In the past few years, though, scientific interest in the technology has rekindled, particularly around the goal of holographic video, said V. Michael Bove, Jr., director of the CELab, a consumer electronics research program at Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Media Lab.
Due in part to computer-game developers eager to make their creations look more realistic, there is no shortage of 3-D content.
(Related news: "Second Life," Other Virtual Worlds Reshaping Human Interaction" [October 17, 2006].)
"The remaining piece is the display technology," said Bove, who heads up a project to produce a display for 3-D video using off-the-shelf electronic components.
So far Peyghambarian's team has produced a four-by-four-inch (ten-by-ten-centimeter) prototype display. They are now working to enlarge this canvas, as well as to shorten the amount of time it takes to erase one image and write in another.
Other Applications
While glasses-free 3-D movies may be a few decades off, other applications using this technology could be only a few years away.
New kinds of endoscopes may record a patient's internal organs in 3-D, allowing physicians a deeper view within the body.
(Related news: "4-D Ultrasound Gives Video View of Fetuses in the Womb" [February 25, 2005].)
Military officers could also use large rewritable 3-D displays to help plan missions, said Charles Lee, a program manager at the Air Force Office of Scientific Research, which funded some of the team's work.
An officer could examine a large image of the battlefield from multiple angles and communicate with fellow planners without having to wear a bulky headset, Lee said.
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