Sharp's 3D monitors: Look, no glasses

Sharp's 3D monitors: Look, no glasses

(THis is going to make looking at porn ten times more enjoyable)

Consumer-electronics giant Sharp next year plans to sell notebooks and flat-screen LCD monitors that can show three-dimensional images.

The monitors will let people see high-resolution 3D images or run 3D programs without using special glasses or additional software. For example, bodies and bullets appear to fly all over the place in a version of the popular game "Quake" that has been adjusted to work on Sharp's 3D monitors.

The technology also will be aimed at businesses, said Greg Nakagawa, senior vice president of Sharp Systems of America. General Motors has discussed experimenting with the technology in its modeling and design department. Medical imaging companies and e-commerce sites also are potential customers.

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"I'm sure there will be a notebook product and an LCD monitor as well" toward the end of 2003, he said.

Bringing 3D viewing to the computing world has been a longtime goal. Although several companies have come out with Web browser software and other technology to make images appear to pop off the screen, the Web largely remains a two-dimensional world. To most people, 3D still means paper glasses with red and blue lenses or the hologram image of Princess Leia in "Star Wars."

"It is still in its infancy in many ways," said Rhoda Alexander, an analyst with iSuppli/Stanford Resources . "There is a definite interest in the gaming market. There are some medical applications that like 3D, but precision there is important."

The picture, though, will likely begin to change in 2003. A 3D consortium--which includes Toshiba, Sony, Olympus, Kodak and Microsoft among its founding members--was recently established to hammer out standards for hardware manufacturing and software development. Such a move is typically a prelude to greater commercial adoption. The first meeting of the group, known as the 3D Consortium, took place earlier this month.

Manufacturers are also working to smooth out potential resistance from developers or consumers. Turning traditional 2D "Quake" into a 3D program took only a day, Nakagawa said. Sharp also will let consumers turn off the 3D functionality.

Enhancing displays is at the core of the Japanese giant's strategy. Sharp, which reported a $557 million profit in fiscal 2002, is one of the leaders in the market for TFT displays, the glass with embedded electronics that comprises LCD monitors, and it has a major presence in the LCD monitor market in Europe and Japan.

More interesting uses of screens can directly improve the bottom line. At Comdex, for instance, Sharp showed off a new version of its Muramasa notebook, which weighs just over two pounds. Earlier this year, the company showed off an LCD panel with an embedded Zilog microprocessor. Sharp envisions a time when complete computers will be embedded into monitors, Nakagawa said.

Toshiba also is working on a 3D monitor, according to sources.

making the illusion of a three dimensions isnt actually that 3-d

it has nothing to do with the more important aspect of Interaction. 3-d interface is all relative to what you are doing...

video games havent got any better... theyre all basically the same format and vantage point. the resolution and details of that vantage point have just been realized more.

i dont know why people are so easily satisfied by that crap.

..sorry i dont know what im rambling about.

once you combine the interaction with the 3d you got a gold mine...

ethreadz... theyve been trying that for years.

virtual reality such as lets say.. a "cave" is a expensive platform thats working on technology and ideas that are 20 yrs old.

vr and 3d research is costly and slow. there are a few directions theyve found it useful.

medical usage..such a surgery

museum display usage

and video games..

currently the most cheap development in interface technology and display technology has been progressed by the video game industry.

they usually go for the gimicky cheap and limited potentials.

ehh.. i mean.. this sharp screen still sounds interesting..

but i think 3-d is output is a pipe dream and people should spend more time trying to just wire directly into the nervous system.. as crazy as that may sound.

^ That idea is far from crazy, I think that is very possible..

also I am very fond of those gimicky video games, nothing like hours of mario cart..

your points are very valid, it doesn't really seem cost effective, but one can dream of having some interactive 3-dimensional entertainment in their own home..

Agreed with Alballs. 3D is still mostly a novelty. There is promise, but we haven't found what it's good for yet.

However, I am extremely interested in finding out exactly how these screens manage stereo vision without the aid of individual eye filters. Beer,

El Mamerro

yeah i was wondering how stereo is achieved also.

mammero i dont know if you ever went to teh faunhaufer institute.. if matt took you there or whatever but i went there recently and they were talking about how they were using new technologies to achieve stereo vision.

you know how the glasses you wear in most setups runs on ultrasound... or uv.. something along those lines..

ive lost my train of thought.. but the old glasses were wicked bulky the new ones are not and are much much more affordable... (being $100 rather then $600)

i doubt their stylish.. ..

stereo also requires one vantage point in terms of viewship.. if there are people sitting in different places who ever is interfacing has the clearest unskewed perspective...right? so its limited to a party of one?

Yeah, Matt took us there. They showed us the museum display table with the image that moved according to your headset position... which was determined by sensors and triangulation. It was a little rudimentary, but it was a neat step.

Another class took us to the Cave at brown, which was more impressive... and could hold multiple viewers. Only one, however, could interact. I don't think it's possible for multiple interactions with only one display, there need to be separate ones for each person.

Yet I still haven't heard of any way to produce 3D vision without sending separate images to each eye... I'm thinking they're producing a screen that's constructed the same way those 3D decals that John Ha uses are.

/////// <----- That would be a cross section of the screen.

Each right side of the triangles produces one image that is angled towards the left eye, and each left side of the triangles produces another image that goes towards the other eye. These things only work if your head doesn't move around much though. We'll see how it is. Beer,

El Mamerro

yeah

you guys overlook the most widely used application, and also the most largely funded consumer/developer, of 3d and VR... The US military.

I'm all for any new technology that lets me fell like I'm really killing people and helps me get off.

smart... very true

but moreso in relation to

biometrics

it is the in thing.. thats where the money is..

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