If you watched this year's Billboard Music Awards, maybe you were impressed (and just a little creeped out) by the hologram Michael Jackson's performance. Unfortunately, getting that sort of effect at home would cost a pretty penny, but MIT researchers have created a cheaper alternative: a 3D projector made from off-the-shelf parts that doesn’t require glasses.
When you see a 3D movie, you’re viewing stereoscopic 3D technology, which means that when viewing the film from multiple angles, you still always see the same thing. MIT’s projector, however, works with multiperspective. This means that if you move around the 3D image being displayed, you see it from different angles, much like you would a hologram. This new system uses two liquid crystal modulators, similar to LCDs in many TV's, that angle the way light comes into and out of the projector. The six different patterns created by the modulators for each frame of video gives each image a total of eight viewing angles: your eye does the rest to give the image perspective.
This new system refreshes the pattern about as fast as most standard TV’s at about 240 frames per second. This is already a lot faster than the refresh rate in film, which is only 24 frames per second. So this cheap and simple technology is already better than what we’re currently using. Also, this technology provides images with sharper detail and better color thanks to the power of a standard computer graphics card and special algorithms. Forget the dimness of standard 3D movies, imagine ditching the 3D glasses completely and watching a movie that’s vibrant and looks different depending on where you sit in the theatre.
The MIT team didn’t stop there, though. They also developed a new screen for their projector with wider viewing angles (an issue with current 3D display tech). This screen uses the sort of lenses that act similarly to older 3D effects. Sure, it’s still not quite the Holodeck, but every advance in 3D and holographic technology takes us one step closer to making that a reality. VIDEO
Via MIT
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