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3D LCD Display 295

Posted by michael from the reach-out-and-touch-someone dept.
Powerdog writes "After 10 years of lab work, Sharp has developed a 3D LCD display that works without glasses. They expect to use the displays in games at first, and expand into PCs and TVs. Production begins in a few months and products using them should be shipping in early 2003. Naturally, I just bought two 2D LCD displays for my home office two weeks ago."
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3D LCD Display More

3D LCD Display

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  • More than a mouthful (Score:4, Funny)

    by L. VeGas ( 580015 ) on Friday September 27, 2002 @01:54PM (#4346055) Homepage Journal
    Double D's are more than enough on my LCD screen, thank you.

  • Does anybody have more info? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by MarcoAtWork ( 28889 ) on Friday September 27, 2002 @01:55PM (#4346062)
    the article doesn't really have any technical details, I'm curious to see what principle this screen operates on, and what makes it different technologically from the previous 3d LCD screens we've already seen (I think it's the 2d/3d nature of the screen without loss of resolution, as the article says, but I'd like to know how they get this to work)
    • I second that request for more information. I'm curious if they've simply doubled each pixel and biased each to be more intence in a particular direction or if they are utilizing interference in some way. My guess would be the first. If you could do something using interference, it would be able to be seen from all angles if done properly - like a static hologram.

    • Re:Does anybody have more info? (Score:5, Informative)

      by Spy4MS ( 324340 ) on Friday September 27, 2002 @02:03PM (#4346126)
      Here it is at Sharp's site [sharp.co.uk]
      • "Here it is at Sharp's site [sharp.co.uk]"

        I think I saw an earlier model of one of these at Siggraph 2001. Frankly, what I saw at that show wasn't worthwhile. If you sat in the 'sweet spot' then you got a sublte hint of depth perception, but the effect wasn't stunning to say the least. All you had to do was move your head a little bit and everything would slightly distort. (In other words, it only worked if you kept your head still.)

        On the flip side, though, viewing porn on the internet would be more interesting. "Ooo I can turn my head and make her dance!" Heh.
    • I'm curious to see what principle this screen operates on, and what makes it different technologically from the previous 3d LCD screens we've already seen (I think it's the 2d/3d nature of the screen without loss of resolution, as the article says, but I'd like to know how they get this to work)

      From reading the article, I suspect that it has something to do with either increasing the number of transparent electrodes on the front face of the display panel, or changing how they're energized in relationship to the electrodes on the rear face of the panel, to change the liquid crystal alignment angles so that the viewing cone for pixels gets shifted. This would result in a 50% loss of resolution in the horizontal axis, though. The article does make a point about how the display won't have a reduced resolution in 2D mode, so the 3D functionality has to be achieved by a mechanism that restricts pixels to being viewed by a specific eye.

      • Re:Does anybody have more info? (Score:5, Informative)

        by MarcoAtWork ( 28889 ) on Friday September 27, 2002 @02:28PM (#4346296)
        by reading a post later (which is the original press release) it is clear that there is a 50% loss of resolution in the horizontal axis.

        The press release on yahoo says that this 2d/3d display has the same resolution as a 2d-only display, not that in 2d and 3d it has the same resolution (which I thought I saw when reading it the first time)

        Basically this display works the same as the 'older' 3d LCDs when 3d, but the parallax blocker is not physical, it's switchable, so the screen can be flipped to 2d when needed and not forcibly left in 3d like the others.
    • the japanese site provides a little bit more detail - essentially there's a microfine light grill in front of the lcd display bending the perceived light between the left and right eye creating a stereoscopic view much like 3d glasses. i've created a link to the sites through babelfish for those of you who can't read japanese. (the translation isn't perfect, but it's enough to get the gyst of things)

      Sharp's News Release : http://www.sharp.co.jp/corporate/news/020927.html [altavista.com]

      Impress Press Release : http://www.watch.impress.co.jp/pc/docs/2002/0927/s harp.htm [altavista.com]
      • I think this kind of answers the question I had in the back of my head, "How will this look for people who are effectively blind in one eye?"

