A 3D Display You Can Touch 63
mikejuk writes "Are we getting closer to really effective volumetric 3D display technology? A new display, designed in Russia, uses cold fog and a laser projector to create a volumetric 3D image that you can touch. A tracking device (no, it's not a Kinect) is used to detect the user's hand and moves the virtual objects in response. There have been cold fog 3D displays before, but this one has a reasonable resolution and looks near to being a finished product that could be on sale soon. Estimated price? Between $4000 and $30,000."
Re:Touch? (Score:5, Informative)
Actually, it's worth noting that the i-programmer article that's linked first is pretty badly written, and just paraphrases the techcrunch article, anyway (which never claims that you can touch the projection, just that it's a "multi-touch" interface - ie it responds to multiple fingers)
It's 2D!!! WTF?? (Score:5, Informative)
Bad slashdot reporting as usual.
The big deal here is the "mid-air" aspect, i.e. no actual surface.
However the display is 2D and the article makes no claim for it being 3D. It's not volumetric, it's not 3D. It's a projector.
It's very cool, and Slashdot has just completely misrepresented it. Well done.
Re:It's 2D!!! WTF?? (Score:4, Informative)
It's 2.5D i.e. 2D with depth trickery, but not true 3D and projected, and at least from the video there is no way to reach through objects to touch stuff behind so not really capable of true 3D ..and not volumetric
Another Classic /. summary
ATTENTION: This is a 2D display (Score:5, Informative)
This is entirely 2D, not 3D.
The eu.techcrunch.com article makes no mention of 3D. It's the i-programmer.info dopes that mislabeled this as 3D. The slashdot submitter and editor also get blame for perpetuating the error.
The technology uses a base unit that blows a basically 2D "sheet" of fog upwards as a display surface. Behind that there is a 2D laser projector aimed at the fog display screen.
Some people mentioned the keyboard in the demo as 3D, but no, that was the same as any ordinary 2D windowing system. The 2D keyboard that came up merely replaced the 2D content that was supposedly 'behind' it.
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