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Glasses-Free 3D On iPad (Sorta)
johkir writes "The Engineering Human-Computer Interaction (EHCI) research group has created an apparent 3D effect on the iPad 2. Called the Head-Coupled Perspective, it uses the front camera to track the relative changes in the position of the user's head."
But I wonder how it'll react to being touched. They should put out an API for this sort of thing. Could truly change the industry.
... for each instance of this being implemented on another device? Seriously.
2008 just called, he wanted to share this link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7QoaklieUho
So it's the same thing as Holotoy, which has been out since slightly after the iPhone 4 release? This isn't new, the only story here is that it's on the iPad.
Now Holotoy's effect isn't perfect, and the larger screen may help. I would be interested in seeing this in person, but it's not unique.
Comment forecast: Bits of genius surrounded by a sea of mediocrity.
Eat something.
...but this is cool. Disclaimer: I'm not a fanboi
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Making something that looks 3D and making something that either does, or appears to project a 3D image into space are two different things. This is nothing more than drawing a picture with perspective... next, please.
There was a game on the ipod touch years ago called Word Fu that did something similar without a camera, when you tilted the ipod your view of the dice would change so you could see the sides...it was subtle and not even an advertised feature but it became a rather mind blowing demo to show off to friends. It was accelerometer based only but combined with head tracking it could be an amazing new way to play games if it gets support.
Why can't you put prismatic lenses aligned with the LCD matrix into a LCD panel? Have you seen the latest 3D posters and postcards? Those lenses are very good.
There was a story on Slashdot a while ago (last year? later?) about how someone did something similar on the Wii: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jd3-eiid-Uw
I notice the 3D target thing is the same (I mean, EXACTLY the same) but maybe that's some kind of pre-packaged 3D test everyone uses? Though I noticed that the first example in the iPad used what were clearly Mii faces; is this just an adaptation of the Wii guy's work? Granted, the Wii guy had to strap the controller on his head, so they'd have to use the facial locating software. Ironically, that's what Nintendo's had since the DSi (and greatly improved in the 3DS). In fact, I *think* that's how the 3DS works -- using this trick. I might be mistake on that, but I'm pretty sure it uses facial location; I just can't remember if that's all it needs to get the 3D effect or if it uses other stuff as well.
Wood Shavings!
- Godai
The wooden looking Labyrinth game that came out years ago on the iPhone/iPod Touch did this with just the accelerometers. It's a really cool in game effect, and I'm glad they made the change to use the cameras, but without some API worked into the next OS release, this seems to not be too useful.
Also, what's the CPU load with this running? Is it the kind of thing that takes a lot of processing power, or is it something that can be done in the background of a game?
-=JML=-
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lEMkgVnzvdE
This game also uses an embedded camera to track your head relative to the system, enabling you to "look inside" the display. It's very fun, though it requires a near perfect environment for your head's background to ensure the tracking works properly.
Another is parallax, used heavily by birds. Since the birds are constantly in motion, the view keeps changing. Objects far away change their bearings much more slowly than objects nearby. Thus birds of prey are able to judge distances accurately despite having non overlapping field of vision from their eyes. That is why birds keep cocking their head rapidly when they are sitting on a branch. They are using parallax to determine depth and distance.
For this technology to work, you need to develop the habit of cocking your head like a mocking bird constantly to get the depth perception.
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
We also constantly perceive parallax (hence we perhaps use it - at the least, I would be disappointed if our brains didn't evolve to use such handy info) - the "doubling" of objects which are not currently on the focus plane. The rates of it very dependent on the distance from focus plane (so I suspect it might be a more useful info than the parts on which "3D" / stereoscopy depends on - allowing the brain to feel the depth of some object before focusing on it is, to know how to "set" the eyes is... kinda useful; and it might be one of primary reasons why stereoscopy feels not quite right / is virtually ignored for over 150 years already)
One that hath name thou can not otter
Something very similar showed up also on DSi. It generally feels almost as great as when you hold a "proper" hologram (unfortunately only static ones have good quality so far; for good holographic dynamic display we need pixels smaller than the wavelength of light + processing and memory we're nowhere near yet - but once there, a screen could be felt essentially like a window or mirror)
Stereoscopy feels very flat to me in comparison - yes, there's depth of course, but the usual very deep focus makes everything feel like few disconnected planes, kinda similar to many backgrounds in SNES platformers (most noticeable on many / most(?) Vievmaster photos; and a stereoscopic image with shallow focus brings even more issues; generally, I have an impression that stereoscopy bets on the wrong parts of depth perception: if you think about it, the parts it uses cannot be the primary hints for our brains, since they are the result of our eyes converging on a particular object & its depth... so the brain must have a good idea about depth beforehand)
One that hath name thou can not otter
I have decided. I am going to get a cat and an iPad with that software on it, and then I'm going to watch the world burn.
All rites reversed 2010
Anything done on an Apple product is new and innovating....
Actually....no.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jd3-eiid-Uw
(Mind you. You would look pretty stupid with a wiimote taped to the side of your head!)
I imagine most devices with a front facing camera can do this.
There is also this: http://johnnylee.net/projects/wii/
Curb you enthusiasm fanbois nothing to see move along.
FaceTrackNoIR have been doing this on the PC with just a webcam for a while. It's especially good in simulation games. http://facetracknoir.sourceforge.net/home/default.htm
Someone 3rd party jailbreaking hacker scum just stole Steve's "One more thing..." for iPad3. Release the app mods! Rape their goats and kill their women!
