Better glasses-free 3-D
Nintendo’s 3DS portable gaming system, the first commercial device with a glasses-free 3-D screen, has been available in the United States for barely a month, and it’s already sold more than a million units. Its three-hour battery life, however, is less than half that of its predecessor, the 2-D DS device.Researchers at MIT’s Media Lab have developed a fundamentally new approach to glasses-free 3-D, called HR3D, which they say could double the battery life of devices like the 3DS without compromising screen brightness or resolution. Among other advantages, the technique could also expand the viewing angle of a 3-D screen, making it practical for larger devices with multiple users, and it would maintain the 3-D effect even when the screen is rotated — something that happens routinely with handheld devices.According to Doug Lanman, a postdoc in Associate Professor Ramesh Raskar’s Camera Culture Group at the Media Lab, the 3DS relies...