Sony's 360-degree 3D prototype displays blown minds (video)
By Thomas Ricker 
posted Oct 22nd 2009 3:22AM
posted Oct 22nd 2009 3:22AM
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PS4 confirmed!
like that needed to be confirmed?
No, Ps4 in about 6-7 more years, this might be out by the next two years maybe.
Don't worry ridley182, I thought your joke was funny even if the previous people didn't get it.
PS4? Shoot, sometimes I think the only reason I buy a Playstation is to support them long enough to produce PS9. If it doesn't jack straight into my adreno glands, I'm sueing for false advertisement
For those that never saw the commerical
Engadget you really need to have an edit button.
And because the link didn't show up:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vdh4TqWFfX4
PS4 in 6-7 years? You're confusing the 10-year lifespan with how much time there is between consoles. The PS3 has a ten year lifespan. That means it will have active support/development up until ballpark 10 years after release. The PS3 came out 3 years ago, and yet the PS2 is still getting new games. The PS2 will have a 10+ year lifespan despite the fact that it was replaced by the PS3 after only 6 years.
The PSX came out in 1994. The PS2 came out in 2000. The PS3 came out in 2006. Follow the pattern, expect the PS4 in 2012, or roughly three years.
that honestly looks pretty damn good, you can see scan lines refreshing it, so it gives an idea of how the image is produced, but still pretty damn nice.
WHAAAAAAAAAA?
I'm so confused as to what is going on here - It doesn't look like any type of holographic projection, but what else could do 3d like that?
I wish I could view it in 3d to get a better idea of what this looks like.
I second your desire to see this in RL
It propably uses a LCD/LED display that spins around real quickly, and the the image is refreshed at the corresponding angle..
Well, I have seen this time and time again at ces. Usually what they do is spin a lcd, crt, etc.... really fast and then you can get this type of image. Only problem is, it is noisy and looks like crap. No HD here ladies, time to re think the design. My lord the scan lines are horrible.
Just my thoughts...
Yea, but scan lines ALWAYS look much worse on camera than in real life...
It's just a rotating surface inside a glass cylinder upon which images are projected.
you took all the fun out of it...
now its just some random novelty that I could never justify buying.
Yes, a motion sensor tracks the user and rotates a screen so it's always perpendicular to the user. Software then displays an appropriate image to match the screen's orientation. Simple...
@LondonConsultant
How does it handle more than one person looking at it from different angles?
@coolblue
you beat me to the punch, +1.
@londonconsultant
what are you smoking, I WANT IT TOO!!
"How does it handle more than one person looking at it from different angles?"
The screen exists in a quantum superposition of all possible orientations. That superposition continuous collapses into a set of definite orientations, one for each person looking at it from a different angle. Basic relativity theory.
@LondonConsultant
Wow, that must seem incredibly insightful to someone who knows relatively little about theoretical physics. So is it explained by quantum physics or general relativity? Or special relativity? Three distinct theories that describe quite different phenomenons.
Here's a quick oversimplification:
Quantum physics: Things that are extremely small act in a bizarre fashion
General Relativity: Light always travels at the same speed, no matter what
Special Relativity: Gravitational forces "warp" or "curve" space-time
My guess of how it works (like most others) would be a rapidly-spinning lcd with a rapid refresh rate and a polarizing filter in the glass cylinder to provide directionality (but i'm probably wrong)
"My guess of how it works (like most others) would be a rapidly-spinning lcd with a rapid refresh rate and a polarizing filter in the glass cylinder to provide directionality (but i'm probably wrong)"
I think its more likely that its an angled mirror thats spinning with a high refresh rate projector pointed at it. You get 3d because each of your eyes are getting a different image.
Interesting tech but its somewhat limited. For example, a 50" display would need to be a cylinder 50" wide and 50" tall plus you have a problem of a motor being introduced into your viewing experience.
Don't worry LondonConsultant, some people do have the ability to get the jokes, don't give up on humanity completely please.
watching something 3D objects in flat 2D panels, doesn't blow minds...
It's nice and all, but it looks quite flickery.
I thought this was a better demonstration of 360 degree 3D rendering
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FF1vFTQOWN4
Sony's is in color, but this one is done with mirrors, so it should be possible to also display in color.
Either way, both are awesome new technology that will change the way some things happen in the future.
New, hardly, I saw this at least ten years ago at ces, just in a large form factor with a crt being spun really fast. This is fail and will never make it to the market at it's present state.
Well, relatively new. I never said that either of these would go to market or replace TVs, computers, etc. Rather I meant that the concepts/further development would lead to interesting new ideas in the future. I agree with you in the fact that the scan lines and what not look horrible. I wouldn't want to see this in anyone's living room anytime soon in its current state.
I think the scan lines might have something to do with the video camera.. like how crts looked on home-video.. at least I hope that's what's happening, because otherwise previous concepts looked much better than this :/
Oh my god. The future is here!
3-D chess like in Starwars
Electromagnetic blackholes on your coffee table
CERN converts into a holiday destination to different dimensions
Choose your own end-of-world scenarios: death by robot, 2012, interplanetary bombing!
what's funny is a read your entire comment in my head in Bart Simpson's voice
OMG this is amazing, the future i have been dreaming about is close. Not really but this is getting there.
It seems like a proper 3D view. You see different views as you move around the object.
