Japanese Researchers Develop Portable 3D Display System

NTT DoCoMo, Inc. announced today that it has co-developed a portable, seven-inch 3D display system with Associate Professor Yasuhiro Takagi of Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology. Both still images and video can be viewed in 3D without special glasses, and unlike similar displays, the images are visible off-center vertically, as well as horizontally.

The system, which enables 3D images to be viewed within a 60-degree horizontal angle and 30-degree vertical angle, generates the images based on the viewer's position relative to the screen.

Using a camera embedded in the display's LCD screen, the system determines where the viewer is and immediately projects 3D images through a lenticular (single-convex) lens attached to the front of the screen. This results in the viewer seeing an object that appears to leap out from the screen.

DoCoMo, which hopes to put the system to practical use for dynamic, highly realistic games and mobile Internet shopping, will exhibit the system at its booth at CEATEC JAPAN 2006 from October 3 to 7.

Source: NTT DoCoMo