Sony stereoscopic screen sharing patent puts two players on one display
By Joseph L. Flatley 
posted July 20th 2010 1:07PM
posted July 20th 2010 1:07PM
After that last bummer, where Sony applied for a patent "feature erosion" in game demos, we're glad to see the company come up with something positive for the gamers among us. Two recent patent apps, titled "Stereoscopic Screen Sharing Method and Apparatus Patent" and "3D Shutter Glasses with Mode Switching Based on Orientation to Display Device," detail the use of stereoscopic 3D technology to let two individual players see different information on the same screen (you might remember that Microsoft has also been working on something similar). Not only that, but the glasses could have earbuds -- for separate audio feeds. Of course, you'd need a 3D display for this to work, and you'd need to wear those silly glasses -- but that's a small price to pay to get rid of the ol' split screen, don't you think? [Warning: PDF source links]
Do want!
This would be amazing
@Sled
Omg want so bad
@Sled
I thought you couldn't patent something that has already been done...
http://kotaku.com/359988/texas-instruments-dual-view-look-ma-no-split-screen
@Sled
Finally, a useful application for 3D TV's
@Sled Epic, first good thing from 3D yet
@Sled
This is muy interesting indeed
@frits1te While somewhat true. If you read the patent, this is actually an extension on an older patent Sony owns from 2007.
http://www.freepatentsonline.com/20070263003.pdf
Too tired right now to actively look for the differences
@Sled Yes!! this would be great, also if each player could choose 3D or not 3D (so they don't get headaches or something similar). Sony only needs one step further, and the 3D holy grail should come (Headtracking + Multi3D TV = Win)
@frits1te They will just act like Apple and say they invented it, then use their clout and tons of money to crush TI and shut them up about it.
@johnvillar
If I understand the tech correctly (and I admit I haven't done more than scanned the patents), you would not be able to display multiple 3D images. Its either 1 3D or 2 2D.
Of course, you could conceivably double the number of pixels in the TV set again, and manage 'split-screen' 3D, but lets not get ahead of ourselves.
@frits1te
ya this is so stupid...
any one can do it with its 3DTV, its just a bloody concept.
@Vylen
I wonder if that older patent has been challenged yet. IANAL, but I am a scientist, and to me it seems exactly the same as my thesis work:
ftp://fas.sfu.ca/pub/cs/TH/2000/GarthBDShoemakerMSc.pdf
http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/365024.365349
Lawyers, I'm available to serve as expert witness!
This is a sweet idea, but can someone explay why they would need shutter glasses? "I get a frame, you get a frame" makes no sense to me. Why not just give each player their own polarization and be done with it? Or does that not work so well (bleed over or something)?
Again, totally sweet idea- no more super narrow or super short action w/ 2 players. And best yet, no more camping an watching my damn screen.
@shaynes Until they come out with an even faster 3D HDTV that can draw fast enough to sync two separate 3D views. I'm sure the TV manufacturers will come up with a way to keep selling us ever more expensive TVs =p
Dag, this seems like a good idea to me. The logical progression of this is that someday the console and TV hardware will support lots of players using one TV with no split-screen. The other big advantage is that other local players can't see your screen to know when you're sneaking up behind them.
@CtrlBurn
"The other big advantage is that other local players can't see your screen to know when you're sneaking up behind them."
Crap! So THAT'S how my buddy keeps pulling melees on me.
@CtrlBurn
So, what do the people not playing see?
@thaprinze Oh god. You wouldn't want to look at that screen without glasses. You'd probably get sick. :)
@CtrlBurn Not to mention what happens to the spectators attempting to watch some crazy frag matches? Do they attempt to decipher the fusion of the two views?
@CtrlBurn
2 is probably about the limit you might get up to 4, but that would probably happy with interlaced screens.
so it would be like
FRAME 1 (1080p)
1080i output goes to player 1, opposite 1080i output goes to player 2
FRAME 2 (1080p)
1080i goes to player 3, opposite 1080i goes to player 4
FRAME 3 (1080p)
1080i goes to player 1, opposite 1080i goes to player 2
FRAME 4 (1080p)
1080i goes to player 3, opposite 1080i goes to player 4
FRAME 5 (1080p)
1080i goes to player 1, opposite 1080i goes to player 2
FRAME 6 (1080p)
1080i goes to player 3, opposite 1080i goes to player 4
and so on.
@thaprinze The ceiling, because they are shaking violently on the floor
@thaprinze
You having fun and them not.
