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Sharp Develops Triple Directional Viewing LCD 220

morpheus83 writes "Sharp Corporation and Sharp Laboratories of Europe, Ltd. (SLE) have developed the Triple Directional Viewing LCD, a display that controls the viewing angle so that the display can show different images from the left, right, and center simultaneously. Using proprietary parallax barrier on a standard TFT LCD, the screen splits light in three directions — left, right, and center — and displays three separate images on the same screen at the same time. So connect three computers to the LCD and from the center you see Windows, Linux from the left and MacOS from the right."
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Sharp Develops Triple Directional Viewing LCD

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  • Laptops? (Score:5, Funny)

    by bahwi ( 43111 ) on Wednesday September 27, 2006 @10:32AM (#16214441)
    Forget the privacy filter, Goatse on the left, Goatse on the right, and that commercial would be far more interesting!
    • Re:Laptops? (Score:5, Funny)

      by icebrain ( 944107 ) on Wednesday September 27, 2006 @10:35AM (#16214503)
      Or conversely... I could look at porn and the people sitting to the left and right of me would see legitimate work... now just sit back and imagine the possibilities...
      • by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 27, 2006 @11:22AM (#16215073)
        I want my left eye to see one image and my right eye to see another, with my brain merging the views for a true 3D effect.
        • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

          I want my left eye to see one image and my right eye to see another, with my brain merging the views for a true 3D effect.
          good idea, you shouldn't post this as AC.
        • The problem is that the thresholds would be so small -- fractions of a degree -- that you'd have to remain perfectly still and at a specific distance for it to work. (Alternatively, some sort of camera could track your position and adjust the output accordingly, but that doesn't simplify things any from a development standpoint.) The most convenient way to do stereoscopic vision from a technology standpoint is with goggles to present a different image to each eye, however users have shunned such devices,
      • Re:Laptops? (Score:4, Funny)

        by ElephanTS ( 624421 ) on Wednesday September 27, 2006 @01:00PM (#16216447)
        are you saying that porn is illegitimate work? That's a bastard.
    • Re: (Score:1, Redundant)

      For all those airline passengers who are sick of being shoulder-surfed on the plane, a little goatse on either side of you will make sure nobody reads the document you're trying to type ever again. In fact, you may just get the big sweaty guy next to you to move to another seat, giving you room to stretch out a bit.
  • Very fancy - BUT (Score:5, Interesting)

    by grims ( 602269 ) on Wednesday September 27, 2006 @10:32AM (#16214455)
    This is all very fancy, but wont viewing from sides reduce the surface amount you are watching? A 1024x768 from front wont be the same at 45 degree angle - loss of resolution - and compressed faces/picture etc.? How is that solved?
    • by jacobw ( 975909 ) <slashdot.orgNO@SPAMyankeefog.com> on Wednesday September 27, 2006 @10:43AM (#16214611) Homepage
      According to Sharp's PR [newlaunches.com], one possible use is as a dashboard display in your car:
      So while driving you can see the GPS navigation your kid at the backseat can enjoy Ace Combat on his PS2 while your wife in the passenger seat checks out tourist sites and restaurants all in full-screen view.

      That makes a certain amount of sense to me; with viewers essentially strapped in place, you can make sure everybody sees exactly the perspective they're supposed to. Also, in those circumstances, you aren't going to demand especially high resolution--as long as you can make out the information presented, you're OK. (Admittedly, the kid in the backseat playing on his PS2 might want better resolution, but that's his problem. In my day, if we wanted to play PS2, we had to actually get out of our car and walk inside.)

      They also mention the possibility of using it for displaying multiple ads in public, so that the ad you see varies depending on whether you are coming ("You're just a few feet away from Joe's Cafe!") or going ("Turn around! You just missed the best restaurant in town!").
      • Re:Very fancy - BUT (Score:5, Interesting)

        by cHALiTO ( 101461 ) <elchalo&gmail,com> on Wednesday September 27, 2006 @11:26AM (#16215129) Homepage
        Depending on the relative price of the thing, you could also use it to have 3 monitors by placing 2 mirrors instead of actually buying 3 monitors. Assuming one of these could be cheaper than 3 normal monitors, you place it in front of you, then place an attacheable mirror at each side, and bang! 3-head fraging!! ;)
        • by HTH NE1 ( 675604 ) on Wednesday September 27, 2006 @12:14PM (#16215753)
          And getting the system to render the left and right views mirror-imaged so they come out correctly in the attached mirrors is just a software problem.

