3D displays

NicolasB

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This thread is partly an excuse for me to answer a question asked in another thread, but I also welcome all contributions on the subject of 3D displays! :smashin:

NicolasB do you have any info on hows 3D TV Technology getting on?
Not really. The direction "3D" displays have been going in for the past few years doesn't interest me very much, TBH.

We're still a long way away from real-time hologram displays - probably decades rather than years - and even then I'm not sure they'll ever be able to get convincing colour images using holographic techniques. There have been a few suggestions for transparent 3D imaging systems (where you have a 3D image inside a solid block display) but these are really only of interest for things like medical scanners.

Consumer 3D focuses on stereoscopic systems - where you have two separate 2D images, one of which is fed to each eye. A system like that cannot ever be genuinely 3D, because there's no parallax: if you move your head from side to side, the elements within the "3D" scene don't move correctly relative to each other.

They had a moderately effective 3D system in IMax cinemas about 15 or 20 years ago, which uses two different images with different polarisations projected onto the same screen; you wear lightweight glasses with polarising lenses. That actually works reasonably well (aside from the parallax issue), but it's hard to achieve the same thing if you're not using a front projection system.

If we hadn't abandoned CRT we could potentially still be looking into combining high-refresh-rate CRT displays with LCD shutter glasses. You could possibly achieve the same thing with some other display technologies - DLP, for example - but unfortunately companies refuse to explore that avenue because they've become obsessed with the idea of doing 3D "without glasses". All of the resulting 3D displays therefore require the viewer to be at a very precise distance away from the screen - and are thus useless in a domestic situation, and always will be. (They're useful for shop-window displays or booths at exhibitions, but that's all).

So, frankly, I wouldn't hold your breath. No company is interested in consumer 3D right now, AFAIK.

One thing I would love to see is a return to "Virtual Reality" style systems. This isn't remotely relevant to watching movies, of course, it's only useful in situations where the image is generated dynamically, such as in video games. The most important aspect of VR (to my mind) was not actually the stereoscopic aspect, but the head-tracking; it's the only stereoscopic system where you actually do get correct parallax. From a computer-gaming perspective it ought to be an amazing experience; all of a sudden you're no longer looking at the game world through a small window, you are completely inside the world, and can turn your head in any direction, look all around you, within that world. If you combine that with a glove controller that offers force-feedback, so you can pick up objects and feel the shape of them in your hand, you've got a potentially stunning setup.

Sadly, VR was launched a few years too soon. At that time the resolutions and frame-rates that could be achieved were too low; that not only made the experience visually unsatisfying, it also actually caused motion sickness in users! So I suspect the idea is probably gone, never to return. :(
 
Addendum: there is, serendipitously, an article over at Tom's Hardware Guide today which talks about using LCD shutter glasses in combination with a DLP projector (thus creating a sterescopic image large enough to cover an entire wall!). This approach is not without its problems, but it's an interesting read nonetheless.

http://tomshardware.co.uk/2007/04/10/wall_sized_3d_displays_uk/
 
NicolasB
Thankyou very much most appreciated!:smashin:
Very interesting info sorry to have put you through all that trouble of finding all that info for me even though you were not that interested.

Imagine going back to the Valve days and someone walked in whilst we were trying to repair a ValveTV and asked us can I not get a Flat TV to hang on the wall? And in HD
We would both have looked at him and looked back at each other and kicked him OUT! And would have said needs to stop smoking that stuff!:laugh:

Like you say we're a long way of yet.
Back to Star Wars I guess.:devil:
 
NicolasB
Thankyou very much most appreciated!:smashin:
Very interesting info sorry to have put you through all that trouble of finding all that info for me even though you were not that interested.
No trouble. I am actually very interested in 3D display tech.

My degree (I'm 35, so that was many years ago, now!) was in Laser Physics and Optoelectronics, so I know a bit about holography and 3D displays. Even while I was at uni they were actually experimenting with real-time holograms, but the image was limited to a resolution of about 20x20, with 10 frames per second. Not exactly high-definition. :)

But I think all the companies have been going the wrong way with 3D for the past 10 years. To me, having to keep your head in the same position to a tolerance of no more than a couple of inches either way is a lot more annoying than having to wear a pair of light-weight cardboard spectacles. But clearly I'm the only person who feels this. :rolleyes:

I don't know what Philips thinks is so revolutionary about their tech, either, I saw a very similar product at an exhibition 12 years ago....
 
No trouble. I am actually very interested in 3D display tech.
But I think all the companies have been going the wrong way with 3D for the past 10 years. To me, having to keep your head in the same position to a tolerance of no more than a couple of inches either way is a lot more annoying than having to wear a pair of light-weight cardboard spectacles. But clearly I'm the only person who feels this. :rolleyes:
....

I totally agree with you NicolasB you are not the only one that feels that way!:thumbsup:
 
So I obviously misinterpreted this then?

A “look around” effect can be achieved with additional projectors.

:mad:
 
It's an interesting idea, but buying several projectors at once is not really practical for a domestic setup.
 

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