3D screen without glasses: we've tried it

Update 29/06/09: we've published a second news in which we develop a remark on performances made by Spatial View.

Olivier Dellicour, from Spatial View (also known as Wazabee) came by the office to present three 3D products, launched by the company. The first 3DShell, has already been covered in a separate news. Here, we're going to focus on computer screens.

We won't discuss the software side, still in the early stages and lacking a real general consumer interface. In time it will be built straight in to the drivers offered by various graphics card manufacturers.

Wazabee 3Dee 19 inches

The first product is a combined Nec 19 inch screen + special filter for the panel for 3D viewing. The filter has five 3D vision corridors. To get your image in 3D, you need to combine two elements: be in one of the corridors of vision and get your computer to calculate 10 images (2 per channel). Avoid moving in front of the screen too much. If you move to one side, you risk moving outside of your corridor and you’ll then need to reposition yourself to get 3D vision again.

One big drawback is that the screen can only be used in 3D. If you display a normal 2D image, you get a great deal of interference on the image. You must therefore have a standard 2D screen as well for all non-3D usage. The last problem is the need to calculate 10 images. This is virtually impossible for a 3D game. Even the most powerful current configurations won’t be enough to calculate the images needed for a game that requires significant graphics resources, which means this device is pretty much limited to use with video.

- 3D without glasses	- Screen can only be used in 3D - Requirement to calculate 10 images (2 per channel) - Gameplay is virtually impossible - Baisc 3D effect - Regular loss of 3D effect - Price: 900 euros

3DeeFlector

The second product is much more attractive. It’s a moveable filter that can be placed on the screen of a 13 inch laptop. On the image on the right, it’s on a MacBook. However, it’s not limited to this model and we also tried it successfully on a Dell XPX 13. Here, in order to get the 3D effect, the webcam is used. It registers your position (your eyes in fact) and sends a 3D image on which the movements of your head are recorded on a single channel via the filter. The number of images that have to be calculated falls dramatically from 10 to 2, which makes it a viable solution for gaming, comparable to the NVIDIA glasses

- 3D without glasses Price: 250 euros - 3D follows your movements thanks to the webcam	- 3D effect is basic - 3D effect only visible for one person - Regular loss of 3D effect

Our opinion

The technology is promising. It is however currently quite expensive and we prefer the NVIDIA solution in terms of the 3D perception. We will however follow any developments closely and keep you informed as improvements come in.