          Actually, I'd be surprised if they didn't already sell privacy barriers for laptops that double as screen protectors when the laptop is closed, with a bonus panel for the top to cut down on glare from overhead lighting. The closest I've found is this laptop hood [dpreview.com] (scroll down) that folds like those collapsible windshield sunscreens.

          You know, if they made them in yellow, you'd look like you're about to be eaten by a Pac-Man.

          (The ones for camera LCD screens will make you look like you're pointing it the wrong way.)
        • well, for a laptop, cheaper would not be my key, the space savings.
          IE you have a 15" screen, a 15" mirror. It collapses down to a 15" form factor for transport, but you have a 30" (ok well 15" + 15*sin(45) = 26") widescreen monitor.
          (or just use a 17" mirror.)

          but your viewpoint would have to be absolultly fixed in relation to the computer for the mirrored screen to be affective.
      • by SilentOneNCW ( 943611 ) <silentdragon.gmail@com> on Wednesday September 27, 2006 @12:35PM (#16216057) Homepage
        Is no one at all even remotely worried that this hypothetical situation includes all three people in a vehicle looking at a display instead of the road?
      • by nsayer ( 86181 ) *
        In my day, if we wanted to play PS2, we had to actually get out of our car and walk inside.

        In my day, if we wanted to play PS/2 it was pronounced "Odyssey 2 [wikipedia.org]."

      • by SeaFox ( 739806 )

        According to Sharp's PR [newlaunches.com], one possible use is as a dashboard display in your car:

        So while driving you can see the GPS navigation your kid at the backseat can enjoy Ace Combat on his PS2 while your wife in the passenger seat checks out tourist sites and restaurants all in full-screen view.

        Or you could use it for the instrument cluster itself!

        "Honey, aren't we driving kinda fast?"
        "No Dear, as you can see from the speedometer, we're only going 65."

    • by 0racle ( 667029 ) on Wednesday September 27, 2006 @10:45AM (#16214637)
      Magic
    • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

      This is all very fancy, but wont viewing from sides reduce the surface amount you are watching?
      You can easily have 5 people watching the same screen without worrying about perspective. I'm more worried about the amount of pixels. To make 3 pictures, only 1/3 of the pixels will be used in each picture. You'll need a killer resolution to make 3 nice pictures this way.
    • by 955301 ( 209856 )
      No different than having three flat panels in front of you. Only the one in front get's 100%, but the other two are negliably smaller.

      Your brain will compensate.
  • This is the same principle the moving cards work on.
    View from the left and you see a truck, in the middle its bits, on the right its a robot *SHOCK*

    actually sounds quite nice for computers, but fail to see usage really.
    • by jimstapleton ( 999106 ) on Wednesday September 27, 2006 @10:38AM (#16214545) Journal
      you pretty much got my main thoughts right there. What worries me is the same problem as with the cerial box cards - there is some bleedover of the image from off angels. Would the same thing happen here? I can just see all the posters here who suggested goatse doing that, and then having the image of goatse subconciously burned into their mind because there is a very minor image bleed of it...
      • There's no bleed. I've seen the 2 view versions, and they're fine. Thinking about the technology there's no reason to think there would be bleed (assuming you're sat in the correct place), since you've effectively got an LCD grill which is presumably capable of being just as dark as the LCD's used to make black normally. In fact, since they're not expected to be anything other than black or white, they might actually be better at it.
      • off angels? Is that like fallen angels? Are you a satanist?
      • by fbjon ( 692006 )
        having the image of goatse subconciously burned into their mind because there is a very minor image bleed
        I'm more worried about the image of goatse physically burned into my soul due to laptop fire from very significant eye bleed...
    • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

      Cars: GPS on the left, DVD on the right and kid's console on the front.
    • How about digital art? A store front could have a large LCD display, showing the same models/actors doing X in different seasons to showcase a new season lineup of clothing. As you walk by, you see them go from playing in the sun, to shivering in the cold, to playing in the cold in their new down jackets. That would be pretty cool.

      Or billboards that do the same trick, as you drive past them the ad changes. Now you can rent out billboard space to more than one advertiser.
  • multi what? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by tacocat ( 527354 ) <tallison1&twmi,rr,com> on Wednesday September 27, 2006 @10:36AM (#16214507)

    I thought everyone wanted to have a system with multiple screens supporting the same desktop, not one screen supporting multiple desktops. I don't see the advantage of this over a nice KVM.

