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Displays Media Television Hardware

First Shareable Interactive Display 161

Posted by timothy from the no-porn-here-aunt-margie dept.
Jeremy Newton writes "I want to share with you a new device that allows multiple moving images to be displayed to several users from the same screen at the same time. The project is called a "Shift in Time," my thesis project for NYU's Interactive Telecommunications Program. The driving goal of this project was to end fighting over the remote control, the gamepad, or the keyboard. It also makes room for new applications in marketing, games, and education. Recently it's gotten some buzz on Engadget.com."
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First Shareable Interactive Display More

First Shareable Interactive Display

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  • wow (Score:5, Interesting)

    by rd4tech ( 711615 ) * on Monday June 13, 2005 @09:09PM (#12808657)
    This is great; Now, if only someone makes multiple streams of sound riding on the same speaker...

    How about using it in the bank industry? The bank equips the ATM's with this, makes sure that the user is informed that he should sit strictly in front. Then the ATM displays "bait" information on all sides except the front side.

    • Re:wow (Score:2, Informative)

      by fred fleenblat ( 463628 )
      >> This is great; Now, if only someone
      >> makes multiple streams of sound riding
      >> on the same speaker...

      Yamaha YSP-1 [pcmag.com]

    • Re:wow (Score:3, Informative)

      by MrDomino ( 799876 )

      Now, if only someone makes multiple streams of sound riding on the same speaker...

      How about hypersound [holosonics.com]?

    • Re:wow (Score:3, Informative)

      by Doc Ruby ( 173196 )
      OK [holosonics.com].

    • Re:wow (Score:5, Funny)

      by njcoder ( 657816 ) on Monday June 13, 2005 @09:47PM (#12808926)
      I have a feeling all he wanted to do was be able to watch porn while coworkers walking by would think he was working hard.

    • Re:wow (Score:2, Interesting)

      by Xiar Prime ( 721325 )
      >>Then the ATM displays "bait" information on all sides except the front side.

      Been there, done that [popularmechanics.com]

    • Re:wow (Score:3, Insightful)

      by beefy ben ( 801945 )
      " This is great; Now, if only someone makes multiple streams of sound riding on the same speaker..." How about a few pairs of wireless headphones?
    • You could use this [atcsd.com] to make an array of "Beams" pointing to the corresponding area you want different channels of sound to be heard. It works by using ultrasonic sound (which is much more directional) to create interference (the signal we want) in a given area. Interesting technology.
    • I can't even begin to conceive of how you'd do multiple sound streams from one speaker, since sound is a sort of all-around phenomenon... ... and so, God created headphones, in His wisdom, to allow us to hear our own shows, and allow our roommates to sleep in peace, and it was good

      EHEH!

      Cheers :)
    • Bah, this isn't very interesting. ATMs already have privacy screens which appear black from the side. Fake screens would be more likely to confuse customers than crooks, plus the screens in the article aren't useful for applications requiring privacy; moving your head a few inches to the side will reveal the other image no matter where you're standing.

      It's not like this guy invented the technology anyway. These screens are intended for use as true autostereoscopic 3D displays (natural 3D without glasse

  • Polarisation / Screen flicker (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Bifurcati ( 699683 ) on Monday June 13, 2005 @09:13PM (#12808692) Homepage
    I wonder if you could do some sort of trick where you had polarised screens, and people wore corresponding glasses, so that you could have two separate images appearing on the screen, but only visible to people with the right glasses?

    Or, use the Imax like glasses, and flick between images on the screen every refresh, and have the glasses blackout for every other image, so you again only see the images you want.

    Oh, and to top it off, you set up your speakers really carefully so that there's interference, and a node (no sound) from one source for person A, and a node from the other source for person B!

    Then again, it's probably easier just to use two screens and two headphones :)

  • Jeremy Newton, PR Machine! (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 13, 2005 @09:15PM (#12808704)
    Wow, this kid is a one-man PR machine -- gets his page on Slashdot and Engadget, complete with his own videos promoting his work.

