Apparently I am not alone in thinking that the current crop 3-D technology needs to be improved. First on my list is to get rid of the 3-D glasses. Apple agrees with me, and filed for a patent in 2005 on technology to do just that. As the image to the right clearly explains (cough), the process works by bouncing pixels off a reflective surface to the left and right eyes. I do not think that we will see this technology anytime soon in an Apple product, but I hope it is not too far into the future. Take a look at the G4tv.com article for more information.
The patent also delves into why other 3D technology isn’t good enough. It calls out the current systems being used by auto-stereoscopic phones and presumably the Nintendo 3DS. Sharp and Toshiba plan on releasing glasses-less 3D TVs in Japan by the end of the year. The problem with their technology, according to the patent, is that a need still exists for the viewer to remain stationary. Apple’s goal is to offer consumers affordable and practical 3D technology.
via Apple Patents New 3D Projection Technology — No Glasses Needed – G4tv.com.
Beam me up Scotty,,,
@ Chad Actually, it’s a clever play on words.
The 3ds technology you’re referring to actually isn’t 3D. It’s head-tracked, yes, which does a pretty good job of making things seem 3D, but it’s not stereoscopic, it’s a single 2D image.
You can’t actually move your head with autostereoscopy because the parallax barrier only works with a specific interocular configuration, which means you have to be a specific distance away from the screen screen and at a specific angle.
So you can do head-tracked 3D, or you can do stereoscopic viewing. But you can’t do both at the same time.
Actually, with the front-facing camera, the Nintendo 3DS does NOT require you to be stationary. You can do face tracking.
Note also that the diagram shows “Observer” singular. No indication of how this would work with more than two eyeballs. Glasses at least always work. If you were to turn your head and the system lose track of your eyes or you did any number of the other things that can cause facetracking to fail, you would receive an incorrect projection. That would be more annoying than glasses.