    • Their previous two angle system was good for auto-stereo applications, since there's no need for glasses. A three angle screen makes for a good switchable privacy screen.
    • "So while driving you can see the GPS navigation your kid at the backseat can enjoy Ace Combat on his PS2 while your wife in the passenger seat checks out tourist sites and restaurants all in full-screen view."

      In that specific circumstance, it makes a great deal of sense as you have limited space, predictable viewing locations and a fairly small number of reasonable applications, few of which require full UXGA resolution and practically none of which require the full refresh available. When gfx hardware rou
      • You wouldn't get that much of a refresh rate drop. The GPS will use no graphics power, the DVD is pretty light going, leaving most of the power for the game. I suspect you'd still pretty much hit the 60Hz refresh a lot of LCD screens are limited to anyway.
        • That's what I meant about Seconds-Per-Frame as opposed to Frames-Per-Second with GPS. If that refreshed once ever three seconds, it would probably go without notice. Hell, most of the OEM installs flip to a static screensaver after a 15s or so while driving, since even watching a moving map is of questionable safety, thus effectively dropping the necessary refresh on that panel to zero.
    • by schtum ( 166052 )
      Isn't it obvious? Now PHBs can cram 3 workers into a single cube!
      • by tacocat ( 527354 )

        This is about the only practical solution I can see here. The notion of putting all this in a car is a joke. Everyone wants their own screen in their face.

  • Is a user with three sets of eyes.
  • Outstanding technology that still needs two wooden mirrors to work (for teh lazy necks among us).
  • Waoo (Score:1, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    That's definitely a tech breakthrough!
  • by theantipop ( 803016 ) on Wednesday September 27, 2006 @10:40AM (#16214573)
    Development apps when viewed from the left, debugging processes when viewed from the right, and Slashdot in the middle. You'd appear like the hardest working employee ever.
    • by fbjon ( 692006 )
      Until your boss asks you why you're not rolling around like crazy on your chair in order to actually use the display.
  • Great, but... (Score:2, Insightful)

    by SheeEttin ( 899897 )
    This is great, but unless you want to have your computer emulate three, you're using three computers/other video sources to display the image. do you really want three people crowding around an LCD, each with their own keyboard, mouse, etc.? And what about brightness, contrast, color, etc.? Does it display different versions of that?

    All in all, it's not going to be useful for interactive use.
    • by Zenaku ( 821866 )
      I think everyone is missing the point assuming that the LCD would be used as a computer monitor, displaying computer tasks. More likely it would be used as a television, where Dad watches football from the recliner while Little Timmy watches the latest Pixar flick from the couch. (Wireless headphones required, of course.

      I personally can't imagine that there is a huge need for this, but for those people who want that sort of thing, it would beat the hell out of Picture in Picture. . .

    • do you really want three people crowding around an LCD, each with their own keyboard, mouse, etc.?

      As if cubicles aren't small enough, now PHB's can gather six workers on a hex shaped table (three to a side) where each user shares the screen with two others. The only perceivable wall dividing anything now would be the one splitting the two halves of the hexagon.

      What's next, pizza slice shaped post-it notes to fit comfortably within the confines of the hexlet table?

      • You know, as a corporate drone, I was thinking the same thing. And while I'm sure you're trying to make a joke (and a good one), the truth is I'm quite certain that many managers and companies are thinking the very same idea. The idea that you can cram more production into less space is always desireable (from a management standpoint, mind you...)

        So if this tech really does take off, I would not be surprised to see myself and others working in a "hexicle" soon enough... (sadly)
    • This thing would be great for multiplayer gaming on consoles. The days of sitting 4 inches from the TV so you can make out what's happening in your quarter of the split-screen would be well and truly over. This seems like the most useful application to me (now maybe we can convince Rare to finally do a decent sequel to Goldeneye)
  • by johndoe42 ( 179131 ) on Wednesday September 27, 2006 @10:43AM (#16214597)
    I played with a Sharp 3D laptop last summer (http://www.sharp3d.com/ [sharp3d.com]), and it was cool but it caused a lot of eyestrain, not to mention halving the usable resolution. This sounds like almost the same technology, and I imagine it won't be any easier on the eyes.
  • missing the point? (Score:2, Interesting)

    by MrTester ( 860336 )
    Having different computers for each image was the submitters idea. It does not have to be the whole point of it.

