Multi-layer LCD Displays

Jmo writes "Puredepth has started to produce multi-layer LCD displays. They manipulate LCD technology so that one screen can be placed behind another for actual depth. This technology has not even come close to being fully taken advantage of but it is still very interesting and has many implications for the future. Their main product right now is a seventeen inch monitor, the MLD-3000. It is mainly targeted at medical and business fields but it could be used all over."

Re:The price

[SimonShine]

It appears like really a really cool thing to have, but does any near future price compare to the $30 a KVM [webopedia.com] costs, just so that you can see two windows at the same time? You can even build KVMs yourself.

You only get two layers

[Anonymous Coward]

If you have something that can be separated into near field and far field, the images could be very realistic. I have trouble imagining how this would work with a medical image. Remember the anatomy drawings with a series of plastic overlays.

The stuff I like the best is some mechanical drawings with cutaway views. A good illustrator can totally convey a 3-d structure. I guess what I am saying is that the answer may be a little more cleverness with conventional 2-d displays. The use of user-controlled transparency might do a better job of conveying the information.

Is anyone still working on holographic displays?

Re:3D

[LiquidCoooled]

Your right, but these 2 layers are directly on top of each other.

They are just onion skin layers, and need to be a volumetric cube to be a true 3d display (Yes, your 1 display per eye is right, but for a group of people looking its impractical)

I am hoping for a rotating drum with spokes made of LEDs to give a true volume area that would be viewable by all, but thats about as likely as a flying car, so I wont hold my breath.

eye focus

[spectrokid]

this could be interesting if the depth between the 2 displays was enough so you could "switch" between them by refocussing your eyes, like wathing through a fence.

Re:3D

[mattdm]

If you don't mind using polarized glasses- one eye vertical, one eye horizontal, then you only need two.

You don't need glasses. I'm not sure about the actual LCD used in this thing, but I wouldn't be surprised if it's using the same technology Sharp uses in their laptop. I've seen the Sharp techology demoed and as someone who basically doesn't know anything about all of this, I was totally astounded.

Luckily, Sharp conveniently explains how it works [sharp-world.com] -- they use something called a "parallax barrier", which, as the name implies, basically makes it so you see one screen from one eye and the other from the other. Obviously this works best if you're immediately in front of the screen, but from the demo I saw, it worked from a wider angle than I would have thought.

Or you can read all of the past slashdot stories about it [slashdot.org]....

Re:Finally!

[Profane MuthaFucka]

http://www.gunsamerica.com/guns/976491704.htm [gunsamerica.com]

Google is the shizzat.