        The question is of interest to me, because my right eye is nearly useless. I tried Steroscopic glasses once, before I really knew how bad my vision in one eye was, and I was sorely disappointed. Hell, I'm a little disappointed with 3D imagery in the real world. You should see me try and pour a glass of water , its rather comical. If the angle is just right, I can't judge where the glass is.
    • the article doesn't really have any technical details

      And it doesn't have pictures, either. I want to see just how well this works!

      Errr...Ummm... Wait...

  • Are you sure? (Score:2, Insightful)

    by DevilM ( 191311 )
    I didn't see any indication in the article that Sharp had developed a 3D LCD. As far as I can tell, Sharp has developed a 3D flat screen.
    • TOKYO (Reuters) - Sharp Corp, Japan's largest maker of liquid crystal displays, said on Friday its researchers in Britain had developed a
      flat-panel display for either two- or three-dimensional viewing that does not require special glasses.


      Last I checked, flat-panel meant LCD, not Flat CRT
    • AFAIK, the only way to get a 3D display without glasses or any other 'gimmik' - to where the 2D display itself displays a 3D image to normal eyes - is using the two LCD displays, offset and overlaid technique. Since that's been around for awhile (and even in limited production), that's almost certainly what Sharp is bring to mass production here.

      For some reason I want to see a PowerBook with this. A laptop with a 3D display running Aqua (so that 3D gets used for every window) would be amusing as hell.

      --
      Evan (no SF references)

  • Sharp isn't the first to do it (Score:5, Informative)

    by Hays ( 409837 ) on Friday September 27, 2002 @01:56PM (#4346070)
    http://www.dti3d.com/

    http://www.neurokoptics.com/press/archive/giga.d e. 1.shtml
  • How quickly are gaming/entertainment industries going to catch up to this kind of stuff?
    • I don't think it will take the porn insdustry too long .... lets face it, big boobs sell ... big 3D boobs in your face will sell better! (and seem even BIGGER! Bigger boobs = bigger profits!)

      As for games, this may take a bit longer since game programing companies count on mass distribution to make a reasonable profit. Since this 3D screen will be somewhat pricey for a few years, it may take a while before games begin to widely use this technology (of course, there will be one or two crappy games that will try to be the "first to the market", but I doubt anything good will be available for atleast a year or two).

      Besdies, does anyone have a driver for this yet?
      :)
    • Who knows. But, I can tell you that after watching the Doom 3 trailer, I swore I would never play that game after 8pm with the lights out. If this technology was available to me at release time and the game supported, I'd likely be too frightened to install it.
  • Aside from gaming, what are we planning to use these for?

    I can see the use in design, nd maybe medical imaging? Any others?

    I'm not disparaging the technology, or those who want one (I do) I'm genuinely curious . . . 3D is one of those "cool" things we've all had on our minds since watching our godzilla 3d movie as a kid, now that it's "here" how are we going to make use of the technology?

  • Multi-tasking (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Patik ( 584959 )
    This could be great for multitaskers. Imagine behind able to put windows behind other windows (not just overlapped as they are now, but actually behind and still visible), scooting less frequently used desktop icons into the back corner, and having 3-D menu systems and directory structures (actually move into a folder or menu to find what's inside, instead of shifting to the right of it).

    What would make this even better would be a way to easily rotate the "cube" representing your screen: you could have six applications open, each maximized on one plane, then just rotate the cube with a joystick to quickly switch around, or position it such that you can view parts of 2 or 3 apps at once.

    But how would one implement a 3-D mouse?

    • But how would one implement a 3-D mouse?


      Add a wheel ;). Although you don't get the same resolution, you do get another axis of motion.

    • Ever see Johnny Mnemonic [imdb.com]?

      Johnny navigated through his 'virtual environment' using a set of gloves, and he could reach in and 'grab' information, programs, etc...

      That'd be an awesome way to work with a 3d 'desktop'
    • What would make this even better would be a way to easily rotate the "cube" representing your screen: you could have six applications open, each maximized on one plane, then just rotate the cube with a joystick to quickly switch around, or position it such that you can view parts of 2 or 3 apps at once.

