Is stereoscopy (3D stereo) making a come back?

Question

I'm working on a stereoscopy application in C++ and OpenGL (for medical image visualization). From what I understand, the technology was quite big news about 10 years ago but it seems to have died down since. Now, many companies seem to be investing in the technology... Including nVidia it would seem.

Stereoscopy is also known as "3D Stereo", primarily by nVidia (I think).

Does anyone see stereoscopy as a major technology in terms of how we visualize things? I'm talking in both a recreational and professional capacity.

Answer 1

One reason why it is probably coming back is due to the fact that we know have screens with high enough refreshrate so that 3D is possible. I think I read that you will need somewhere around 100Hz for 3D-TV. So, no need for bulky glasses anymore.

Edit: To reiterate: You no longer need glasses in order to have 3D TV. This article was posted in a swedish magazine a few weeks ago: http://www.nyteknik.se/nyheter/it_telekom/tv/article510136.ece.

What it says is basically that instead of glasses you use a technique with vertical lenses on the screen. Problem with CRT is that they are not flat. Our more modern flat screens obviously hasn't got this problem. The second problem is that you need high frequency (at least 100 Hz as that makes the eye get 50 frames per second) and a lot of pixels, since each eye only gets half the pixels.

TV sets that support 3D without glasses have been sold by various companies since 2005.

Answer 2

With nVidia's 3D kit you don't need to "make a stereoscopy application", drivers and video card take care of that. 10 years ago there was good quality stereoscopy with polarized glasses and extremely expensive monitors and low quality stereoscopy with red/cyan glasses. What you have now is both cheap and good quality. Right now all you need is 120Hz LCD, entry level graphics card and $100 shutter glasses.

So no doubt about it, it will be the next big thing. At least in entertainment.

Answer 3

Enthusiasm for stereo display seems to come and go in cycles of hype and disappointment (e.g cinema). I don't expect TV and PCs will be any different.

For medical visualisation, if it was that useful there would be armies of clinicians sitting in front of expensive displays wearing shutter glasses already. Big hint: there aren't. And that market doesn't need 3D display tech to reach "impulse purchase" pricing levels as an enabler.