Ready for iPhone 3D?

A 3D image of an HP logo in RGB London - Arabstoday Mobile phone users will soon be viewing images in 3D thanks to a revolutionary display unveiled for the first time today. The new three-dimensional display, which doesn't need special glasses and is particularly suited for smaller devices, has been developed by US electronics firm Hewlett-Packard. Its creators say it could revolutionise data visualisation, medical training and entertainment with a high resolution that makes it ideal for multi-view 3D display applications. Both static and moving images can be viewed in full colour from multiple angles at a distance of up to three feet away - even when the device is tilted. The success of blockbusters like Avatar and Alice In Wonderland has whetted the appetite of the public for 3D, but such films can only be seen in their full glory by viewers wearing special glasses. However this technology, which makes use of an effect known as 'diffractive optics' where an obstacle causes light waves to deflect, works on the naked eye. Alternative methods researchers have tried to create easily accessed 3D images have included holographs, but they proved expensive and too slow for real-time operation. Applying optical tricks to create 3D depth to mobile devices is difficult because the display needs to be thin, high-resolution and have a wide view zone. But the backlit display developed by Dr David Fattal and colleagues at Hewlett-Packard's laboratories in Palo Alto in California overcomes these challenges. The key element is a set light-emitting diodes and a thin structure called a waveguide that controls electromagnetic waves in the optical spectrum. Dr Fattal, a quantum scientist, said none of the leading multiview 3D solutions is particularly well suited to mobile devices such as watches, cellphones or tablets which require high resolution and a short viewing distance from potentially steep angles. “Here we introduce a multi-directional diffractive backlight technology that permits the rendering of high-resolution, full-parallax 3D images in a very wide view zone - up to 180 degrees in principle - at an observation distance of up to a metre,” he said. “The key to our design is a guided-wave illumination technique based on light-emitting diodes that produces wide-angle multiview images in colour from a thin planar transparent lightguide.” His researchers used ink-printed patterns or high resolution commercial liquid-crystal displays to project static images or animated sequences into a screen in a view zone of 90 degrees to illustrate its capabilities. He said: “We believe the unique combination of wide-angle 3D performance, high spatial resolution, ease of modulation at video rate, compact form factor and low manufacturing cost make our multi-directional backlight technology very promising for multiview 3D mobile display applications.” Professor Neil Dodgson, of the computer laboratory at Cambridge University, reviewed the invention for the journal Nature. He said it could be a 'compelling alternative', but cautioned that it could be as much as a decade before it is being used by consumers because it must be manufactured reliably, robustly and in quantity. “This is a matter of careful engineering that can take a long time,” he said. “I am reminded of the nine-year development of Texas Instruments' digital micro-mirror device - now widely used in digital projectors - between the invention in 1987 and the first commercial product in 1996.” “By analogy - if the authors can solve the practical problems - then they have a compelling alternative to existing 3D display technology.” “All that remains is the more nebulous question of whether humans want or need 3D displays.”