      This would be better accomplished by placing the viewer inside of an N sided polygon with each inner face of the polygon representing a different desktop/environment/etc. By being inside the polygon you could zoom out and see many more desktops simultaneously. Adjusting the width of your field of view ('fish-eye') would allow you to see probably at least half of the inside of the polygon.

      A conventional wheelmouse would be all that would be necessary in navigation mode; the wheel would zoom and the mouse's 2D axis would move you the other dimensions.

      Another idea would be being inside of a sphere and the inner surface of the sphere being a very large rectangular desktop mapped onto the sphere. You'd adjust the working frame to display as rectangular but the rest of the display would curve away showing more information on the other windows.

      I'm not sure that any of these ideas would be meaningful even with a depth-enhanced LCDs without seriously high resolution.
    • I guess that the easiest implimentation of this would be to have an OS that uses OpenGL or something to draw the basic user interface..

      Soooo.. i guess Apple is closer to being ready for this than other OSes thanks to QuartzGL?
    • Interesting. I like how this can make workspaces easier. I lost my original post to you, but I'll try to be more concise now. It is easier to misplace things when you put them in a "corner" in a 3D workspace, though you could then just press keys to let the system locate the possible filename matches (like current systems), or maybe highlight all the possible windows and rotate around the space so you can see close matches' locations.

      I talked about multiple workspaces and my problems with them now (see my jornal [slashdot.org]). It seems that implementing true 3D workspaces, is the next step after we can show 3D more accurately, whatever the solution winds up to be. I will be happy when I see something like what they show in Gene Roddenberry's "Earth: Final Conflict" where you could wave your hands around and interact with controls that were in the air.

      Even without the translucent projections, I can imagine us using some sort of virtual gloves to wave our arms in the space between us and our monitor, and having some magnetic sensors define an area of a cubic foot where we can use move both hands as we see the resulting movements on the screen in front of us.

      HOPEFULL_TAG_BEGIN ( I know that this kind of interaction will probably be great coupled with future Speech Recognition integration ) HOPEFULL_TAG_END. No one but us coders really want to use keyboards, in the grand scheme of things of an ideal world. Besides, we knooow from StarTrek ;) that the future has voice recognition for everything but the engineers/coders and people who push buttons that make the ship go woosh. Come on, it's Speech recognition, and not some crewman, that turns on the sirens and dims the lights when Janeway says "Red alert!"

  • The _real_ information (Score:5, Informative)

    by mfago ( 514801 ) on Friday September 27, 2002 @02:01PM (#4346108)
    Why cannot anyone link to the actual press release [sharp-world.com]?! It contains more information than cnet or yahoo articles (not a difficult proposition).

    The P.R. Gives some indication of how it works:

    Principle of Operation of 3D LCDs
    A 3D display requiring no special viewing glasses is generated by controlling the path of travel of light from the display so that slightly different images reach the left and right eyes; in other words, the right eye sees only the image intended for it, and the left eye only the image intended for it.
    This newly developed 3D LCD employs a technique called the "parallax barrier," an older, well-known approach to generating a stereo display. The 3D LCD combines a conventional TFT LCD with a Switching LCD, a proprietary Sharp development.
    This Switching LCD establishes an optical parallax barrier, and by controlling the path of travel of light, makes it possible to separate the display images so that slightly different images reach the left and right eyes.
    By displaying the image intended for the left eye and the image for the right eye as a stereographic pair on a TFT LCD, each eye sees only the image intended for it and the brain combines the images and perceives them as a 3D representation.
    In addition, the Switching LCD electrically controls the parallax barrier to make it transparent, eliminating its ability to separate light paths. This way, the right and left eyes can see the same image when viewing ordinary 2D content. In other words, the display can also function as a conventional standard imaging device.