I8-D
It's a research group under the publicly funded research institute CNRS. This is French people tax euros at work (with likely a sprinkle of European funds).
It looks really cool* and I'd love to get this App on my new iPad 2 :)
The next step which I've been looking for but haven't seen yet is some means of a user "grasping" objects in 3D space. While the technology doesn't exist for a true haptic interface, you would imagine someone could use two cameras to calculate the 3D position of a user's fingers (or other body part!) or some sort of 3D depth sensor (how does the proximity sensor on an iPhone work?). So while this may not work on this generation iPad presumably it might on some of the other devices that have two cameras capable of parallax vision (Nintendo 3DS, LG tablets, various android phones).
One issue though is that these demos all show the 3D interface as if you are looking down into a "well" or into a box. Obviously since you can't put your fingers there you will need the display to appear to project "up" or "out" if you want a 3D touch interface to interact with your 3D elements. This will, of course, make the 3D volume and the view angles considerably smaller, so much so that perhaps it is only practical on a tablet sized device. There may be other problems such as occlusion caused by the fingers.
Anyone working on this?
*I know this was done before on the Wii and I believe the authors acknowledged the previous work done by a James Lee(?) at Carnegie Mellon (now at Microsoft I think).
Not just the DSi, but some guy also did something similar for the Wii a few years back:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jd3-eiid-Uw
There's a game on one of the nintendo handhelds (either the DS or the GBA) that does exactly this using a game cartridge with a built in Camera. Would love to see this more though.
I guess the only thing new here is that the camera is used for tracking. This was done with a Wii remtote year+ ago.
Go down to Head Tracking for Desktop VR Displays using the Wii Remote http://johnnylee.net/projects/wii/
Video for the impatient http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jd3-eiid-Uw
1) Set device on a hard surface (a desk or a table).
2) Look at the very top of the device -- the very, very top edge of the device.
3) Keep moving eyes up. There, the whole world should now be in 3D.
4) If the 3D world is blurry do not adjust your monitor -- go see en eye doctor.
I have an impression that stereoscopy bets on the wrong parts of depth perception: if you think about it, the parts it uses cannot be the primary hints for our brains, since they are the result of our eyes converging on a particular object & its depth... so the brain must have a good idea about depth beforehand)
Not necessarily. I don't pretend to be a neuroscientist but it seems entirely possible that the brain uses a simple minimization-of-fuzziness algorithm to focus the eyes, then once they're both focused on the same object depth can be computed.
And stereoscopy ignores fuzziness by using deep focus... (or, again, when it doesn't - it brings even more troubles, very conflicting stimuli)
One that hath name thou can not otter
Seems like a good next step, and we all know that doing it on the iPad will get the hits. iChat AV -> Wii -> Kinect -> Then this. I'd like to see it implemented on the big screen and even TVs instead of the current 3D glass hell we have, and the whole parallax issues. I also look forward to the day when this video will be dug up on youtube and we can smirk at the ancient graphics.
What happens when there's more than one observer/user looking at the screen? :-)
What?! My fucking phone keeps thinking I'm looking at someone else and muting the conversation to simulate an actual presence in the room!
So, when I lean one way or the other in FPS's trying to look around a corner, it might be useful instead of just funny looking?
...
more likely it'd be useful and funny looking, I'd guess....but at least some improvement
AB HOC POSSUM VIDERE DOMUM TUUM
Apparently "GoPro" camera's have made it possible to shoot your own 3D film's, on their website in states: "The 3D HERO System allows you to combine two 1080p HD HERO cameras into a single housing to record 3D video and photos while simultaneously recording in 2D. A synchronization cable plugs into the rear HERO Port on both cameras to join them together, enabling both cameras to record video and photos in perfect synchronization." So 2 of their 1080p HD camera's would run you around $270 each, plus the 3D HERO System that is actually quite simple and only costs $100 plus whatever mount's you may want. GoPro also just acquired "CineForm", which will allow you to edit the footage for free.
It's like the mind going AWOL, it's there somewhere
I wonder, though, just how important head or eye tracking is? When you're viewing an iPad, I'd think that your head and eyes are pretty fixed. I noticed that in the demo, it was the iPad that was moving, not the viewer's head. Of course, that might just be because that's the best way to shoot a demo video - we might get seasick if the camera was moving around to mimic head movement!
But, given that a typical user isn't likely to move their head around while viewing an iPad, why not simply use the gyroscope (and possibly accelerometer, as well?) to track the movements of the iPad itself? Perhaps that would create the effect well enough, without the processing overhead of image processing.
Actually I think that might be the place where they got the idea, it looks very similar: http://xk3d.xkcd.com/ More seriously, this will not solve the headache problem caused by the eye wanting to bring stuff in- and out- of focus and failing because it's all already focused.
if this system can locate your eyes in 3d space in front of the monitor, then it should be able to compensate for the distortion of looking at your monitor at a angle. that requires not only a change in the viewpoint like you see in this video, but also distortion to compensate for the plane of the monitor being closer to your eyes at some corners. thats why most of this video dosent diverge from a head on view much. they didnt bother to code this in. it just changes viewpoints.
Done for the Wii as well. http://us.gizmodo.com/#!337068/wii-headtracking-creates-3d-window-display
OpenCV already provides you the necessary building blocks.
And the best part : it's a library in C, and can be used on almost any device under the sun (not restricted to iOS).
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