Look at the rotating car. The car seems static as the viewer moves around the screen. When the viewer stops the car keeps rotating. Same with the brain image.
Thats a nice try from Sony BUT ..
this is not 3D .. sony shows just a 2d picture on a rotating screen.
As soon as you move your head up or down to see a 3D effect all you
see is the usual 2D picture ... Sony does not fill a volume with this
prototype. Thats why this will stay to be a prototype and will not go
into production ... sony said it themselves ...
no Starwars like 3D chess possible here ... its a nice toy but thats all ..
wait for the "D-TANK" ... that's the real deal ...a volumetric display straight
out of scfi dreams ...
Regards
I think this tech looks great, however I can only see it being useful for industry, medical etc as I can not imagine it would be a great experience to watch films or tv on this and having to get up and walk around it. It would require the TV to be in the centre of the room for one thing!
gives new meaning to watching the tube... good work engineers
movies? may I remind you of "help me Obi Wan Kenobi..."?? you don't want something like that?
Amazing how some of you douchers talk smack about the things you just don't get... All you need is for THE ILLUSION of 3D... It doesn't quite matter how to achieve that illusion, so long as the desired effect is obtained. The douchers in the group would say something like this, "Sure, it looks 3D. It looks very realistic... Heck, I can't even tell the difference between it and the real thing... But, it's made out of macaroni. Save the pasta for mac & cheese."
If you've got some amazing idea as to HOW something can be made better, share the idea or make it available to the world in one way or another... but you won't... because you don't have any ideas except the ones that make you look so much more like a vinegar&water-filled bag...
As for this concept... it looks good, but I'm lookin' forward to the HD version.
> Munky ..
sure it looks 3d as long as you dont move your head up or down ... as long as you are level with the device
you see a nice 3D illusion.
But you will not be able to show depth with this device .. have a look at the picture where it displays a red car
thats how it looks as soon as you move a little upwards .. its even hard to recognize what is shown in the picture
and it is not because it is a still .. you move your head vertical..thats how it ends up. You cannot for example
see the cars bottom or top by moving your head .. just left / right thats all and not enough.
The device from sony is a nice toy ...
and yes .. is there something better ? don't worry about that (nda)....
btw aren't we all just water filled bags ?
Ingo, what makes you think people bop their heads up and down when they're watching a movie? I'm guessing you like watching flicks while you're giving head??
normal people don't care about the how, they just like the effect...its dorks who say "FAIL" because they aren't impressed by the tech in it.
I move my head all the time, I'm not a robot prototype, and yeah I already get annoyed by the changes in brightness on LCD's because of that natural movement.
@Ridgecity
I want it badly, but I have a feeling that in practice it would be annoying. Plus half the coolness of that is R2D2 and sonys system does not seem to come with an R2 unit.
Ya I really don´t see any use for this outside advertising (huge billboards). In industrial stuff you usually have to collaborate with other people and what you are looking at is usually a reference to something in particular. That means everyone must see the same thing, from the same angle, and then the object is moved or spun around so that everyone can see the same thing. Thats what I immagine when it comes to medical stuff at least. Theres probably some usefullness when it comes to viewing 3D models as well, before any physical object is produced. But who am I to say what people will use technology for..
Been waiting for a day when an affordable Volumetric Display Unit could be bought on the cheap - very exciting! Can't wait to see what hackers / developers do with this. I heard that this tech was thought to have a good use as air traffic displays. I wish that the guy who filmed the vid would've stayed still - it's a 3D unit, for crying out loud!
Sweet! Maybe Sega can make a proper sequel to that Time Travelers laserdisc game now.
I don't see how this could be used for anything in the home entertainment market or using it to replace current LCD's and monitors. Imagine how much this thing would rape your optic muscles. I already know first hand that 3D display LCD's increase eye strain and fatigue greatly. Our generation is going to be blind by 30-40.
Get ready people, round tables are coming back in style. This will solve a lot of space when setting a room. Get this in 1080 and about the size of a coffee table and I'm straight.
Since everybody says its been done before, anyone got some DIY instructions?
Sure. Just take your average OLED screen with 3600 hz refresh rate, compute 60 different images of the 3D scene, each of a different cross-section of the volume (each rotated 6 degrees apart). Put it on a turntable going at 60 revs/sec. Calibrate the display of the different images to the rotational position of the turntable.
For better results, use two displays, one facing each way. This doubles the refresh rate. For animation, you need to compute each image for the appropriate point in time at which it will be displayed. Early models of this form of display either used discrete LEDs or a DLP projector. LCDs do not have the required refresh rate.
Unlike stereoscopic displays, this is a true volumetric 3D display. When you move your head up and down, you see different images. The image computation doesn't involve projection onto 2D, but rather simply mapping volumes to the appropriate "slices". The main problem with this type of display is ghosting: you can see stuff that's behind the surfaces in front. You can kind of solve this problem for a single viewer (by tracking where he is and only lighting up voxels when they can be seen from there; still has issues with stereo), but solving it generally would require pixels that project light differently (in a controlled manner) at different angles. Essentially, for each pixel, you'd generate a whole projected image. Of course, the amount of computation needed for this (generating a "light field") goes up tremendously.
next holograms !
hmmm... rapid prototyping without having to "print" it out first.