3-D Displays: More than Avatar

One of the most remarkable things about Avatar is that it will be remembered as the milestone that started the era of 3-D entertainment. Soon after the release of the film, not only have other movies been shown in 3-D, but many theatres are also showing sporting events in 3-D. This revolution in the way in which we can receive information has two key interesting aspects, the first being the future of the technology itself and the second being the implications to industries other than entertainment.

Most of us have seen 3-D movies as children. Remember the days of the red and blue images and similarly coloured glasses? Of course when we saw this over 10 years ago, it was amazing. However, the quality of the images produced in this way is very bad. Not only do you give up on contrast and hue in obvious ways, but the 3-D that was produced was not very good. What is amazing is that the movies we watch now use basically the same principle. The key difference is that the two images that make up the 3-D are made with opposite polarisations of the light instead of the blue and red. In this way it is possible to preserve the quality of the image completely while still using the idea of each eye seeing a different angle of the image. This technology has obvious drawbacks associated with it. The first is that the viewer has to wear glasses and an important second is that the screen has to flicker two different images that make the 3-D vision. This is where other ideas can come into play.

In the author's opinion the future of 3-D viewing is going to the using yet another property of the light called the phase in order to make holographic movies. The idea is essentially the same as that used by holographic stickers that make the image 3-D, however in this case the screen would be a continuously changing hologram. As you may have guessed, this system would not require the use of any sort of personal eye-wear and would not have to flicker two different images as the current technology does! Unfortunately, this system is not as simple as it may sound. Among the import challenges are having an entire display built with pixel sized lasers and making lasers of the 3 pixel colours. These are not at all trivial challenges and are in fact the research interests of many scientists around the world.

While, the technical aspects of this issue are important and intriguing, the potential impact of this technology is far more fascinating. While it is currently being used for entertainment due to the large costs, it is only a matter of time before it is viable to own 3-D systems at home. Once 3-D displays appear at home an immediate effect would be on e-commerce. The ability for vendors to display 3-D images to the buyer would be immensely powerful. Other aspects where the impact would be huge is in delivery of news. Having 3-D real time images of major events and happenings would provide an exciting new dimension to peoples' perspective. Yet another incredibly important application would be in web conferencing. Imagine the ability for surgeons in hospitals to conference with someone and explain how to perform a procedure in 3-D! I could go on with other examples of how this technology could be used, but the purpose of this article is simply to get you excited about the opportunities that will arise in the next few years all thanks to 3-D displays.

As a final thought on the impact of the technology, it is exciting to consider the potential of building 'smart' interfaces. Imagine computers that can not only project in 3-D, but also provide you with touch feedback using intelligent tactile response screens. The next step would then be to have a device to simulate smells using a basic chemical/odour repository. The day is not far away when full real world experiences can be had sitting at home in front of your laptop. You might even actually be able to take a bite out of your Apple when you're hungry!