Glasses-free 3-D TV at MIT

As striking as it is, the illusion of depth now routinely offered by 3-D movies is a paltry facsimile of a true three-dimensional visual experience. In the real world, as you move around an object, your perspective on it changes. But in a movie theater showing a 3-D movie, everyone in the audience has the same, fixed perspective — and has to wear cumbersome glasses, to boot.

Despite impressive recent advances, holographic television, which would present images that vary with varying perspectives, probably remains some distance in the future. But in a new paper featured as a research highlight at this summer's Siggraph computer-graphics conference, the MIT Media Lab's Camera Culture group offers a new approach to multiple-perspective, glasses-free 3-D that could prove much more practical in the short term.

Instead of the complex hardware required to produce holograms, the Media Lab system uses several layers of liquid-crystal displays (LCDs), the technology currently found in most flat-panel TVs. To produce a convincing 3-D illusion, the displays would need to refresh at a rate of about 360 times a second, or 360 hertz. Such displays may not be far off: LCD TVs that boast 240-hertz refresh rates have already appeared on the market, just a few years after 120-hertz TVs made their debut.

Video: Melanie Gonick, MIT News
Additional footage: Camera Culture Group, MIT Media Lab

[trainsayschoochoocho]

OMG! Russel Peters really got the smarts @0:37 ...

[allluckyseven]

I wish they would do a big stack of transparent OLED screens, enough to make a cube, and feed each screen with a thin layer of a 3D image.

[SilverAura]

That's also why I respect combo packs that have both the DVD and the Bluray or that 3D comes with a 2D version.

Not everyone has a Bluray player or an HDTV to appreciate it yet. So when the HD version exists, it's a waste to buy the DVD only to buy the Bluray again later. Get the combo pack, which yes.. costs a little extra than the Bluray, but you pay for the convenience of getting the version you can watch now while still having the best possible version for you to watch in the future.

[SilverAura]

The movie industry is facing a change that's been painful for them because they didn't expect it to hit them so fast. The music industry handled it a lot better because the time and money it takes to produce a song or an album is a fraction of the cost it takes to make and produce a movie.

With that said, it's still less about greed and more about severe growing pains with an audience that wants to move forward faster than you can.

[josarx]

3d is all about feeling the thing is real.. If you keep an object on a table you can feel its depth. as someone mentioned you have to move in order to feel the exact 3d dimension. Otherwise the object has to move in order to feel the 3d. here i assume the maximum depth will be constant and if the layers are increased the smoothness in movement will increase. So i think if some one say you have to move in order to feel 3d then you are living in 2d world i guess

[thewhitewolffl]

Nivida 3D Vision (with glasses) gives a great hologram like 3D effect in many PC games and it works with PS3 as well. There is also a company that revealed a prototype of a glasses free 3D display and claimed it would be out in about 1 year. This is nothing new however maybe it will lead to a great 3D effect with no glasses.

[orlis]

We are students at the Tal Institute in Jerusalem Israel, currently studying Management and Marketing Technology.
In the curriculum, we are participating in a course called "Technological Forecasting".
In this course we are researching the technology and marketability of Stereoscopic Vision (three-dimensional TV without glasses).
We would greatly appreciate if you could help us by answering several questions on the subject:

[Muscleduck]

Good luck with rendering a game 3 times for the 3 layer display.

[dfocustv]

We just interviewed Douglas Lanman to find out more details. Hope you enjoy!

[SerChade]

I'm throwing money at the screen here guys... waiting for this.

[josarx]

In order to increase the depth the 1st layer and last layer should be maximum distant apart. which affects the maximum smoothness feel. in order to compensate more layer hs to be introduced. I think depending on the depth. size, complexity and cost will increase exponentially. Have these people solved these problems which i think exists or is my assumption totally wrong

[orlis]

• Who are the competitors? Are there substitutes technologies?

• What are the advantages and disadvantages of existing Stereoscopic Vision technology?

• With which market segments will this technology make the greatest inroads?

And finally, we would appreciate if you can share with us some of your ideas and general thoughts about the future of this technology.

We greatly appreciate and thank you in advance for your time and any assistance you may offer.

Orley, Shira, Orel, and Efrat.

[WelcomeToCrystalLake]

That 3D is just a simple illusion almost the same as in the 1950s. This technology is so much more.

[Jotto]

I can't predict the future. But I suspect it will be entertaining.

[SilverAura]

That would be like saying that TV's should have never existed because it ruins the magic of reading a book and gives companies the potential to milk customers to pay unreasonable prices to watch content that's chalk full of advertisements anyway. Yet here most of us have them and typically, at least a decent portion of us, don't necessarily regret it.

[joynalahmed]

I am just confused how this is different to Alioscopy 3D Televisions? Its pretty much the same idea, rather than creating disparity using lenticular screens you are creating disparity with different layers.
Are you encoding multiple views in H.264/AVC?, then using the disparity in the different images to come up with depth perception?

[SilverAura]

But when you're faced with buying a new movie that's been shot in Bluray, why go with the DVD. When you convert it, it's still not going to be HD.

The situation is similar when staring between a 3D Bluray that includes the 2D version, or just getting the 2D version for a little less. Assuming you're being responsible and waiting until the price is reasonable, it wont be too much cheaper.

You're right about converters... as long as you're converting from the best possible original you can get.

[SilverAura]

In fact, if what you're saying was true.. the digital versions would be just as expensive as the physical copies. The price point of the physical copies has less to do with trying to gut people for every penny they can and more to do with making up for the costs of the materials for overproducing copies of movies that will ultimately end up in bargain bins after the initial demand (which is dwindling every year) is fulfilled.

Sure, profit is always part of it... people aren't complete fools.

[JoseJimeniz]

I hate it when temporally varying tensor decomposition's are clearly visible.

[SilverAura]

So you're saying that people who opt to buy physical media are basically being baited into a scam because it costs more?
I'd have to respectfully disagree - to a degree. The price of newly released movies, is pretty ridiculous and I can see your point with that. However to suggest that buying it online is the solution is also narrow sighted. The servers hosting our content nor support for the devices, are going to be around as long as a VHS, DVD, or Bluray will be. And once it's gone, it's gone.