Getting Immersed: DTI’s Tom Curtin, Man On A 3D Mission

[Guest]

Tom's Hardware sat down with Dimension Technologies' Tom Curtin to talk about AR/VR and DTI's autostereoscopic glasses-free 3D technology.

Getting Immersed: DTI’s Tom Curtin, Man On A 3D Mission : Read more

 

[srsly]

I don't get it, how would this work? If I understand correctly, it can only vary individual pixel illumination between eyes, not actually change the value of pixels between eyes, so you don't actually get a stereo view, just a rough approximation of stereo lighting?

And how do you do this without software? Wouldn't you still need to know information about the scene being rendered in order to meaningfully modulate the backlight?

 

[Tom Curtin]

@srsly.
The optics and imaging science behind DTI's patented Time Multiplexed Backlight is very difficult to communicate and comprehend. The most important fact is that it works. And you can see it for yourself at Immersed in Toronto.

 

[srsly]

Thanks for response but you're on a hardware enthusiast site where many of the readers would welcome an explanation of Time Multiplexed Backlighting beyond the fact that it works. Thanks to Oculus Rift I would expect most people interested in AR/VR have a pretty good understanding of optics by now

 

[Tom Curtin]

@srsly
Here's a more technical description.
DTI’s system sends light through the LCD in such a way that the two eyes see all of the pixels of the LCD at different times. When the light goes through the pixels to the left eye, the pixels are displaying the left eye view of a stereo pair; when light goes through the pixels to right eye, the pixels are displaying the right eye view of a stereo pair. This happens rapidly enough that no flicker is seen. Thus the user sees a true stereoscopic image. Internal firmware in the display makes sure that the lights and image display on the LCD pixels stay in sync with one another. The lighting system and related optics in the backlight are designed to send light to two observers simultaneously. An onboard eye tracking system will keep track of where the observers are and make sure that the light is aimed at their eyes.

The display will use the same type of field sequential output that is used when viewing with 3D shutter glasses – a left eye view followed by a right eye view every 1/120th second. In fact any game software, NVidia graphics card, and driver combination that works with 3D shutter glasses will be compatible with this display.

 

[srsly]

awesome, thanks for the details. That makes significantly more sense. With this technology you would need to render separate images for each viewer, correct? That could prove rather taxing on graphics card. And you would need the 3d application to understand stereoscopic rendering so I don't understand how "We require no special software or modifications to games, movies or data content" unless you're just talking about content that's already stereoscopic-enabled. Nonetheless, this sounds like a very nice way to do 3d.

 

[eliteapu]

DTI went live!
http://kck.st/1FglQRL

 

[smeezekitty]

I just installed Windows 10 on a spare hard drive plugged in to my main rig.
I have to say that the Windows setup experience is one of the worst I have
ever had. Requiring a Windows account as well as my full name and date of birth.
I find this "Always online" trend very alarming. It also defaults to setting up
Microsoft Onedrive (cloud storage). Sorry but no. I am not going to trust M$ or anyone else with my data.

Once that was finished, the finished product is better but still it is clearly
a mobile OS and not designed for desktops or even traditional laptops.
Usage of the word "Swipe" clearly implies it is designed for a touch screen.
I also dislike "apps". And the fact that news is on the start menu (but I am sure glad to have the start button back!)

I would say it is an improvement over 8 but still not up to snuff. It is way
too invasive and internet dependent