    I'm not trying to be mean, I'm just amused and rather impressed, actually. =)

    • Yes, but he's not emphatic enough. This really comes across as a well-laid-out college project, but honestly doesn't make the easy transition to economic application

      The difference is that he is getting us excited about the possibilities, and what needs to be done in the business sense (perhaps after his thesis project is done) is to get us, and more importantly, investors, excited about the applications.

      For instance, saying "this would be nice to seperate screens for several people" is a thought provok

    • I'm a lot more impressed by the fact that he is making his thesis ouf of this:

      The driving goal of this project was to end fighting over the remote control, the gamepad, or the keyboard.

      I really cant see how this solves the problem. Everyone must still have their own gamepad / remote control, right ?
    • " I'm just amused and rather impressed, actually"

      I'm more impressed that his website that downloads 9MB of Flash video right on the main page is still up and running.
  • This would definitely help me screw over my cheating bastard friends at our semi-annual LAN party. I'm not sure I could set my box to run two versions of any recents games. However, that copy of Wolf ET should do nicely.....

  • the tv.. (Score:5, Insightful)

    by rd4tech ( 711615 ) * on Monday June 13, 2005 @09:20PM (#12808735)
    as the time goes, the tv will probably become less and less social activity...
    • Since when is TV a social activity? I was under the impression that social activities meant interacting with other people, not sitting motionless obsorbing radiation, err content.

      • Re:the tv.. (Score:3, Informative)

        by shadow_slicer ( 607649 )
        Picture a bunch of people sitting around a television watching the same show as a family. They laugh together at the jokes, comment on various aspects of the show and maybe discuss their day during the commercials.
        At one point in time the TV was the social center of the ideal American family.
    • as the time goes, the tv will probably become less and less social activity...

      I am amazed that TV can even be CONSIDERED to be a social activity...

    • as the time goes, the tv will probably become less and less social activity...

      When was watching TV ever a social activity?!

  • Neat, but.... (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Svet-Am ( 413146 ) on Monday June 13, 2005 @09:20PM (#12808738) Homepage
    as an electrical/computer engineer, I definitely applaud the fellow for a really excellent proof of concept.

    however, I'm failing to see the practical impact of his work. really, per his example of the two designers, how often will one really need to share workspace with a partner on physically the same terminal?

    i suppose I could see a bit of application in the real of software like X Windows and have the lenticular lens allow shift between multple desktops, but even that is stretching it a bit.

    anyone think of anything PRACTICAL this is good for, rather than his fairly optimistic view?

    • Re:Neat, but.... (Score:5, Interesting)

      by CyberVenom ( 697959 ) on Monday June 13, 2005 @09:39PM (#12808877)
      Well, as for practical applications, I can see 2:
      since this lens would be very cheap to produce, it might be interesting to see a lens packaged with a video game to allow head-to-head play on the same TV without traditional split-screen. (the TV would need to be high-definition to achieve any sort of usable resolution, and the game could present an interface to calibrate the image interlacing granularity and alignment so that the lens could be used on different sized displays.)
      The second practical use is a stereoscopic display without the need for red/blue, polarized, or shutter glasses. I think there is already a company that produces these, at some ungodly price...

    • Re:Neat, but.... (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Raynach ( 713366 ) on Monday June 13, 2005 @09:45PM (#12808916) Homepage
      Well, I definitely think his example of two people trying to use the same TV as a great example. I mean, everyone has their own workstation now a-days, but last time I checked, most people will crowd around one large television in a living room. And last time I checked, families like to argue on what to watch.

      I think this would also be great for collaborative code writing. One person sits on one side, writing the code, while the other person looks at the spec/API. Need to check some? Just tilt your head to the other side.

      • I don't see this technology as very useful unless it is used in a situation where there is a *necessity* that one user cannot see what the other user is seeing. Like head to head gaming on the same display.. No split-screen means you can only see your enemy from your point of view, not his as well. Currently, you can get this by putting two displays back-to-back but that's usually not convenient for space, so his idea looks good here.