    I can think of several uses:
    1) If you use only 2 of the images and change the angles, each eye could be getting a different image. Instant 3D. Nice.
    2) This could be a first step if in later generations you can get more images. Imagine actually being able to look around things on your screen without having to manipulate the object with a mouse and keyboard.
    • 1) If you use only 2 of the images and change the angles, each eye could be getting a different image. Instant 3D. Nice.

      Ugh. Not really nice. For 3D to work you need two images. There is a dividing line in space between the two images. In order for each eye to see a different image, that dividing line must fall between your eyes. You now have only an inch or so of allowable lateral head movement. I challenge you so sit at your desk without moving your head more than an inch left or right for any significan

  • by way2trivial ( 601132 ) on Wednesday September 27, 2006 @10:45AM (#16214633) Homepage Journal
    I would point out- you all missed the OBVIOUS application
    my car has a rear dvd player, with wireless headphones for the kids

    imagine if they could watch their own programs-- their angle of view/location in the back seat
    is vey quantifiable (if they aren't killing each other)
    and if there is a third person in the middle-- voila!
    • by 6Yankee ( 597075 )
      And in the front, the passenger could get a DVD while the driver gets boring stuff like fuel consumption, speed, etc.
    • An even more obvious application: individual gameplay on a single screen.
    • Except that was one of the two examples given in the article.

      "So while driving you can see the GPS navigation your kid at the backseat can enjoy Ace Combat on his PS2 while your wife in the passenger seat checks out tourist sites and restaurants all in full-screen view. Sharp Triple Directional Viewing LCD is also ideal for multipurpose signs in public."
  • As I only have two hands and two eyes, I prefere to be able to see the Microsoft BSOD [wikipedia.org] from three different perspectives.
  • by teslar ( 706653 ) on Wednesday September 27, 2006 @10:47AM (#16214669)
    Companies across the globe increase the number of workers per cubicle to three.
    • Funny!?

      I thought that was insightful although I had been thinking that internet cafes might have been better customers for really squeezing people in.

  • by adenied ( 120700 ) on Wednesday September 27, 2006 @10:50AM (#16214689)
    Oh sure, put MacOS on the right. This is a blatant attack on Mac users by Windows users to associate them with politics that many aren't familiar with. Come on everyone knows Mac users are liberal emo hippies. This is just insulting!
    • Come on everyone knows Mac users are liberal emo hippies

      No, I don't think it has to do with the users, but the platform itself. Obviously Linux should be on the left because it is "free" and not controlled by anyone.

      MacOS should be on the right - it reflects a singular vision (of Steve Jobs). Although many people at Apple work on MacOS X, I have it on good authority that Steve makes all the final calls himself on how it should look/work. (And frankly, I can't think of a better real world example of Plato's
      • I may be out of touch with Fedora but my unbuntu system has a little drop down where I can chose the resolution from and it switches automaticly and asks if everything looks alright. Redhat really is going down the tubes quickly. Hopefully Suse and Unbuntu and fill the gap.

    • Actually, it makes sense to put Windows on the left. The term "sinister", though originally a simple reference to the "left-hand-side", now has an evil connotation thanks to the unfavorability of being left-handed or being on the left side. Windows is thus right at home on the left hand side.
    • My iMac began to cut itself but it's on Paxil now and things are fine.
  • Ads (Score:4, Insightful)

    by debrain ( 29228 ) on Wednesday September 27, 2006 @10:51AM (#16214695) Journal
    I'm shocked no-one has mentioned this yet. It's useful for ads. As you walk past an LCD your angle changes, thus exposing you to three distinct moving pictures. People are drawn to moving pictures - we're psychologically hard-wired for it. I suspect we will see these in the entrance to stores, at eye-level, because as we walk past the store, we will be drawn to the changing images and moving patterns. It's 10 seconds of attention that wasn't there before.

    Imagine walking past a video-game store. As you walk past an LCD advertisement you see three different video games depending on your angle. Two of which may not be interesting. But that third, may. All done with one screen, saving money.

    The compactness of one video-screen emphasizes the efficiency. Instead of having to avert our eyes to see another image we focus on the single screen, thus avoiding a clutter of LCD's, which has the school-of-fish impact, where we can't focus on any of them.

    And, of course, everyone if fascinated with optical effects.
    • by mgblst ( 80109 )
      Yeah, we were all kinda keeping it quiet deliberately. Now you have gone and blown it, and some dick will come along and probably implement this - thanks mate, thanks a lot!

