true 3d possibility for Blender...we could be first

Just came across this news story… imagine the fun of blending with this!

Thursday, September 11, 2003 · Last updated 5:49 a.m. PT

Sharp will sell laptop showing 3-D images

By YURI KAGEYAMA
AP BUSINESS WRITER

TOKYO – Users won’t need special glasses to view the three-dimensional images that pop up from Japanese electronics maker Sharp Corp.'s new laptop.

The Mebius PC-RD3D, billed by Sharp as the world’s first 3-D laptop, goes on sale Oct. 27 in Japan and is planned for release later this year in the United States.

The new laptop is mostly targeted for people who design three-dimensional software, but Sharp is also planning a model for average consumers, company spokeswoman Miyuki Nakayama said Thursday.

Tokyo-based Sharp has been selling cell phones with 3-D displays for NTT DoCoMo, Japan’s top mobile carrier, since November last year. They were so popular the feature is being introduced in notebook computers, Nakayama says.

The computer display produces 3-D images by sending a slightly different image to the right eye and the left eye at once by bending them in different angles, according to Sharp. The special screen has applications in architecture, medicine, science and gaming.

The $3,000 laptop switches back and forth between its 3-D feature and a regular display by a push of a button. The company hopes to sell 1,000 of the laptops a month, she said. Sales plans for Europe are still undecided.

Mebius now only has a small sample of 3-D applications, such as an image of fruit and flowers and an animation of dinosaurs. But Sharp is hoping other companies will design 3-D games and videos.

“This is the first step in 3-D laptops. But we think it’s a market with great potential,” Nakayama said.

Mebius comes with Microsoft Windows XP, an Intel Pentium 4 processor, a 15-inch display and a 60 gigabyte hard drive.

Did a little searching around and found the official press release:

http://sharp-world.com/corporate/news/030911.html

and a page that explains the 3D LCD:

seems to me that blender once either had or planed to have output that you could use those 3d glasses for true 3d viewing… Anyway, they are looking for content and applications:

Mebius now only has a small sample of 3-D applications, such as an image of fruit and flowers and an animation of dinosaurs. But Sharp is hoping other companies will design 3-D games and videos.

This could give the 3d window a whole new meaning… and REAL 3D renders too!

Blender could really get some attention if it were the first 3d app that went truely 3d… wonder how hard it would be to code for the 3d LCD’s output %|

actually I guess it would just involve setting up 2 cameras slightly apart to get a perspective view for a 3d render

Looks interesting but I’m betting you have to be at just the right angle to get the effect.

well, most lcds are pretty much that way anyway. And if you have something worth looking at I am pretty much betting that you are planted dead sguare in front of your screen anyway :o -it shoudn’t matter

Interesting-- how do you target this device in software? Does the laptop have a quad-buffer OpenGL card?

:o COOL! :stuck_out_tongue: I want one :< Dont have enough money to buy one

im not sure how this is helpful. sure its “3D” but you still have to use a mouse to sculpt/animate. also for those who dont quite understand its basically one of those lenticular cards that come free w/ somethin or other [the ones with plastic ridges>///\ on top of the pic] and the only program part would be to get the camera to be in two places[1"1/2 ithink]

is it just me, or is the picture at the bottom of the second page just a little bit misleading?!?!?!

http://sharp-world.com/products/device/lcd/3dlcd.html

it seems to imply that the screen lets you see things outside the display area of the screen…

btw, I’m in tokyo for a few months working, will try and find out if sharp has a showroom here where I can check it out…

thought he meant holograms, I know they work the same but the whole
‘pop up’ thing made me think of something like those holograms in starwars!

OOoh I get it, you mean those picture which are 3 times printed. In tree different colors, red, green and black. If you look at it you see a disorded picture with 3 colors, but when looking trough a special glasses, you see a picture coming out ot the paper. :smiley: Great, I’ve got a few pictures of them in a dinosaur book.