@corylulu
And this is only 30fps and many people are not satisfied with 30fps, would instead prefer 120.
@cr3amy
Er, 60
@cr3amy
yeah, two things that people hate, 30fps and interlaced quality.
Also using 3D screens, you only get 50% brightness and have to wear glasses, sitting out a game means leaving the room and you are likely going to notice flickering.
Also a big issue would be making glasses that were able to pick up 4 unique types of images and separate them to 4 sets of glasses, because currently the technology is set up for 2 sets.
@Trevolutionary
They could set their glasses to dual-mode and just open the eye of the player they want to watch, lulz...
@CtrlBurn
What would be better is if we could have this set for different inputs.
For instance, I can be playing my game console, while my wife watches a sitcom on the same TV set. On a 120hz screen, I get 60 frames for my games, my wife 60 frames for her TV.
Or I could be watching sports while my wife watches whatever the hell she wants to watch. One of us will need to use headphones, but a small price to pay for essentially having two displays on one screen.
Finally innovation!
@TheCake Yeah it is a cool idea, but I don't think it deserves a patent. You could implement this idea in less than an hour, and a complete description of the method is one sentence long.
Split screen is dying. This saddens me.
No more split screen would be nice for video games. Now we will have double the remote controls for two couples watching TV.
Well, it's a little nostalgic but this will totally allow for more multiplayer capabilities! I'm pretty excited about this ;)
Wow, that's actually a really neat idea. I wonder if it would be possible to switch it on the fly? Like, let's say we're playing a game, and it's co-op. We're running along together, so it's on split screen so we can help each other out, but suddenly we get separated. Boom, the screen changes so you can only see your character's POV. Once reunited, the screen changes back to split screen.
Finally, a good use for 3D glasses...to play multiplayer games in 2D.
I agree. This is actually a very good patent.
Anything + for 3D technology (such as the glasses) is a plus for Sony.
I'm getting a headache and eye-strain just looking at the schematics.
Prior art? I've been in cars that had something like this in the nav screen up front. From the driver seat you see the navigation info, from the passenger seat you see a DVD.
Arguably it's different because it uses an alternate-frame 3D screen instead of a polarized 3D screen...
I think this is awesome.
@FORDY
Of course now we all need 240Hz displays, so each player can get his 3D game on.
Relax. The PS3 will not be able to render 4 frames of the same image without a tremendous drop in FPS beyond playability, even in SD.
This is for the PS4. Only I hope autostereoscopic glasses-free 3DTVs are around by then to make this obsolete.
@TareG I'm trying to figure out how this would even work without glasses, one being tuned to one frequency and another tuned to another in order to see to different pictures. I mean I suppose it would work for ONE person to not wear glasses, but not both.
All been done before...definitely did not take off then
http://www.pocket-lint.com/news/12084/dlp-dual-screen-lcd-television
@Trevolutionary
It was actually patented by a University of Pennsylvania grad about 3-4 years ago.
Great Idea, but I wouldn't expect to see this feature on our PS3's... at least not with the high graphics games.
3D alone puts enough stress on the system, since it's essentially running the same game twice at the same time. Then with "split screen" you need to run two different games again. So you would be splitting the system into four ways.
Ouch... if going 3D, even for pre-rendered content, means drtopping the PS3 from 1080p to 720p, what king od a MASSIVE performance hit is a video gamer going to take trying to actively render what could be 2 very radically different scenes at even 720p, and manage the additional AI data associated with players wandering in 2 different parts of the map?
Nice idea, but I don't think even the PS3's beefy hardware is up to it. This would need to be on a future generation, or at least upgraded console.
OMG need this now! Finally a way for my fiance to watch Oprah and Dr. Phil in the same room while I play Red Dead Redemption and Halo with my friends on XBox Live!
Seems to me, people in the VR lab at my old university were working on something very much like this 10 years ago. Perhaps if they had applied for a patent, they'd stop calling me to ask for money.
Maybe One Day We Can All Watch Poem While Our Girlfriends Watch, "Say Yes To The Dress"
I invented this and published it in 2000. You can read about it in my MSc thesis, titled "Single Display Privacyware: Augmenting Public Displays with Private Information" at Simon Fraser University.
I also published it at the ACM CHI conference:
http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/365024.365349
@garths In respect to this patent: What are the differences of your work to the "Two-user responsive workbench" (1997). Because that seems to me being even closer to this patent.