    • illusion of 3D (Score:5, Informative)

      by lingqi ( 577227 ) on Friday September 27, 2002 @02:33PM (#4346340) Journal
      parallax barrier will only give the illusion of 3D, but not *real* 3D where you can see from different perspectives.

      i will go with a volumetric [actuality-systems.com] display any day of the week.

      • Alternatively, you could simply wear a head tracker and render it in real time.


        Volumetric displays are low-res, uber-expensive and cannot depict absorptivity or occlusion (everything projected by a volumetric display is transparent.) They are nice for some applications where 360-degree walk-around ability is useful (I can see how one would use them for air traffic control) but not for, say, playing Quake. The two technologies definitely occupy different niches.

      • Re:illusion of 3D (Score:2, Informative)

        by jetkust ( 596906 )
        Very nice, but from what i can see this volumetric 3d display is only for displaying static 3d models where no animiation whatsoever is possible. Also checkout their pricing scheme:

        Perspecta display (hardware): US$45,000

        Perspecta "O/S" and SRK (spatial rendering kernel): US$3,000

        Developer's Program and Software Development Kit: US$2,000/month

        Installation: US$2,100

        Hardware Support Programs: Basic (US$3,000/yr) and Premium ($7,000/yr)

        Software Support Programs: Basic (US$3,000/yr) and Premium ($7,000/yr)

        Software Maintenance: 30%/yr of software
      • Depending on how many different images it could show under each parallax barrier, you could easily generate volumetric displays.

        I do this all the time with Lenticular Images. The trick is that the parallax barrier (or lens in the case of lenticular) blocks more than 50% of the display beneath at a time. If it blocks 80%, and shows 20% to each eye, there's room for 5 separate "views". By moving your head side-to-side, you see different stereo pairs, effectively seeing "around" objects on the screen.

        By blocking 90%, showing 10% to each eye, you suddenly allow 10 views.

        The problem is that by blocking 90% and showing 10%, your screen is now only 10% as bright as it used to be.

        MadCow.

      • Re:illusion of 3D (Score:2, Informative)

        by MJArrison ( 154721 )
        I don't think these prices qualify as "ready for prime time". From the Actuality-Systems website:

        # Perspecta display (hardware): US$45,000
        # Perspecta "O/S" and SRK (spatial rendering kernel): US$3,000
        # Developer's Program and Software Development Kit: US$2,000/month
        # Installation: US$2,100
        # Hardware Support Programs: Basic (US$3,000/yr) and Premium ($7,000/yr)
        # Software Support Programs: Basic (US$3,000/yr) and Premium ($7,000/yr)
        # Software Maintenance: 30%/yr of software
    • He used a grating that he'd generated by writing a little postscript program for a laser printer (to make lines with the right spacing) then copying it to an overhead-projector foil. Put in front of a standard LCD turned 90 degrees (so the three colors of each pixel are aligned vertically) and you have a stereo display.

      All these guys did is substitute a second LCD for the grating so they could turn the grating off to switch between a full-resolution 2-d or a half-resolution stereo display.

  • Just curious... (Score:3, Interesting)

    by dissonant7 ( 572834 ) on Friday September 27, 2002 @02:01PM (#4346115)
    ...what effect a 3D display like this might have in terms of eye strain. If something like this were to become really widespread and used for day to day applications and GUIs, it's something to consider. Anyone out there that has worked with similar displays have an answer?

    • Re:Just curious... (Score:3, Insightful)

      by MarcoAtWork ( 28889 )
      the whole point of this display from sharp is that the '3d' mode can be switched on on demand and that day to day applications and GUIs will work the same way they always do.

      When you're using word etc. you keep the parallax element transparent, and the screen is just a normal 2d LCD display, when you're using 3d studio, playing doom3 etc. you switch it in 3d.

      Now, it will be interesting to see if there is going to be more eye strain for people using the 3d mode all day long vs using LCD-shutter-based solutions (with the screen at 160Hz obviously). I don't think so, but you never know...
  • If you like 3D screens, you will like 3D stereoscopic cameras - stereoscopy.com [stereoscopy.com] and curtin.edu.au [curtin.edu.au]. Pretty cool stuff.