        Or two people in the same living room that want to watch different shows,
      • You know when little kids want to watch the same video over and over again? But more importantly, they get upset if you won't watch it with them... I think it would be good for that.

        -a
      • Right.. because moving your head around to switch between two half-resolution images would certainly be much less of a PITA than just having two separate displays, or, God forbid, a physical copy of the reference materials. I wonder what the repetitive stress injury of the neck would be called.. (Maybe Jenna Syndrome?)

        Even if people didn't care about resolution (which is why nobody wants an HDTV, right?), the technology has several additional drawbacks.. Namely:
        • Limited viewing area of the primary image,
      • And last time I checked, families like to argue on what to watch.

        Families argue over what to watch together, and the very idea of sitting on the sofa with the wife and watching two different programs is socially creepy.

        It is true astrangment, whereas simply going to seperate rooms is merely personal solitude.

        KFG

    • Re:Neat, but.... (Score:5, Funny)

      by NilObject ( 522433 ) on Monday June 13, 2005 @09:56PM (#12808979)
      ...however, I'm failing to see the practical impact of his work...

      You're new to Slashdot, aren't you?
    • You read Slashdot, your boss sees a spreadsheet?

    • Re:Neat, but.... (Score:1, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward
      How I wish I was on the defense committe for his thesis....

      Ok, sounds like a good concept if you just glance at the title -- but if you put any thought into it (like he is supposed to have done), his concepts are way off base.

      Two people using the same screen to run different applications? Ergo two keyboards, two mice, more deskspace, and a bigger monitor to get anything remotely functional. And you're still stuck with having to sit on top of the other person and be in their way. Save yourself a lot of mon
    • anyone think of anything PRACTICAL this is good for, rather than his fairly optimistic view?

      As he writes; GAMES. Two player games no longer needs small annoying split screens. I don't play a lot, but that most be great.
  • Hasn't slashdot learned by now not to let through any stories that were submitted by the people involved in the story's subject? We get goofy ones where the guy is plugging his own site or stuff for some greedy, selfish, or underhanded reason.
    • (Score: 1, Troll) - Now that's an accomplishment.

      BTW, lightningrod220, the answer is no. Slashdot will continue to link to whatever it wants to. I don't agree with accept/reject decisions all the time, either.

      And /. wouldn't let me even preview unless I butchered the subject into something lame.
    • What if it's interesting? Then should it be denied until someone else submits it?

  • Let me guess... (Score:2, Informative)

    by birge ( 866103 )
    This works using the same technology from those plastic animation pieces you used to get in cereal boxes. Am I right? Somebody let me know, because I can't bear to read the stupid article. If it weren't for the frat boy who cooled his room with institutional ice and thought he'd invented a refrigerator, I'd say this is the lamest thing I've read all day.

    If this qualifies for an engineering PhD, I'm not sure I really care about getting one anymore. This kidn of thing has been done a LONG time ago to make ru
    • Yea, if you are a subscriber you will see the future and know that in 10 minutes the main page will show the dissertation project of a mechanical engineer at MIT where he created "a continuous, uniform device designed for optimum rolling potential. This device will be unique among all such devices in that all points along its periphery will be the exact same distance from a shared centered point which doesn't necessarily exist as a physical entity."

      sarcasm mode off...reinventing the wheel, for those who c

    • Re:Let me guess... (Score:5, Informative)

      by baxissimo ( 135512 ) on Monday June 13, 2005 @10:01PM (#12808995)
      Relax. If you RTFS you will see this is for "NYU's Interactive Telecommunications Program", not the engineering department. So the guy is probably a tech-savvy artist rather than an art-savvy techie. And if you download the thesis you'll see that it is in fact "A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF PROFESSIONAL STUDIES in INTERACTIVE TELECOMMUNICATIONS at the Tisch School of the Arts, New York University"

      So don't worry. You can still be proud of your engineering PhD when you get it.

