Dave Horvath
22 Aug 2006 7:10
It seems like the people over at Philips have been hard at work at trying to 1-up the HDTV market by unveiling a working prototype of a 3-D television set. The WOWvx uses some rather unique technology to accomplish a three dimensional environment without the need of dorky polorized glasses.
Their 42" LCD screen improves upon an old movie trick of sending slightly different images to each eye to seem like our own stereoscopic view of life. But, instead of placing special glasses over the viewers eye to block out images not intended for left/right side, Philips simply places a lens over each one of the many sub pixels that make up the red/green/blue of LCD and plasma screens. These lenses cause light to be refracted at any one of nine angles, thus giving a realistic 3-D effect to the viewer.
The key to this technology is the many points of view. Earlier adaptations of this technology used only two points of view but were hampered by the viewer losing the effect if sitting at an angle to the television. With nine points of view, the viewer can by just about anywhere and still receive the desired effect, with only minimal transition effects.
As of right now, this technology is geared towards the commercial market such as casinos and advertisers at shopping malls. Philips admits that the technology isn't perfected enough to the level that would be expected by the consumer market.
This leaves the possibility of a future of gaming. 3 dimensional games are processed in a 3-D environment, then flattened for the 2-D displays most homes have. What happens if technology such as this is to blossom and 3-D graphics become truly 3-D? Could you deal with Master Chief literally standing beside you in your peripheral vision?
Source:
Wired