach.
Otherwise, gaming in 3D would be fun.
Novelty technology? Okay, maybe for most folks at this time.
... That computers had been in 3D all along, and now it turns out that I have been using 2D computers all along and that only the Acer Aspire 5738PG is in 3D ! Go Figure....
And have the Li-Ion battery to power all that in the form of a hat.
It will be great in the upcoming winter months. Not so great in the summer when it explodes and catches fire on top of your head.
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
This is pointless and stupid : here's why.
First of all, 3d gaming requires some serious tinkering. It's still a very immature, rare technology that works best with better displays than you can fit into a laptop. Right now, the DLP HDTVs that support 3d are the best available display with the least amount of ghosting.
Second, rendering 2 viewpoints puts far more load on the GPU than rendering just one. You need the fastest available single GPU nvidia graphics card in order to play recent games. It has to be single GPU because so far nvidia drivers don't support 3d and SLI at the same time. It has to be nvidia because only nvidia currently offers 3d drivers. There's a way to get 3d on an ATI card but it's limited.
Gaming on a laptop is already a bad bargain, 3d gaming is even worse.
Without all that said : I think 3d gaming is freakin' awesome. I even built myself a custom planar display a couple years ago in order to play games in 3d.
But Im holding out for the first fully holographic laptop myself.
Ahem.
Does it run Linux?
Basic depth perception has its uses. Mainly this is for perceiving depth. But binocular vision is just one of the clues the brain uses. We get a certain amount of depth perception just from perspective.
Add head tracking. It would allow the user to look around 3D windows. Items could actually float within the screen (and even in front to an extent).
With the big increase in 3D movies and the obvious potential for games, I think there's real promise here.
The problem (as always) is that until more is done with these laptops in mind it's just a novelty - and until it's no longer a novelty more won't be done for these laptops.
That means the question is which side will blink first. So long as the functionality is relatively cheap and is optional (nobody wants to be wearing the glasses all the time) I think it has a good chance of catching on.
Of course, I didn't read TFA (blocked from work) so I don't know what kind of price increase this brings or if they are partnered with anyone to make software.
World's first 1D and 2D computer
It's called compiz. And no, you don't need "specially coated glasses".
The article links to the Sharp Actius RD3D, a 5-year-old failed 3D laptop. But, the summary calls this new one the "world's first". I suppose the article submitter didn't RTFA, and neither did the poster?
I looked at the article, all the screen shots I saw still looked 2D. :P
Its inevitable -- porn will drive this technology just like so many computer innovations in the past.
It's still a very immature, rare technology...
And yet, without putting it into such things as this laptop, the technology will never hit the public, never become widely used, and therefor never mature and become common. It all has to start somewhere, and I would think that putting it in the most limited tool would serve all the more to emphasize how important it is that this tech be improved.
I'm into 3D gaming aswell... and I must say I'm getting quite good at it. Still it can be a bit confusing and my vertigo kicks in if my character jumps/falls etc.
You really feel like you're there, you know! It's amazing.
I don't know why no-one told me about this before (I only learned of it recently after reading about it in a magazine).
It's hard to believe that a virtual world like this can be computed with real-world accuracy. Well I'm just getting excited thinking about it, I'm off to play some more
Wolfenstein 3D (I know I shouldn't advertise *wink*).
-chao
WTF!? Every laptop is 3D. Every tool we handle is 3D.
I really hate when people dumb down and say stuff like this. If you want to talk about a stereoscopic display call it what it is.
It's like the cyber this, virtual that....
And they even mention the "3D laptod" stupidity in the FA. Why do they insist in using the term? Aaaahhhh
ps: And the summary is wrong, this is not the first laptop to have a screen capable of 3D. Sharp had one before IIRC.
-- SouNerd.com
Let's make the horror of the internet 3D enabled!
Never before have genuine imitation rolexes looked so bold!
Amaze your friends with 3-dimensional lesbian foursomes!
Watch that Fox News car chase, those bullets fly right through your screen!
My god! Is that Goatse?!?
Compared with the average FPS of today, that game was basically 2D, was a flat map where everything (except the perspective to give a hint on how far or close were things) basically happened in a plane (i.e. you couldnt aim up or down, as far i remember). Was nice to see (compared with other games of that date) but didnt added the whole promise of something 3D.
Actual display technology, even the ones provided by this kind of laptops, fall into that category. Will be have to wait still several years to see "real" 3D in portable mainstream computers?
First thing that came to mind.
3D laptop != a laptop with a 3D display option.
Sharps' Actius RD3D was the first, back in 2004. http://www.pcworld.com/article/115348/sharps_3d_notebook.html
Why all the Acer slashvertising lately? Acer produces the biggest piles of shit in the industry...
A 3D display produces a 3D representation; that is, if you change your angle of view, what you see changes accordingly. Likewise, if the display is turned 180 degrees, you'd be looking at the back of the scene being displayed.
Stereo displays provide a fixed perspective generated by providing two single-angle images of a scene that are designed to replicate the angles your eyes would achieve from the (single, unchangeable) desired vantage point. Moving your head will not reveal other portions of the scene in any way, nor will moving the display.
Stereo image technologies can become 3D when they use the actual angle of view of your eyes and change the stereo angle appropriately. This requires far more interaction with your eyes and physical orientation, not to mention actual 3D media to display. A half-measure most of us are familiar with can be observed in a game like Mechwarrior (XBox), where you can change your angle on the scene by moving your mech's position or rotating its turret; here, we have the 3D media that is required, but we still don't have the eye and body tracking that would give you the sense that you're looking at something in full 3D.
