Apple awarded U.S. patent on no-glasses-required 3D display

15 years ago

“Apple has been awarded a U.S. patent for a display system that would allow multiple viewers to see a high-quality 3D image projected on a screen without the need for special glasses, regardless of where they are sitting,” Mikael Ricknäs reports for IDG News.

“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.”