      Just what this world needs, more adds.

      I think the monitor has uses, insted or virtual desktops, you only need to change you position to see another desktop.
    • See above [slashdot.org].
  • by Gruneun ( 261463 ) on Wednesday September 27, 2006 @10:51AM (#16214707)
    Picture this technology on a screen that's wrapped around the outside of a cylinder. You could have an information kiosk that has a different image for every person that's standing around it. If the images were that of a virtual tour guide, the guide could point things out in 360 degrees, yet it would still be tailored for each person looking at the screen.
  • Hang on .. the lay out is all wrong. I thought that Linux was ultra left wing (bunch of no good commies trying to subvert the place), OS-X was just plain ol' left wing (long haired weirdos, but at least they *sell* their software) and Windows was Right Wing (Where do you want your goverment to go to today?)

    So how do you get at least a four view version of the screen?
  • Of course, it won't be long before a researcher uses this technology to create a *miniscule* parallax of a few degrees, each displaying the information your eyes would need to form a three-dimensional image.
    The monitor could be calibrated for the distance you typically sit away from the monitor, and replicate what your eyes already do: glean 3D information from the difference in each eye's POV.

    Think: Fully 3D FPS games.
    Think: fully-immersive desktop UIs which can take advantage of that "z" dimension.
    • Auto-stereo displays (Score:3, Informative)

      by Kadin2048 ( 468275 )
      This already exists; the predecessor to this technology in TFA was a display that showed two images, one to each eye. I've never used it but according to some other comments from people who have, it was rather low resolution and caused a lot of eyestrain.

      Makes sense, seeing as how with that kind of parallax, you'd need to keep your nose basically right along the midline axis of the screen; if you got even a few degrees off, you'd be seeing just the image designed for one eye (and at half the normal resoluti
    • Yeah right.

      Think: Motion sickness
      Think: Massive headaches
      Think: Eye-strain

      Emulating 3D with simple tricks like this never work. It's too sensitive and they tend to only work for a very specific eye position. Real life requires a lot of tiny movements we can't control.
  • This will certainly breathe new life into multi-angle porn DVD's.
  • by javaxjb ( 931766 ) on Wednesday September 27, 2006 @11:15AM (#16214993)
    It's clearly intended for ultra extreme programming: one wide desk and three keyboards. The programmers on the left and right write the code and the person in the center works on continous merges of the best ideas. A fourth back seat drivers continuously runs from left to right giving directions and asking why they aren't just checking the UML.
  • by Rogerborg ( 306625 ) on Wednesday September 27, 2006 @11:24AM (#16215097) Homepage
    Work on the left side to throw off your boss, goat porn on the right side to throw off your co-workers, and alt.fan.star-trek.wesley-crusher.furry.erotica on the centre where nobody else will ever see it.
  • So connect three computers to the LCD and from the center you see Windows, Linux from the left and MacOS from the right.

    Yeah, because we'd all like to use our computers like if we were watching the screen of the computer next to us.

    Besides, I think everyone would prefer to have huge display [digitaltigers.com] for a single computer rather than three computer with a single display. And with an intel Mac, you already can run OS X, Linux and Windows on the same computer.

    I can imagine that some people might be able to come up with

  • this [slashdot.org]
  • Presentations: Your audience (on left and center) sees a full screen Keynote presentation. Your angle shows you the presenter notes, slide navigation, and a thumbnail of the "full screen" that they are seeing. Not great, but for audiences in a boardroom or cubicle, it'd be an improvement.

    Differing subtitles: A German presentation offers viewers who may benefit from French subtitles to sit to the left, and English subtitles to sit on the right. Perhaps a marketing presentation gets a similar treatment with t
  • A great use for this would be 3 players all playing the same game (say, GoldenEye). Rather than split the main screen into almost useless subscreens, sit around this and all play together. Now what game console manufacturer will be clever enough to support this with their console first?
  • So connect three computers to the LCD and from the center you see Windows, Linux from the left and MacOS from the right.

    Three computers? What a waste. We have virtualization [parallels.com] these days.
  • by mandos ( 8379 )
    Wouldn't that be MS Windows on the right, Mac OSX on the left, and Linux in the middle? :-p
  • If the difference in angle is such that each eye could receive a different image, than this technology could be used to implement a simple 3D display. I've heard that there are already some simple 3d displays. Does anyone know if this technology would be better or worse than that that already exists.

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