Re: [ccp4bb]: OSX & LCD Stereo

[Richard Gillilan <reg8@cornell.edu>]

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I haven't followed the technology recently, but I have
seen displays that did not require any stereo glasses
in the past. One such device used a principle similar to
the old-fashioned 3D postcards... some kind of prismatic
or masked screen overlay I suspect. You had to shuffle 
your head from side to side until you find the right sweet spot
where things looked 3D. A little dissapointing, but has
some potential.

About 5 years ago, I also saw a prototype holographic TV in 
the basement of the MIT media lab. Pretty cool if you don't
mind a room full of optical tables and a palm-top-sized screen. 
IBM research was supposed to have taken up that project but I haven't
heard thing one about it in years. 

I also saw a device based on those novelty bowl-shaped mirrors. You know 
the ones you put a penny in and it looks like the object is 
floating in space. These guys put a whole monitor at the bottom.
It's not really 3D .... what you get is a flat screen floating in
space. If you put a black background on and rotate the object it 
really looks like it's floating in space (rotation is a depth cue).
This would be totally worthless for crystallography however ... 
so ... buyer beware. During my tenure as a virtual reality specialist,
I saw some even stranger devices at a military base, none of which
would really be practical I think. Display technology changes very slowly.
I'll have to check out the /. article, but I'm skeptical. 

Richard Gillilan
MacCHESS
Cornell


> There are also some projects under way, which would lead to
> autostereoscopic LCD-displays (with several slightly different
> approaches, see recent articles on /. for example). The expectation is,
> that this will become commercially available within the next year for
> professional users (at a very high price) and within 5 years for
> consumer-grade products.
> 
> These displays would work without shutter-glasses or any other device
> you would have to wear, but as I understood it, they are not ready yet.
> 
> --
> Bye,  Marc Saric
>