It’s been around over a year and was shown at SIGGRAPH 2010, but the RePro3D is suddenly showing up all over web town for the single reason that it’s, well, stinkin’ cool. Little do most people (or researchers) realize the possibilities that lie in store for such advances in jabbing wee fairy creatures with a massive sensor attached to your nub. The Tachilab research team from the Keio University Graduate School of Media Design is giving a glimpse of what they can do. View the past, present and future all at once in the video below.
Full-parallax 3D display system
RePro3D is a full-parallax 3D display system suitable for interactive 3D applications. The approach is based on a retro-reflective projection technology in which several images from a projector array are displayed on a retro-reflective screen. When viewers look at the screen through a half mirror, they see a 3D image superimposed on the real scene without glasses. – Tachilabs
So, it’s your typical holographic magicry… what’s the big deal? Well, they’re able to interact with it, which isn’t so different from what we’ve seen before. What’s different from all of that, is now they’ve developed a way to interact with a 3D object while at the same time having ‘smooth motion parallax’ (or displacement) of the 3D objects without the use of glasses. Here’s a look.
Besides the fact the the project currently requires you to view the object in a structure the size of a small oven, while hunched over, with a massive sensor attached to your finger, it’s obviously got some potential in product design. Of course, this kind of tech is ALWAYS about games. Hardly a thought is given to product design, engineering or giving that CNC operator a holographic booth to explore the design you expect him to create. However, you mix this with what people are creating with the Kinect technology and you could have some other interesting takes on how to push fairies around your environment.