      Still, you have to admit that even though the underlying tech is nothing new, he does present some fairly novel usage cases for it. Of course most of them are fairly pointless like "let's collaborate together by looking at completely different things on the same screen". But the idea does seem to make sense for something like the split screen mode in 2-player video-games. If you can only have 512x768 pixels out an XGA display for your view, wouldn't you rather have those spread over the whole screen than squished onto one half of it, like they typically do? And if the other guy can't see what you're doing, all the better.

      Anyway the point is these lenticular screen 3D monitors that various companies are starting to make may have a variety of interesting uses beyond just displaying 3D imagery. Exploring those ideas is probably worth a master's degree in "professional studies," whatever that is.
      • Thanks for the information. I did indeed miss the fact that it was an art program. However, the guy presented it as a technological first, which is totally ludicrous. It sounds like a first class example of self-promotion of second-class art using third-class technology. I thought /. editors were supposed to say 'no' sometimes.
    • Point of information on the ITP (the program from which he is graduating): http://itp.tisch.nyu.edu/object/itp_overview.html [nyu.edu] It's not an engineering program. It's a technology and media arts program in one of the best art programs on the planet.
      • Hmm. I like it even less as art, but at least this whole thing makes more sense. I definitely wouldn't have been as harsh if I'd known it was an art program.

        Regardless, it's annoying to see my post get modded down as a troll. It was a flame, not a troll. There's a difference. I know because I cross it all the time.

    • Thats how i read it too - heres a "software" version of this "technology" using two interlaced jpgs and a xbm mask. [webeisteddfod.com]. I'm imaging this is how the physical one is working too. kind of.
    • Uh-oh, sounds like the arrogant MIT student is getting ticked off that someone had an idea!

      Seriously man, don't knock it until you've seen its potential. I mean christ, how is this even marked as +2 informative still? He admits three things in his post:

      1. He's arrogant and doesn't like the idea
      2. He hasn't read the article
      3. He HASN'T EVEN READ THE ENTIRE POST, LET ALONE THE LINK, because he thinks the guy is getting an engineering PhD.

      And he has the gall to call this the second-lamest thing he's

  • this is like those "3d" things with the plastic "grating"... i dunno what to call it. but the diff angles give diff pictures... make the picture look 3d or animated... this is stuff they have been doing with still pictures for like decades
  • .. is becoming maturer as we speak. It's developments like these which allow us to truly see how the world of IT will dictate our future. I, for one, am a valid potential customer of this device. Good going and keep the iovation coming!

  • Benifactors (Score:4, Funny)

    by nxtr ( 813179 ) on Monday June 13, 2005 @09:23PM (#12808759)
    We all know the porn industry is going to benefit from this, in some very, very, very kinky way. Probably, pre and post op pictures.
  • What if I move my head, or rearrange myself on the couch? Will I see a weird hybrid image? And how will this handle sound?
    • Sound, I don't know, but the videos specifically mention that he plans (and to a limited extend, has) implemented a camera to track the movements of the viewers and change the filtering based on that.
  • ... for the peep shows in the back of porn parlors, imagine the drastically decreased costs in the long run!

  • Gaming console? (Score:4, Interesting)

    by macz ( 797860 ) on Monday June 13, 2005 @09:33PM (#12808841)
    I could see a use for this around a gaming console for multiplayer games where each person would get a private, full scree pov. Individual headphones and you are all set.
    • I know a company that provides a comprehensive
      screen-sharing solution for local and remote
      cooperation during business conferences.
      All participants can use their own laptop and
      its screen real-estate to do their own private
      thing, but can drag applications, video, etc.,
      to a central shared (typically large plasma)
      screen. Everyone's mouse/cursor can co-exist
      on the shared screen, manipulate the shared
      application windows, etc. Very nice, useful,
      not a toy. Born from a Stanford project.

