This outlines the next phase of 3D imagery which can be
operated from a LCD platform. It is technically doable with the
advent of a somewhat faster refresh rate and using a well established
methodology. It is not Holodec quality yet but it is glasses free
and certainly a large improvement.
What it means is an effective home 3D protocol will be
here inside the next couple of years as it naturally driven by
consumer demand along with rapidly dropping prices. It is also a
natural upgrade for the industry that replaces the present stock in
its entirety. Just when you thought that HD flat screen was good
enough for a few years.
It certainly will be good enough for the in home flat
screen market and even welcome.
19:05 July 12, 2012
MIT’s Media Lab has
proposed a new technique for multiple-perspective and glasses-free 3D
technology
Image Gallery (4
images)
Though 3D movies have
been around for a while, the experience of visiting a cinema to catch
the latest blockbuster is dampened by unwieldy glasses and the
limitation of only one fixed perspective being offered to all. The
illusion of depth is present, but this is far removed from the
hologram-like, multiple-perspective experience which would truly wow
movie-goers. MIT's Media Lab’s Camera Culture group proposes a
new approach to 3D images that promises glasses-free
multiple-perspective 3D. Perhaps best of all though, MIT's technique
uses inexpensive existing LCD technology, clearing the way for the
tech to be implemented into TV's.
Holography works,
but...
“Holography works,
it’s beautiful, nothing can touch its quality,” enthused Douglas
Lanman, a postdoc at the Media Lab. “The problem, of course, is
that holograms don’t move. To make them move, you need to create a
hologram in real time, and to do that, you need … little tiny
pixels, smaller than anything we can build at large volume at low
cost. So the question is, what do we have now? We have LCDs.
They’re incredibly mature, and they’re cheap."
In order to understand
the MIT-based team’s proposal, it’s useful to consider the
Nintendo 3DS. The 3DS sports a glasses-free 3D display which provides
an illusion of depth made possible by a relatively simple process: in
the top screen, two layered LCD screens display two slightly offset
images which represent each perspective of the user's eyes.
Meanwhile, the bottom screen merely shows alternating dark and light
bands in order to ensure each eye sees only the image intended for
it. A limitation to Nintendo's console is that users must keep their
gaze in a fixed position to experience the 3D effect.
Researchers at the
Media Lab Camera Culture group reasoned that they could take the
principles utilized by Nintendo still further. By tailoring the
patterns displayed on the top and bottom screens to each other, the
team was able to filter the light emitted by the display in a more
sophisticated way and thus create an image that would alter with
varying perspectives. Dubbed HR3D, the project appears to be
independent to the other MIT-based holographic television project we
previously reported on.
Reducing the hertz
The researchers first
calculated that for the HR3D to offer convincing multiple-perspective
3D, the screen used would be required to flicker ten times for every
frame of 3D video, pushing said screen up to an impractical 1,000 Hz
refresh rate. But by combining two LCD screens in unison, the Media
Lab team was eventually able to get the required refresh rate for
convincing multiple-perspective 3D down to a more realistic, but as
yet still unattainable, 360 Hz.
This solution brought
its own problems though, as using two LCD screens in unison increases
the complexity of calculating the required patterns, so the team then
turned to computed topography (CT) technology that is used in medical
imaging. It turns out that the computation involved in CT technology
is very similar to the math that the MIT Media Lab Camera Culture
group is dealing with.
“The way I like to
think about it is, we’re building a patient whose CT scan is the
view,” said Lanman.
Once the numbers were
crunched with the help of CT technology, a display was produced that
approaches the experience of a true moving hologram. Until an LCD
display is able to offer refresh rates of 360 Hz, the existing limit
of 240 Hz is ample for proving the possibilities of the project.
Since LCD's have doubled from 120 Hz to 240 Hz in recent years, it's
entirely possible that 360 Hz will be available soon.
Still in development
At this year's
Siggraph computer-graphics conference, the Media Lab researchers will
demonstrate two prototype displays: one which uses three LCD panels
and another which employs just two panels. To widen the viewing angle
of the display, the latter places a sheet of lenses developed for
stereoscopic display systems that refract light left and right in
between the pair of LCD panels. With the three-panel prototype, the
3D illusion offered is consistent within a viewing angle of 20
degrees, but the refractive-lens prototype can offer viewing angle of
50 degrees.
HR3D is still very
much in the development stage at this point and there's significant
work to be done before we see multiple-perspective 3D TV in our
homes, not to mention the fact that the relevant LCD technology still
needs to be created. That said, should the HR3D prove as
cost-effective and technologically feasible as these experiments
suggest, awe-inspiring home TV setups could indeed become commonplace
in the near-future.
The video below
further details the approach taken by the Media Lab team.
Source: MIT
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