“Apple’s patent describes using a special reflective screen with a rippled texture to create an autostereoscopic projection system, meaning one in which different images are projected to each eye without the need for special glasses,” Ricknäs reports. “The system tracks the viewer’s eyes and calculates their position in space. It then projects each pixel of the stereoscopic images to a precise spot on one of the screen’s ripples, reflecting it into one or other of the viewer’s eyes. If Apple can do this for one pair eyes, it suggests, it can project multiple images to different points on the ripples for multiple users at the same time.”
Read more in the full article here.
Apple’s U.S. patent 7,843,449 for a 3D display system can be read in full here.
Ooo. :O This could be neat! Hope Apple pulls it off well.
Now that would be awesome!
Ohhhhh, the porn possibilities boggle the mind!!!
yep… boggle alert
Tracking eye-balls… hmmm… the security and privacy issues for this will be a trip.
This wouldn’t go down well at one of our bar b q’s, we usually serve fresh goats eyeballs! I don’t want my plate of eyeballs tracked by a computer until they get to me! I don’t want my eyeball to be tracked as I pop it down the hatch!
Perhaps this ties into Apple’s exploration of camera-in-screen–not just to make a better Facetime experience…
Could be abused… An image of a work document for the boss looking from the side, and the game for the person in front of the monitor. (As long as the worker remembers not to yell out “eat hot death, zombie scum!”)
I hate 3D
Great! Ads in 3D! Can’t wait! How much for the privilege?
Would love to watch Giada in 3D though.
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It’s like I can touch you!
If they can track one eye it should be possible for more. Now how will Chatsworth, California use this new tech? Hollywood beware.
I’m a bit puzzled how this works.
If the rippled screen means that light hitting one point on a ripple will be reflected in such a way that it only reaches one viewer’s eye, then I can see that theoretically a stereo image can be generated for multiple viewers. But won’t the fact that all the other points on the rippled screen send light elsewhere mean that the proportion of the light from the projector which is able to reach an individual eye is very limited, leading to dim images ?
However, reading through the article, it would appear that the system would allow specific and unique images to be observed by different viewers at the same time. Although not mentioned in the patent application, imagine a system that allows you to watch porn in 3D, but when your wife / mother walks into the room, she sees a National Geographic documentary instead. I suspect that could be a selling point !
This is what I was waiting for. 3D without the glasses!! Who wants to wear glasses to watch 3D? Not me!! That is why I do not like 3D TV now. For it to be good the glasses has to be dumped! Hope Apple can pull it off. I would be first in line to buy one.
“If Apple can do this for one pair eyes, it suggests, it can project multiple images to different points on the ripples for multiple users at the same time.”
Mere patent fantasies and not likely. It’s just an electronic take on those plasticized fresnel picture cards that you pivot to see the different “action” images. Just as with those somewhat blurry cards, the display angle would have to be adjusted for each point of viewing meaning the more viewers, the more degraded the image becomes for all.
Wonder what you would get if you took a picture of the screen with a camera.
@ MacinScott,
“I hate 3D”
WTF! Do you walk around with a blindfold on to avoid 3D or do you only have one eye so you can’t see in 3D like the rest of us?
@Wingsy:
You would get a perfect, 2D image. Your camera lens is one “eye” that sees the display at a single angle.
This is funny because this is exactly how I said 3D TV would work, a few years ago, and then they (Sony, Samsung, LG) came out with that stupid glasses crap. I happy to see someone has a brain… and it was Apple. Big surprise.
I’m with Brau. Patent fantasy, will never be commercialized.
Great !! At least Apple is doing something regarding 3d. I’ve said people should check out Panasonic 3d plasma demos. They have a Rome 3d demo that’s just great. Talking about it is useless, it has to be SEEN. Nintendo’s 3d won’t work unless the person is right in the middle. Anything that uses a mirror is questionable. Take a half circle and put it next to a mirror. The “real’ half is bright and distinct, the other half is DULL. Try that with any color, it’s the same story. Mitsubishi’s DLP uses reflected images off a mirror, and looks weird. But I can’t wait to SEE what Apple has done. I thought I was just a voice crying out in the darkness, but NO…Apple IS working on 3d stuff.
Sorry Apple, but Fujifilm already makes this screen. It’s called the Fuji V1 Viewer and has been out for TWO years. Nothing new here.
The Joker:
What you are talking about (Fuji’s ‘paralax barrier’ display) and what Apple is patenting have nothing in common except the fact that they display 3D images.
Fuji contraption requires specific distance and angle of viewing in order to actually resolve a decent 3D image.
It is so annoying when people come out and post stuff they know very little about. What did you expect? It only takes about 30 seconds to google this thing up.
As Mark Twain once said:
“It is better to keep your mouth closed and let people think you are a fool than to open it and remove all doubt.”…
In our lifetimes? I think the devil really is in the details of this one. Especially so for multiple viewers.
Toshiba also makes a no-glasses 3D TV. Available only in Japan for now, and they are small screens – 12″ and 20″.
Predrag, you really are an asshat. You think the Apple system wont require specific angles and distances? If you think that, you really are as dumb as a house plant. Fujifilm has perfected this technology and has reached state-of-the-art status. Apple is merely piggy backing off this.
I laugh in your face Predrag, you are really nothing but a clown.