      Check out: http://www.tid [tidebreak.com]
    • The problem is that you need to divide the refresh rate between the different watchers. So if your refresh at 100Hz and have 4 players, that's a 25Hz effective rate.
      • Um, with the system described in the article you share horizontal resolution refresh rate. The system uses a special lense not horrible flickering glasses/filters.
        • Sorry - will attempt to RTFA next time.

          However, this way round with 4 of you you'd all have to sit in specific places and not bob/weave your head as you play. Which is pretty unlikely :->
  • would be to use a high refresh rate display and LCD shutter glasses. if you have a 120 Hz refresh rate then you can have three independent images viewed at 40 Hz. from any angle, mind you. they might appear a little dim, and 40 Hz is kind of annoying to stare at, but it would work.

    and for two people, 60 Hz is definitely reasonable, especially for gaming. it wouldn't work on a refular television, but on good computer monitors it would be great.

    and probably cheaper than the crazy monitors they have on t
  • I thought a one of the good things about television was that it could bring people together to watch their favorite shows. I guess this beats multiple TVs in seperate rooms, we will all be in the same room this way.

  • Not new by a long shot (Score:5, Informative)

    by rminsk ( 831757 ) on Monday June 13, 2005 @09:43PM (#12808903)
    We were doing almost the same thing over 12 years ago a Georgia Tech using polarized glasses and an active shutter on the screen. Could not really find any useful application for it...

  • Beyond the hyperbole... it's been done. (Score:1, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Not only has it been done, it's already commercialized.

    http://www.opticalitycorporation.com/pclicensing/i ndex.html [opticality...ration.com]

    Applications include encumbrance (e.g. shutter glasses) free auto-stereo.
  • So in theory, we could visually be seeing different things, great. Too bad we cant hear the two movies at the same time or we'd go crazy.

    Anyway, this would be great for applications like multiplayer games, where we'd basically be hearing the same sound.


    ...yes, headphones... will you really wear them at home?

  • holy crap! (Score:1, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    now if only there were some way to bring this technology to baseball cards...
  • I've talked myself out of buying flat screen monitors with less than a 170 degree viewing angle.

    Can you imagine a screen where if you readjust yourself just slightly you lose the picture and have to force yourself back into the position you've held for three hours? Sounds like hell.

    And from the looks of it, hell's much more expensive than you're average screen.
  • I don't think that image is a good represenative sample. BOTH images have the same background (the Shrubs, lamp, etc). You could interpolate image 1 on top of image 2 and have few artifacts. You can even see the third building from the "past" in the same location on the "future" image.

    I think a better sample would be 2 entirely different images.

  • 20 layers of 3D (Score:2, Interesting)

    by DotDotSlasher ( 675502 )
    This reminds me of a display at SIGGRAPH last year. It used 1000Hz DLP projector. The projector shined on 20 slices (parallel to the "screen", at increasing distance from the viewer), one at a time, so each slice was updated at 50Hz. Each slice was translucent, so the result was a convincing 3D image. Of course, you need a real 3D datasource, and the range of motion that it looks convincing is limited, but very cool. More info at Lightspacetech [lightspacetech.com]
    From their FAQ:
    How does the DepthCube z1024 3D Display wo
  • How to display these images on this thing: A 360 degree spinning LED screen [dynascanusa.com] and we can have a whole crowd get a personal version of whatever they are watching. Combine that with the sound options that the children of the root post point out and we can really have a party!

  • Haha, I could see this as some great potential for the porn industry, especially with self pleasuring.

    In the video he talks about how the picture would go from raining to pouring, if you started waving your arms around....So uh...if there was a lot of movement...maybe the picture would change accordingly ;)

    If I only had a patent...I could be rich (feel free to help yourself)

  • ITP (Score:2)

    by hhawk ( 26580 )
    it would have been nice to link to ITP.. I went there too... The Thesis there are "final projects" typically.. while I wrote about the future of advertising, someone else could produce some video or some flash animation.

    The program focuses now on Physical Media, ATMs are a good example of that.. but some art work you hang on the wall and it interacts with you as you walk past it, would be an other example..

    Anyway, i'm not really sure I see any strong applications for this..