  • lenticular (Score:3, Informative)

    by Scrameustache ( 459504 ) on Friday September 27, 2002 @02:02PM (#4346122) Homepage Journal
    The article doesn't say how the 3D effect is done, but I would venture a guess: Lenticulars.

    I used to work for a company that did a bit of research in lenticular software, its pretty neat, but a bitch to align properly.

    And we all wanted a lenticular screen ;- )
    (For those who don't know what lenticulars are, they are those plastick "ribbed" images you often got in cracker jacks boxes and on some toys, erroneously called holograms by 99.9% of the population.)

  • Legs: [gasps] I'm seeing double here: four Krustys!

  • ...I'll wait for the 2nd generation release. You know, the ones with dual 1 watt speakers. That, and only that will justify the $4,000 pricetag.

  • Good idea, but no dice. (Score:4, Funny)

    by wackybrit ( 321117 ) on Friday September 27, 2002 @02:06PM (#4346149) Homepage Journal
    Sharp has developed a 3D LCD display that works without glasses

    I applaud Sharp's achievements in this exciting area of optical technology, but if the display only works without glasses, this eliminates a good percentage of computer users who, like myself, have to wear glasses.

  • Right! (Score:1, Redundant)

    by richie2000 ( 159732 )
    1. 3D LCD monitor
    2. pr0n!
    3. ?
    4. Profit!
      1. Post the same lame joke on slashdot everyday
      2. ???
      3. Profit


      Nothing personal, but that joke was officially dead the second I used it, which was at least four weeks ago.
  • Dimension Technologies makes products which, by the looks of their technology [dti3d.com], are identical to Sharp's "new" breakthrough. DTI's made their first display with this technique years [dti3d.com] ago, and claims to have several patents [dti3d.com]. Can anyone show how Sharp is not infringing on DTI's patents?
    • Did it ever occur to you that Sharp might have licensed the technology?

      The article did mention that the 3d part was nothing new, and that Sharp's innovation with the ability to switch between 3D and 2D mode without sacrificing resolution in 2D mode.
  • I can see how this would be great for Autocad (if they ever write a driver to diplay their 3d drawings on this), and for POVray (if they ever write a driver ...). I'm sure that Quake et al will eventually support this, since gamers spend big bucks on gadgets.

    This is really neat, but if you're running a word processor or a spreadsheet, will you ever care? If you're simulating something n-dimensional, what good is 3d? This seems like a solution in search of a problem. Of course, so was the laser [google.com].

  • How come there weren't any pictures on the linked site? It would be nice to see
    • How come there weren't any pictures on the linked site? It would be nice to

      Heheh, just like the HDTV commercials on tv.

      Look at the resolution and colour - it's incredible! :)
  • I'm surprised this took so long, now that I think about it some. The illusion of depth on a flat surface can be achieved by forcing each eye to receive a different image, effectively tricking the eye into believing that what it's seeing has depth.

    Try looking very closely at an LCD monitor some time, like within 4 inches. Due to the narrow viewing angle present on LCDs, each eye will see a different view of the same pixels. If you angle your head just right, you can perceive something resembling depth, though without any real control. I wouldn't think it would be that difficult to engineer a panel to make use of this effect.

    Then again, my eyes are pretty jacked up, what with me having severe macular degeneration and some pretty crappy color vision. The experiment may also work a little better if you drink a bottle of 'tussin right before viewing.
  • I hope they're going to put some solid transparent material in front of the screen. I mean, dealing with fingerprints is already irritating, but all the LCD screens *I* have used would suffer significant damage if people repeatedly tried to reach *through* them.

    You know, like, to grasp the rounded, perky ... uhhhh ...

  • Parallax occlusion might be the most economically feasible technology at the moment, but it's not that great. You can only see a good 3D image from certain angles and certain distances from the screen. Given a "Switching LCD" (their terminology) with a fine enough vertical grating (i.e. considerably higher than the horizontal resolution of the display LCD), and given a tracking system on the monitor (IR sensor or even a camera with position sensing software) that can sense where the viewer (singular!) is, the switching LCD could adjust the occlusion dynamically to make a sweet spot follow the viewer. This could also be done mechanically I guess, using a simple static grating, by moving the switching LCD left and right and forward and back as needed. This wouldn't work so well at the edges though, or anywhere the viewing angle deviates considerably from 90 degrees.

