Glasses-free 3D Monitors Are Now A Reality With Autostereoscopy Technology
3D technology is difficult to ignore, with most cinemas offering 3D and the rise in popularity of home TV 3D monitors. 3D monitors make it possible for viewers to feel like they are part of the action as their viewing experience is made more realistic by the extra dimension. But one of the main drawbacks which this technology has held is the inconvenient glasses which have to be worn to experience 3D monitors. Auto-stereoscopic displays offer an advantage on previous technology (such as that used in cinemas) in that spatial viewing becomes achievable without the inconvenient need for red and green, polarized or shutter glasses.
Autostereoscopy is the name given to displaying 3D images (stereoscopic images) without the need for special headgear or glasses worn by the viewer. 3D monitors use an optical illusion to give their effect. They ensure that each eye sees a slightly different perspective which the human brain then uses to process into a single spatial picture. There are a range of techniques which can be employed to enable 3D monitors without the need for glasses. Examples include parallax barriers, volumetric and lenticular lenses. One technique which 3D monitors use is wider viewing angles, which use eye-tracking (following the eye’s point of view), but 3D monitors that display for multiple viewers mean that the display does not need to sense where the viewers’ eyes are located.
Autostereoscopic 3D displays were first developed by Reinhard Boerner at the Heinrich Hertz Institute in Berlin from 1985. Prototypes of single-viewer displays using eye-tracking systems were being created as early as the Nineties, but nowadays technology is moving towards different techniques to allow for multiple viewers at the same time.
Most flat-panel solutions use lenticular lenses, an arrangement of curved magnifying lenses so slightly different images are magnified from different angles; and parallax barriers, a device inserted in front of an image source consisting of a layer of material with a series of precise slits, allowing each eye to see a different set of pixels. Parallax barriers mean that one group of pixels has its light directed to one eye, and the other group towards the other eye. As eyes are set apart and see slightly different distances, this produces the 3D effect.
Nintendo have used autostereoscopy technology in their gaming system Nintendo 3DS and Fujifilm introduced a digital camera with a 3D display screen in 2009. The world’s first 3D monitor which doesn’t require glasses was released this year at the 2011 International Broadcasting Convention (IBC) in Amsterdam. The ORCHID OR-70-3D 7-inch camera-top monitor was displayed for visitors at the convention, displaying its hybrid of parallax barrier and lenticular technology. It can be used as a camera viewfinder or portable 3D production display.
The race to produce multi-view 3D monitors is therefore well underway in the technology industry. Many hold the view that autostereoscopic displays can eventually be used as a form of advertising, a fun effect in night clubs or theme parks, and for use in knowledge sharing such as in schools, museums, conferences and tourism information centres.
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