  • This is nothing compared to my man/cat display (Score:5, Funny)

    by birge ( 866103 ) on Monday June 13, 2005 @11:44PM (#12809716) Homepage
    What is it with the recent self-promotional use of /.? Next week, I'm going to try to get my own research on Slashdot: It is a liquid crystal display designed to be used by a man and cat, simultaneously. I call it kittiplexing, and it shows the human user their normal Windows XP desktop while showing a bouncing ball around the screen for the benefit of the cat. It requires that the cat wear a head-mounted optical unit I call the Digital Light Directing Optic. But once you strap it to the pussy, you just keep getting Windows until the batteries run out on the DLDO.
  • You now, leave my aunt margie out of this! For shame!
  • Is that all it takes to get a Ph.D? Give me a break. I thought a thesis was where you became a vortex of knowledge in a given area, put forth a ground breaking and substantial idea, then defended it. Then ultimately, if successful, coming out as the expert in your field?

    This is a cracker jack toy. There's been little multi-angle scenes on cracker jack toys for as long as I've been alive. Your idea is make it move and that's a thesis?

  • "Seventh year" [jeremynewton.com] student, and only just got a Master's this past year? I feel for you, man...
  • ...of "time shifting", "shift of time", whatever, is getting ridiculous. Nobody can shift time, they can only delay the play back of content.
  • OK, I didn't RTA, but Depicto at http://depicto.com/ [depicto.com] lets you share things among any number of people at any number of networked computers. And any of them can modify/comment on the image/text in realtime while all others watch. Pretty cool! I use it to work with my remote office all the time.
  • The question that's floating thru my mind is if two people are looking at different things on say, a computer monitor, who's the one that's going to be in charge of running the keyboard and mouse?

    I see this type of technology as perhaps useful for game consoles, where one box has multiple controllers. Now if they could just figure out a way so that only certain sounds would only be heard by you, this would totally rock.

    Though I'm a bit concerned about image distortion.
    • Now if they could just figure out a way so that only certain sounds would only be heard by you, this would totally rock.

      Oh my God, you've given me the most marvellous idea! Why not make tiny speakers, no more that a third of an inch across, that people can put *directly into their own ears*? That way, if you get the volume right, they'll get their own totally individual audio experience which no-one else in the room can really hear!

      Yes, I think we're onto a winner here! Must run to the patent office!
  • How would one share the mouse control with another viewer? It makes sense having on person watch a movie, while another can be playing a game or working on a file, but how would this work if two people need to interact with the computer?
  • These kinds of devices have been around for a while now. Most notably the Lumisight Table [siggraph.org] at SIGGRAPH last year. Lenticular technologies have been used to create these displays many times before; it is only now, as LCDs get crisper, that you can put them to more use; but I am willing to bet it still looks pretty bad.
  • Wow...

    Now we can actualy use those extra frames to render slight different angled scenes, so you can look around at you monitor searching for targets without actually using the mouse to turn around!

    And I guess this will create some degree of stereoscopic effect on the image, leading to "real" 3D without the need of special glasses!

    This can really improve the gaming experience! But wait, I guess it would be usefull with project Looking Glass too (http://www.sun.com/software/looking_glass/ [sun.com])!
  • Anarchic, anonymous flash applet:

    Someone keeps stealing my letters! [okaygo.co.uk]

    We spent a long time playing with this. I teamed up with a couple friends and we managed to get the whole thing alphabetized, and it's interesting to try to communicate when there's no way to identify yourself except by moving letters in recognizable ways.
  • I find it amazing that a 50 year old technology is considered by some people to be "new". Yes, 50 (and probably more) years old. Dual use screens? A lenticular lens system isn't the best manner - I have an old Popular Mechanics from the 1950's that shows a similar system (to allow two people to watch different channels on TV on the same screen) - basically two TVs, mounted in a cabinet, one facing you and shining through a half-silvered mirror angled at a 45 degree angle, with the other TV in the bottom of

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