    I'm still hoping to be able to buy a holographic monitor within my lifetime.

  • In the same way that black-and-white TVs switched to color, we really think displays are going to switch to 3-D," Stephen Bold, managing director of Sharp Laboratories of Europe Ltd, said after a news conference.

    I hate to throw the wet blanket over 10 years of research, but I got news for both the pointy heads and the marketing department: Going from being able to have friends over to watch TV from different positions around the room to requiring everyone to look at a certain angle (and probably occupy the same space at the same time) is NOT an improvement over existing displays, 3D notwithstanding.

    There might be specialized applications, but to compare this to the change from B&W to color television is absolutely absurd.

    Call me when you have THREE DIMENSIONAL television that I can see from ANY angle. Then I'll be interested. I'll actually be impressed when I can walk around the image and see different angles.

  • Pictures... (Score:3, Informative)

    by earthdark ( 582375 ) on Friday September 27, 2002 @02:51PM (#4346488)
    If anyone's interested, here's a babelfish'd link to a Japanese page with some pictures [altavista.com] of the unit and more information. Looks pretty cool to me.

  • The screens can only be seen in 3-D from certain angles and distances, however, and a "sweet spot indicator" -- a small bar at the lower end of the screen -- appears solid black when the viewer is at an optimum position for 3-D.

    Get out of the sweet spot runt!
    MOOOOMMMMMM!

  • Nvidia and Stereovision (Score:3, Informative)

    by Mark4ST ( 249650 ) on Friday September 27, 2002 @03:10PM (#4346628) Homepage
    Nvidia already has rather whoop-ass drivers for stereoscopic viewing of OpenGL or D3D under Windows. (It's good to see such a major house supporting such a tiny niche.)

    I bought a Geforce2 from MSI with an Elsa 3D Revelator bundle. The bundle contained polarised shutter glasses (dongled onto the VGA cable) that sync up to your CRT monitor's refresh rate, opening each eye in turn. The drivers show you a different picture for each eye.

    These things rock. Almost all OpenGL or D3D games work with them. It's very useful for platformers where you have to judge distances to jump accurately (like in American McGee's Alice). It's good for heaving grenades accurately (like in Counter-Strike, Grand Theft Auto 3). It's good for flight simulators, where judging distance can be crucial (like in MS Combat Flight Simulator). Driving is great (!) in 3D.

    If it doesn't actually improve the way you play certain games, then eye-candy alone makes it worth it.

    You can do some weird things with stereoscopic gaming. Using GLDoom (or the like), you can play Doom in stereo. Using an emulator like ePSXe, you can play console games in stereo.

    There can be some problems. Some games use 2D elements with their 3D games. GTA3, for example, has 3D cars, people, and architecture; but it uses 2D for most particles. This means that fire, smoke, and some debris appear at screen depth (along with the 2D hud elements).

    The only really practical use of this system right now is games (is that really practical?). There are no workable 3D desktops/web browsers/word processors/etc., so the Snow Crash/Johnny Mnemonic metaverse-thingy isn't quite there yet. However, there is existing technology lying around to do it today.

    Another thing: These glasses are CHEAP! (

    • Nvidia already has rather whoop-ass drivers for stereoscopic viewing of OpenGL or D3D under Windows.

      That sounds very cool, and it makes me wonder, does anyone know of a similar solution for Linux? I did a little Googling, and it sounds like some people have cobbled together some solutions for specific applications (doing like crystal modeling and stuff), but I'm wondering if anyone can say, "Sure, you'll get stereoscopic OpenGL if you use this card, with this driver, and these glasses." I'd really like to be able to do it with my Matrox card, as its 3D, while not as slick as my nVidia, is a lot more stable (my nVidia seems to cause X to hang pretty quickly in moderately complex applications, like GLTron). And I really don't think I'd consider a non-XFree86 server -- been there, done that, more trouble than it's worth. Anyway, it's not that important, but I think it'd be awefully cool.

