“Some of the recent reports that predict Apple will launch some type of ‘tablet PC’ next month have mentioned that the long-rumored device will have 3D graphics,” Gus Sentementes reports for The Baltimore Sun.
“So what does ‘3D graphics’ really mean and how could it be implemented?” Sentementes wonders. “I found a recently-released patent filing which I traced back to Apple (#20090303231, Dec. 10, 2009) and which discusses in great detail a ‘touch screen device, method and graphical user interface for manipulating three-dimensional virtual objects.'”
Sentementes writes, “If Apple chooses to incorporate some of the features it outlines in this patent filing, it could essentially mean that that user-interaction experience for the iPhone or a potential ‘Tablet’ will be markedly different in some respects than the iPhone interface we’re currently using… Perhaps this – 3D graphics — is the future of Apple’s interfaces for its portable multi-function devices.”
Full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Readers “Fred Mertz” and “JES42” for the heads up.]
Now, that would be super cool. Apple needs to once again distinguish itself from the competition.
Maybe Apple got this technology and is further along than anyone knows.
http://www.oled-info.com/researchers-create-circularly-polarized-light-oleds-way-3d-displays
Only negative is you would have to wear the same glasses that were used in the theater for Avatar.
Well, since it is all tablet related please visit this site and hit me up an email to give me some feed back. Just feed back on the sites structure and not the content. Make it useful feed back a-holes…
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Probably the use of face tracking with the implied 3D effect would be more likely. No glasses needed but only works with one user at a time.
http://web.me.com/u1019/TheSite3/Welcome.html
Well, since it is all tablet related please visit this site and hit me up an email to give me some feed back. Just feed back on the sites structure and not the content. Make it useful feed back a-holes…
Read the article, click the youtube video link contained therein.
Pretty sweet.
Talking about the “Full Article” linked by MDN, not the one posted by jarret….
@ 7over,
Did you atleast check out the site?
The “iVatar.”
Tablet!?! What tablet!?!
This being a 3D world, uh, wouldn’t every tablet be 3D!?!
I am so confusicated!!!!
Personally – AIYC – I find 3D boring and silly. Not just having to wear the goggles, either. AVATAR, besides its insipid plot, dialogue and racism, was put off by the aspect of the screen. The picture size is reduced by the 3D aspect, probably just optical illusion, but there all the same. I would lift the glasses to find the scope bigger.
Really, the idea sucks. How about blue-ray definition for film/tv? I mean, even that is a bit disconcerting – who wants to see all Depp’s zit craters!?! Up close and all too personal.
HDTV is okay with me
Reminds me of Microsoft Bob.
3d graphics could be extremely cool, but if the device Apple introduces later this month doesn’t have them, get ready for all the mouth breathers to complain about their disappointment – regardless of whatever else the device may do.
As far as I can tell from reading the patent, the 3D effect is not a stereoscopic one; it is 3D projected into 3D—like a Pixar animation on a regular TV. The patent covers how one exploits a touch screen and finger gestures to manipulate a 3D object in 3D virtual space.
Imagine an icon that looks like Mr. Incredible from The Incredibles. The patent covers how you could spin the icon around so it faces away from you. Nowhere in the patent is there anything that suggests a true 3D stereoscopic effect for the operator.
Oops, I should proof read better.
As far as I can tell from reading the patent, the 3D effect is not a stereoscopic one; it is 3D projected into <u>2D</u>—like a Pixar animation on a regular TV. The patent covers how one exploits a touch screen and finger gestures to manipulate a 3D object in 3D virtual space.
Imagine an icon that looks like Mr. Incredible from The Incredibles. The patent covers how you could spin the icon around so it faces away from you. Nowhere in the patent is there anything that suggests a true 3D stereoscopic effect for the operator.
AVATAR sucked, from every angle.
I expect Apple will do much better.
@ jarrettdailynews
Clever site. A bit too much movement for my fuddy tastes when 3 boxes are doing different things, but still quite clever.
@ Original Jake –
Maybe you saw a different version of Avatar than the one I did. Because even with a simplistic plot and thin characterizations, Avatar was one of the most mind-bending films I’ve seen in the last 10 years. Took. My. Breath. Away.
Perfect? No.
“Sucked from every angle?” Hell, no.
2nd best is better than nothing. Google got the best… Admob!
It is possible to implement the illusion of stereoscopic 3D on a flat plane – using a mirco-grooved glass surface through which alternate columns of pixels represent a slightly adjusted view to each eye of the user. This technology has been around for decades and one would thing that it could be refined to ‘nano’ size so that there is no perceptible degradation of the overall image quality (in effect, each eye is only viewing half the screen – in very narrow strips – at any one time).
This would be a very interesting development for a tablet-like device, although I’m not sure how is would work if the screen was rotated by 90 degrees (to landscape orientation) whereby the grooves would run horizontally instead of vertically to the viewer.
This would be ideal for an illusion of shallow 3D effect – such as raised keyboard buttons, bevelled frames, recessed background pages etc… but it may cause some user problems with deeper illusions of three dimensions as it demands, essentially, playing a trick on the user’s eyes… the eyes are forced into a semi ‘cross-eyed’ position for the effect to work. Long-term viewing of this illusory environment causes headaches and, in the worst cases, nausea and even vomiting (symptoms similar to travel sickness where the brain is also receiving information that confuses the capacity to process it).
If Apple have developed a version of a stereoscopic screen, the company will have had to find a way of overcoming this classic problem.
The Apple Tapplet 3D.
What we are talking about here is a screen that has apparent depth the focus line moving to an apparent horizon but within a 2D framework. Objects will therefore be able to sit behind each other and will be able to move within and along the sight line to access the objects and icons by scrolling. The scrolling instead of being from right to left or top to bottom will be from front to back with objects appearing smaller as the move backwards and larger and more easily accessed as they move forwards. This Will allow an effective plane running into infinity for the icons/objects to sit leaving no limit to the number that can be accommodated. One presumes that it would also incorporate a dock where items can be kept which would be immune to this scrolling.
This would if incorporated in the tablet make sense of the attributed comments about the display holding a surprise which has certainly played on my thoughts. It would also be the precursor for this form of interaction, which would be the true expression of multi touch capability, becoming the norm for all computing devices, at least till true 3D becomes a possibility. You create a new device to exploit this, test it and get us used to it before incorporating it gradually across the board and leaving the opposition in the mud. How very Apple.