Btw, that should be awesome cool if we could made something simular with blender. :o

Here is a post I made at Blender.org:
(http://www.blender.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=phpBB2&file=viewtopic&t=2143)

Thought I would play around and see what I could do and I even got a 3d workspace and a way to make stereo pics. basically you can simulate 3d with 2 pics. The trick is to center your nose in the middle of the pics and get about 6"(15cm) from the monitor. You should end up seeing a 3rd pic in the middle in 3d. focus on the middle pic and slowly back off to your normal viewing distance. If you do it right, (stay pretty much focused on the middle pic) you should be able to see these in 3d. (for more on stereographics you can start here www.stereoscopy.com/index.html)

Anyway here is what I came up with by using an environmap tut blend.
http://pws.chartermi.net/~paprmh/imgs/focus.png
http://pws.chartermi.net/~paprmh/imgs/3dworkspace.png
http://pws.chartermi.net/~paprmh/imgs/envtut3d.png

_____And from a recent toon tutorial___________And from a recent toon tutorial
___sorry, :expressionless: _can’t remember who__________sorry, :expressionless: ____can’t remember who
______to give credit to… _____________________to give credit to…
_______let me know… %| ______________________let me know… %|
http://pws.chartermi.net/~paprmh/imgs/toon3d.png

give me a blend file and I can give you a 3d render
max 260 pixel wide for now but height is no object

now imagine what it would be like if your whole screen was 3d like the middle is now and without the two other images…

:o

That is so cool. In fact I’m going to start my own contest in the off-topic forum for 3d pictures like that if anyone is interested. I loved that effect. AWESOME.

still working on my 3d workspace and stereo output- here is what I did to the pass the blend file:
(sorry about the size but I wanted to show the workspace)

http://pws.chartermi.net/~paprmh/imgs/passblend.png

I didn’t actually pass it back, (don’t want to mess up their blend) I was just testing to see how well I can import another blend into my workspace…Will soon have a blend file for anyone that is interested in making their own stereo pix.

heh thanks for showing off my low poly bomb :wink:

Hey, it was a nice clean object that showed the 3d effect well. %|

I made an animated focus aid and converted an old blend file that I used to remodel my bathroom.
http://pws.chartermi.net/~paprmh/imgs/focus.gif
http://pws.chartermi.net/~paprmh/imgs/bath3d.png

As I have said before, I am no artist. Look at the effect, not the pix. Start really thinking in 3d because even if this new Sharp screen isn’t great, someone will come up with something that really works well soon. Everyone keeps asking what we can do to make blender stand out and get attention - this could be it.
For now we are limited to 260 or so pixels wide because of the limitations of this method of getting 3d but soon you will have the option of full screen 3d renders.

Next I am gonna try a movie…

The 3d effect is excellent, particularly with this little portable viewer thing I bought from a 3d place.

http://www.3dstereo.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=NV-POK&Category_Code=3dg-ss&Product_Count=2

This is the one. I payed much less though, but I can’t find the place I got it from just now. I bought a nice Nikon lens from the same place that makes side-by-side stereoscopic images, that look quite similar to the images you’re making actually, such as :

http://nick.industrialmeats.com/data/pictures/photos/2003/september/04/.SLIDE_191315-dscf6693.jpg.jpg

just a thought: did anyone ever try the lcd shutter 3d glasses with blender?

If I remember right, they had a modified OpenGL implementation to produce the 3d effect, so the programs just needed to use OpenGL rather than actually be modified themselves.

I bought the Revelator glasses a couple of years ago. I couldn’t use it because you need a monitor with a minimum refresh of 100 Hz, this wasn’t clearly stated on the box.

i was playing around with that the other day.

Particles are cool but hard to focus on correctly.

i was also playing around with the toonish bubble of “Bam!”

BMD

ooh! i just realized that you can use this while modeling already!

all you have to do is split the main 3D axis window 3 times, and have 2 of them be in the perspective mode. The third window is for working in, because the cursor can really mess up your vision. i dont reccomend working like this too long though :slight_smile:

here is how i set mine up:
http://www.angelfire.com/realm2/blended/3D.html

i hate angelfire, but i just havn’t gotten to a better image hoster.

BMD