For three years, researchers at the Camera Culture group in WITH Media Lab develop a project for a multiperspective screen for 3D video that does not require special glasses, which they hope will be a practical, short-term, alternative to holographic video.
Using this technology, they designed a projector, which they are going to present at the Siggraph conference in the year.
His specific projector WITH Media Lab it can also improve the analysis and contrast of conventional video, which would make it an attractive transition technology as content producers gradually learn to take advantage of possibilities of multiperspective 3D.
Multiperspective 3D differs from stereoscopic 3D – which is now common in cinemas – in that the objects depicted reveal new perspectives as the viewer moves around them, just as they would in the real world. This means that there could potentially be applications in fields beyond entertainment - such as architecture or medicine.
Gordon Wettstein, Matthew Hirsch, and Ramesh Rashkar built a prototype using simple off-the-shelf materials. They also created a prototype of a new type of screen that widens the angle at which projector images are seen. The screen combines two special lenses, similar to those used to create the impression of three-dimensional effects in old children's books. A total of eight different viewpoints are produced for each video frame.
Algorithmically, a "key" in the system is a technique that calculates how much data can be stored between different angles and how much needs to be changed. Storing as much data as possible allows the projector to produce a brighter image, and the final set of angles and intensities of light is encoded in the projected patterns, using a specially designed (based on game graphics architecture) algorithm that runs almost in real time.
