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Another dimension

Posted on 6 Dec 2002 at 10:24

So long the stuff of techno fantasy, 3D screens are again focusing on the foreground.

As futuristic technology concepts go, 3D screens have been right up there with the teleporter as an aspirational idea that could change the way we see the world, yet they still reside in the realm of the science fiction.
Screens that project images towards you have been shown on Tomorrow's World, but, like many of the ideas brought to the fore by the BBC's future-focused programme, viewers have always regarded them as a technology that won't reach the mass market in our lifetime. And this is despite the fact that 3D movies have been around since the 1950s, when the rather crude red and blue cellophane glasses were introduced. They impressed children of that generation, but since then 3D screens have been dismissed as gimmicky.
So it may come as a surprise to find that futuristic 3D screens are already available. The challenge to produce 3D displays has been ongoing, with developers in the US, Europe and Asia all enjoying varying degrees of success. This is a market that will be worth trillions, and the scientists behind the displays say they're being held back by the market's unwillingness to take a leap of faith and put massive investment behind it.
In their search for perfection, monitor experts generally criticise attempts at 3D screens, citing problems such as artefacts on the image, limited viewing angles, restricted number of users and, of course, price. But there also exists inertia among those who've seen the displays. Developers claim to receive a chorus of wows whenever their creations are shown to potential clients, but converting this interest into an acquisition is a different matter.
'Everybody loves it when they come and see it, but they don't want to follow it up. It needs someone to not take a risk, but to make a leap of judgement and then, if they get it right, it could change the world,' said John Holden from UK intellectual property developer Central Research Labs (CRL www.crl.co.uk).
Thriller apps
The applications are endless, according to those living and breathing 3D. Most of the developers start by targeting niche, high-end markets, but all of them have long-term designs on every TV, monitor, information display and advertising billboard in the world. They believe we'll look back one day at the primitive 2D displays we use today and snigger at their lack of ingenuity.
German firm SeeReal Technologies (www.seereal.com) has been focusing its early attempts on the medical sector and is already claiming some success in this field. The company says its displays are well suited to the field of minimal invasive surgery and, in February 2002, its D4D display was used by a team of ophthalmologic surgeons to aid an eye surgery operation.
'There's no doubt the medical sector is a market niche that's very interesting, because it involves serious usage and sets high standards for quality and function,' said SeeReal CEO Lars Povelsen.
Another developer, New Zealand's Deep Video Imaging (www.deepvideo.com), claims to have achieved success with fairly basic implementations of its multilayer display in the US military, where the 3D effect can be used to better illustrate weather and radar patterns.
The technology has also been touted for the gaming market, probably in arcades to begin with. It's a market that's based upon innovative ideas, and particularly the visual wow factor.
'A 3D computer game in an arcade would be fantastic,' said CRL's John Holden, 'rather like the first electronic tennis game, which had to be serviced after a couple of hours because the coin box was full. If you had a new 3D game, with images coming out of it, you'd get the same reaction.'