There's a huge push right now to get the public to call stereo, "3D." As proper geeks, we should resist this strongly, not only as a matter of incorrect (highly exaggerated) terminology, but to make it clear that there is a long way to go yet before we actually get 3D displays, and that we're interested in getting them.
Quite aside from the issue that until or unless we're all normally wearing display capable contacts or something similar that conveniently and as a matter of course feeds us dual images, the entire "here, put these glasses on" approach is a sorry mess. No matter what technology the glasses use.
I've fallen off your lawn, and I can't get up.
I'm tired of 2D, 3D here I come. I'll be able to watch YouTube 3D and instead having a 2D desktop I'll be able to get a 3D one just like the real thing. I can't wait for the 3D porn. 3D will give the old "in out" an entirely new perspective. What a beautiful world it will be, what a glorious time to be free..
I meant to say "MechAssault", rather than "MechWarrior." Sorry. Mechwarrior is a similar (for the purposes of my example) PC game.
I've fallen off your lawn, and I can't get up.
I am so tired of laptops with zero height. I mean besides the lousy ergonomics, the screen is totally unusable.
What a peculiar idea.
Old news/idea:(circa 1962)
Beany and Cecil
At least it would probably come in a neat box.
My propeller beanie not only came in a neat box, but even included a stuffed toy sea serpent!
Batteries not included...:-(
Down With Slashdot BETA!!! I've been around the corner and seen the oliphant; you can only abuse me from your perspecti
>"whether anyone actually needs a 3D laptop is another question entirely"
A question I can answer: no. You can, however, buy one and use it and the 3D glasses it comes with to replace the bulky, neon "NERD" sign that you've become tired of hauling around. For that purpose though, I prefer to strap a Wii-mote to my head and use that VR plug-in that was developed for use with Compiz.
So if this is the future...where's my jet pack?
I didn't know Acer made 2D laptops before it discovered the mysterious Z axis.
I'm so tired of these ridiculously thin 2D laptops that always slip silently down behind the desk and disappear.
The post couldn't even get the model number correct. The link to the actual product on Acer's page mentions that the PG model has a multi-touch screen and the DG model is the polarized version which allows for 3D.
IM not-so HO, I have thought for a long time that 3D workspace UI will be as revolutionary as the original desktop metaphor in 1975, possible more so. (Don't forget that the same 3D workspace can work on a screen, in an immersion environment, or with head-up display goggles) I presently use Compiz on my desktop, with four separate workspaces floating in space. It's a start...
I am getting due for a new laptop, and so I have two questions:
- How bright is the screen? My new HP netbook is much brighter than my old Thinkpad z61m, and I would like to be able to work in something approximating the outdoors.
- And, of course, when will it work with Linux?
It's easier to be a result of the past, but more fun to be a cause of the future! http://www.spacefinancegroup.com/
I rather want a laptop with touch-screen than support stereoscopic imaging. The former is convenient, the latter is a gimmick.
I've heard that the depth is not enough to accommodate Jenna Jameson's rack at full screen, but works well for most natural sets. I just hope this thing comes with a windshield wiper built onto the screen.
ôó
On the Nvidia, you could load the drivers and make most ANY game 3D (I have a stereo HMD) but some games 'cheat' in their displays that kind of messes up the effect.
Like if they have an aiming reticule that is infinitely 'close' to you you wind up cross-eyed, aiming between the 'two' reticules.
Best are game that use iron sights, because you are looking down a 'real' 3D in-game object.
OK, there seems to be a lot of interchangeable use of 2D and 3D here.
To sum up:
On almost every screen (except the one on this laptop - and some others I will get to) you are looking at a 2D screen. The Mona Lisa is 2D, "Casablanca" is 2D, Call of Duty is 2D and so on. However, in those cases you are looking at a 2D projection of a 3D world. However, if both eyes are seeing the same image, it's 2D. The fact that it's a representation of a 3D world does not make it 3D, or every movie ever made could be called 3D.
In some software (like AfterEffects, Combustion, or sprite based games like "Duke Nukem") you are looking at 2D sprites, or sheets, projected into a 3D space, and finally viewed (like above) in 2D. This is sometimes called "two-and-a-half-D"
Finally, If you are viewing a volumetric scene or objects where your left eye and right eye views differ to create a true 3D impression (like real life, Viewmasters, shuttered LCDs, HMDs, holography, red-blue anaglyph, L/R polarized frames, etc.) that is called Stereo (because of the two images) ...and that seems to be what this laptop provides.
What can be confusing in the game world is that "3D" is used to differentiate some games from the early 2D games (Like Pacman) where it was a purely 2D representation.
Hawking can perceive the 3D nature of what's in front of him by moving his chair, or having it moved for him, or when the scene itself changes perspective, as a 3D display rotated by indirect control (his, or a 3rd party) would. As he moves through the world, he sees it from many different angles. So it is in no way correct to assume that his perspective is limited to stereo, or that stereo somehow equates to 3D because Hawking, or anyone else, has a disability.
A 3D display puts you in control over what part of the scene you're looking at in the form of an unlimited number of perspectives. Stereo, however, provides you with exactly one perspective which you cannot alter.
Do you understand the difference now?
I've fallen off your lawn, and I can't get up.
Even if Acer and MS provided that laptop for free, I wouldn't use it in public places.
Nobody with "3d glasses" using a laptop is considered usual, normal outside of NASA and some high end engineering companies.
Go to a 3D cinema and watch people taking off those cool and normal looking 3d glasses as soon as lights on. As Steve Jobs said about tablet PC: "The form is wrong."