I’ve been thinking a lot about 3D technology over the past few months, since that is what the industry is talking about. While I’m not a huge fan of 3D content, I think this new technology offers many exciting opportunities which we are not quite ready to take advantage of.
Sony’s 3D dual-view split screen gaming
Talking with some colleges a month or two ago, we discussed using the 3D glasses to show different images to different people. About a week later a friend told me that Sony was already planning to do this with some upcoming games or console. I was super excited.
For those who haven’t heard, here is the rundown:
3D works by showing a different image to each eye. Right eye sees image one, left eye sees image two, by means of special glasses. Typically, the left lens is polarized opposite from the right lens, but if you used the same lens for both eyes, you would see a 2D image, you’d just see only half of the images presented on the screen.
So you make a pair of glasses that only sees image one, and a second pair which only sees image two. (Without glasses you would see both images at the same time, I can only assume this would not be pleasant to look at.)
Now two people can look at the same TV and see two different images, all you have to do is tell your game console how to display images correctly.
That’s cool, but now what?
This is just the beginning of what’s possible, though. Using the same technology, a movie theatre could show a movie with close captioning or subtitles. If you don’t want to see the words, you wear one pair of glasses, if you want to see the words, you wear a different pair.
If the tech got good enough and could be attached to either headphones or specifically directed sound devices, two people could watch two different shows on a TV at the same time.
Or maybe a Bluray disk has an alternate ending. Wear one pair of glasses and you see one ending, the second pair gives you an alternative ending.
Branching off of Sony’s idea, what if two kids wanted to play two different games, or two different consoles at the same time. It’s possible, we just have to tell the TVs how to handle the signals.
Too good to be true?
These ideas are not without problems or downsides. If a third person enters the room, the visual complexity of watching Seinfeld and Oblivion at the same time, would probably be rather headache inducing.
3D technology still requires specific seating requirements and even though you are watching 2D footage, you will be wearing glasses.
What do you think? Is this the future? What problems do you foresee with this new tech? How do you really feel about 3D?