3D on a Display
Far from the Siggraph show floor, on the third floor of the Westin Bonaventure Hotel, I saw the best 3D display demo I’ve encountered to date from a company out of Paris called Alioscopy. What particularly intrigued me about what they showed me was the fact that the technology has great crossover potential for all sorts of markets as the professional and consumer 3D revolutions march onward. In fact, and although I didn’t ask, this is probably one reason why Alioscopy is demonstrating its technology away from the show floor—the Siggraph market probably is far from the biggest potential market for Alioscopy’s technology.
What they are showing is their 3DHD-40 autostereoscopic display (that’s a fancy way of saying you don’t need glasses). It’s built on top of a 40-in. NEC Multeos LCD display combined with a hand-crafted lenticular lens built at Alioscopy’s factory in Paris and a proprietary render engine and software. The technology, able to show 3D content originated from most commonly available sources, was most recently on display at the world’s biggest professional AV trade show—InfoComm 2008 in Las Vegas. I missed it there, but it has great relevance for me, since I also cover that the pro AV world.
The clarity of the 3D imagery, from about 10-feet back onward, was remarkable and obviously, as Alioscopy told me, has all sorts of digital signage applications. (Alioscopy officials even pointed out that the monitors, with the correct software and render engine, have the potential to be real-time interactive displays for shoppers who want to check out different colors and styles, at the simple click of a mouse.)
But it also has medical applications. And government and science applications. And consumer applications, as Alioscopy is working with some of the manufacturers of 3D televisions, as well. For digital signage, the display would definitely catch your attention in a potential sea of displays at, say, a mall.
But for the Siggraph audience, the potential of such 3D display monitors goes to issues I was discussing yesterday with several practicioners of the 3D arts. Their 3D concern basically revolves around content creation, of course, but their point was that they had not yet discovered a good solution for visualizing the 3D in a meaningful way all the way across the content creation chain, and usually have to wait until close to the end of the process to see if what they have is what they think they have.
Aliscopy, and I’m sure others, seem to have a solution to this problem, and the company claims to be in discussions with major post facilities right now.
But what really excited Alioscopy CEO Philippe Roche was the great volume of potential applications—lthat sexy crossover appeal of a new technology.
“Cockpit displays,” he suggested with a smile. “iPhones. Laptops. Licensing our patents will be a key next step.”
–MG
