LG debuts eye-tracking no-specs 3D screen
Monitor in 'interesting story' shock
Monitor stories are usually zzzzz, but here's an interesting one for a change: a glasses-free 3D screen that tracks your eye movements to ensure, it's claimed, you always see a perfect picture.
The kit comes from LG, and its called the D2000. It's a 20in panel and uses a parallax barrier to separate out left- and right-eye images.
A number of vendors - Toshiba most notably - are developing 3D TVs based on parallax barrier technology. Its downside is the imposition of fixed viewing points beyond which you can't see the 3D image.
LG admitted its eye-tracking system doesn't eliminate that limitation, but the company maintains the technology does minimise the problem.
A camera watches the viewer's eyes, and on-board software tracks their movement, using their position and viewing angle to adjust the image in real-time so the 3D image remains intact.
So if you find yourself physically ducking your head to avoid that incoming missile, the scene shouldn't go to pants just because you moved your eyes out of the sweetspot.
Alas, LG didn't provide any pics of the D2000 in action, only a standard shot which looks like almost every other monitor you've ever seen. It wouldn't be 3D, but at least it'd be something.
Of course, it's a lot easier to do this with a monitor, a screen predicated - unlike a telly - on a viewer's face being very close to it, but there's no reason why the technology can't be adapted to large TVs.
The D2000 goes on sale in Korea this month, but will be introduced to other countries toward the end of the year. ®
COMMENTS
TVs
"there's no reason why the technology can't be adapted to large TVs."
Other than the problem when more than one person is watching - that would need multiple trackers and barriers.
great until......
My cat wonders around behind me, or my missus walks past in a spotty dress and the monitor decides to track them instead of my head, and i get a headache with the screen changing.
I must be blind to...
I love my new 3d tv and quite often just sit there gawping in amazement at how my flat panel tv appears to be a relatively deep box. As somebody else mentioned though, I have yet to see anything actually come out of the screen. I can see the 3d effect and it does look stunning but it always appears to be happening inside the tv.
am I the only person too blind to see image popping out of the screen?
I can see depth, object appearing in front of other objects, but the depth goes _into_ the screen. I honestly can't see anything coming _out_... well, at the very least, not from the games and movies I played so far!
but, it might that I am just too blind to see things coming out of the screen!
"... but there's no reason why the technology can't be adapted to large TVs."
Except, of course, that TVs are often watched by more than one person. Good luck tracking multiple pairs of eyeballs and applying multiple image adjustments with only one physical screen.