      -"Zow"

  • Already done (Score:5, Funny)

    by PunchMonkey ( 261983 ) on Friday September 27, 2002 @03:15PM (#4346683) Homepage
    Sharp has developed a 3D LCD display that works without glasses.

    I have a 3D LCD display at home that works great with or without glasses.

    Now what would really be cool, is a 2D LCD display... I mean, sure they're already pretty thin.....

    oh wait.... I'm supposed to read the article first, aren't I?
  • ...Pretty good. I was lucky enough to get a demo of this technology a couple of years ago when some Sharp guys visited a "certain company that makes processors for a certain company named after a fruit" that I happened to be working at. The effect is very good, however as they noted you have to be sitting at a very specific distance, and dead in front of the screen (at least as of two years ago). This is not too big a deal for games, at least if you're like me and you go into a 3d shooter trance as soon as Quake or the like boots up. However, for CAD type tasks I image keeping your head still for hours on end would be a bit aggravating.

    Personally, if they could sell it for only 50% more than a normal moniter, and if the LCD could refresh fast enough w/o ghosting for 3d shooters, I'd pick one up in a heartbeat.
  • LCD display? Liquid Crystal Display display?

    michael, you're going on The List, along with people who say "SAT Test" and "HIV Virus" and "GUI Interface" and "ATM Machine" and "NIC Card".

  • Check your math (Score:4, Funny)

    by wadetemp ( 217315 ) on Friday September 27, 2002 @03:31PM (#4346786)
    "Naturally, I just bought two 2D LCD displays for my home office two weeks ago."

    2 x 2D = 4D
    4D > 3D
    QED
  • "The screens can only be seen in 3-D from certain angles and distances, however, and a "sweet spot indicator" -- a small bar at the lower end of the screen -- appears solid black when the viewer is at an optimum position for 3-D."

    Right... this is basically the same idea as many kind of "3D without glasses" dating back to the turn of the century. Including the well-known lenticular displays.

    In effect it creates a pair of invisible "virtual glasses" in the air and you have to line up your head with them to see the effect. The problem is that your eyes are only 3 inches apart, so even ideally, at the VERY BEST you only have 3 inches of freedom to move your head before the left eye moves into the right-eye "virtual lens" or vice versa. In real life, the image is likely to blur or darken or otherwise turn funny if you move your head less than that.

    This is going to create neck cramps like you won't believe, and all sorts of other irritations.

    It's one thing to have a gimmick on a cereal package, or a poster, that grabs your attention for a few seconds. It's quite another to look at it for as long as you'd look at a computer screen.

    Consumer cameras that produce lenticular "view-without-glasses" prints have been available on and off for decades. They have NEVER been popular.
  • ... was a two-layer LCD screen where the foreground layer was transaprent and the background layer was about an inch or two back. I saw one of these at Siggraph 2001.

    Okay, it didn't look 3D, but it was still damn cool, and it looked just fine. They had one of these hooked up to a Windows box. I'll tell you guys something, it was cool having a foreground and background layer to put windows around in. I was really getting into that! It was certainly more interesting than trying to pull off stereoscopy with a 'sweet spot'.
  • Aren't these screens technically 4-D?

    You've got X coordinates, you've got Y coordinates, you've got T as in time, and now you've got Z as in depth. X,Y,T,Z is four dimensions.

    Measuring it that was is kind of interesting. Paper'd be 2D because the image doesn't change. Typical monitors would be 3D since they update 60-100 times a second. And stereo monitors would be 4D (In a sense...) since they are monitors with depth.

    Anybody remember 'electric ink' that's supposed to show up one day? That'd become 3D and so on...

  • ...or does anyone else find the sentence "flat 3D screen" a bit funny?

    RMN
    ~~~

  • That is not the first autostereo LCD display at all. More information and lot of links on this page [stereo3d.com].

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