3D Call of Duty?
- From: "Jordan" <lundj@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: 24 Aug 2006 12:43:32 -0700
Yes, more technology that involves buying a new television, but I like
the idea...
- Jordan
http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,71627-0.html?tw=wn_index_14
3-D TV That Actually Works
By Seán Captain| Also by this reporter
02:00 AM Aug, 22, 2006
I entered a conference room in Manhattan and a woman on the TV tossed a
handful of rose petals out of the screen, where they floated in the air
before my eyes.
At least, that's what I saw. In truth, the image resided on a perfectly
flat, 42-inch LCD screen. But the 3-D illusion was fully believable,
and I didn't have to wear a dorky set of polarizing glasses.
A new line of 3-D televisions by Philips uses the familiar trick of
sending slightly different images to the left and right eyes --
mimicking our stereoscopic view of the real world. But where
old-fashioned 3-D movies rely on the special glasses to block images
meant for the other eye, Philips' WOWvx technology places tiny lenses
over each of the millions of red, green and blue sub pixels that make
up an LCD or plasma screen. The lenses cause each sub pixel to project
light at one of nine angles fanning out in front of the display.
A processor in the TV generates nine slightly different views
corresponding to the different angles. From almost any location, a
viewer catches a different image in each eye.
Providing so many views is key to the dramatic results. Sharp
Electronics makes an LCD display that projects just two views,
requiring an audience to sit perfectly still in front of the screen.
With the Philips technology, viewers can move around without losing
much of the effect -- one set of left/right views slips into another,
with just a slight double-vision effect in the transitions.
The TV can also display standard two-dimensional images, close to HD
quality.
The uncanny 3-D illusion stops people in their tracks, as it's meant
to. Philips is initially selling the 42-inch screens -- which debuted
at the Society for Information Displays conference in June -- to
retailers who will create 3-D ads to grab the attention of passing
shoppers.
Casinos are interesting in the screens -- the mesmerizing effects may
help patrons part with more of their money. Holland Casino just
announced plans to install the screens throughout its locations in the
Netherlands.
Finding content for home users is more of a challenge.
One nearly ready-made source of content is modern video games, which
actually generate three-dimensional objects internally, then flatten
the images into 2-D representations for standard monitors. Philips has
developed hardware and software that can extract the original depth
information from the game engine and use it to create 3-D images on a
WOWvx display.
In New York, the company demonstrated the technique with the
first-person shooter Call of Duty. It looked almost perfect, except for
a little shimmering around the edges of objects, which Philips says
will be fixed in the coming months.
The company also has plans for video. The ultimate hope is that studios
will produce more 3-D content, like the recent 3-D version of Sony
Pictures' Monster House that screened in 162 U.S. theaters. But Philips
is developing software to convert standard video to 3-D by analyzing
movement to determine the original depth position of people and
objects.
A standard laptop running Philips' software was able to convert the DVD
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King into 3-D in real time and
display it on Philips's new 20-inch "3D 4YOU" LCD monitor -- a
retail-kiosk implementation of the 3-D screen.
The result looked vaguely 3-D, though it was marred by some blurriness
and double images.
"I think for consumers this is simply not good enough," said Philips
executive Rob de Vogel. "But the progress in the past year is amazing."
He expects the company to show a better version of the conversion
software to the public in the coming months -- possibly at the next
Consumer Electronics Show in January 2007.
.
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