Autostereographic display. This is a display with a series of linear plastic lenses on top that focuses the light so that each eye sees a different image. The images consist of two (or more) images interwoven. You can read more about it on the Wikipedia article here: Autostereoscopy There are now TVs that can produce autostereo images; one is made by Visio. They advertise “glasses-free 3D”.
I was 13 years old and I had been playing with images that change when you slide the cover over them. At first they had mystified me, and then when I figured out how they worked, they fascinated me. I realized that if the cover were displaced above the photo, then each eye would see something different.
I also had a collection of 3D comics, ones that used red and green glasses over the eyes, and I loved the effect. I had drawn my own 3D pictures using red and green crayons. (These days you can buy kits that do this in a toy store, but I just used the glasses that came with my 3D comic book and crayons.) So I knew that all it took to make a 3D image was to have each eye see something different. I made a small autostereo display using cardboard, and it worked! 3D images without the need for red/green glasses. (I also had been to 3D movies in which polarized glasses were used, but I didn’t know how to draw polarized images.)
Then one day (I think I was 13 years old) I was walking in front of a store, located at 149th Street and Willis Avenue in the Bronx, when I saw an autostereo 3D display in the window. I was startled and delighted—my idea was actually something that could be sold—and I was also disappointed. Someone else had got there first.
Do I recommend 3D TV? A few years ago I got involved in a startup company “Soliddd” to make autostereo 3D. (Get it? How many “d”s are there in the name?) I knew all about autostereo, but with my grown-up expertise in physics and math I was able to analyze the problem more deeply, and invent several ways to enhance the experience. This led to several patents (not yet issued). This company is still actively trying to market the technology; you can read about it at this link: Soliddd | Truly Lifelike 3D™. You’ll see that I am still the CTO (Chief Technical Officer).
A childhood invention becoming commercial! But progress is extremely slow. I bought myself a 3D TV, and discovered that 3D on a small screen in your livingroom (and even 40-inches is “small”) doesn’t give the same satisfying effect that it does in a movie theater, where the screen can subtend a large solid angle of your vision. So I am not optimistic that this technology will really take off. But there are also applications to 3D posters, and Soliddd is actively pursuing those.
Never heard of Soliddd? I never mentioned it on my previous answers to “what do you do?” I guess that’s because it is still a longshot, and currently it is Neal Weinstock, the CEO, who is putting in the most time and energy to get it going.
Read other answers by Richard Muller on Quora:
- Life: What is the single greatest thing that your parents have ever taught/given you?
- What is it that nobody tells you about having children?
- Would life on Earth survive if we orbited a different star?
from Quora http://ift.tt/2eaYLwx
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