3D has come a long way in the last 50 years. With the mega success of Avatar
at the box office, and at least two 3-D channels in the
works, the rush is on to bring dimensionality to the small screen.
But one thing has stayed remarkably consistent: the eyewear. Those pesky, disposable 3-D glasses look just as awkward as they feel perched on the bridge of your nose. (And some people think that 3-D vision might actually be bad for you.)
Good thing researchers in Microsoft's Applied Sciences Group have developed a new type of lens to make 3-D displays more practical and eyewear-free.
According to this report from Technology Review, the prototype 3-D display has a camera that's able to track a viewer's eyes and a very thin lens that steers the light to the viewer's eyes. Light-emitting diodes along the bottom edge of the lens switch on and off, presenting different images to the viewer's left and right eye, which creates the 3-D illusion.
And not only is it possible to send a different image to each eye, but technically, completely different images could be sent to different people at the same time. Imagine advertising personalized to individual viewers. Or perhaps you and your partner could watch television together but view two completely different programs.
Television is a social activity, and since most people prefer to watch television in a group rather than alone, the more viewers that can see a 3-D show, the better. Microsoft's lens is still only able to depict 3-D action for two people at one time, but researchers say that will get better with time.
Photo: Getty Images, modified
Tags: 3D Models, Inventions, Movies, Television
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