8 Oct
2010
8 Oct
'10
10:43 p.m.
--- On Fri, 10/8/10, Fred Cisin <cisin at xenosoft.com> wrote:
I once saw a product announcement for a commercial 3D display
that used a flexible varifocal mirror. If you've ever seen one
of those things that makes a coin inside appear to be floating
in space just inside an opening at the top, you've seen how a
concave mirror can manipulate apparent depth. From the diagrams/photos,
it looked like the device used the acoustic wave from a hi-fi speaker
to drive the mirror. The image was provided by a vector display,
limited to wire-frame graphics, and there was likely some electronics
or software to compensate for the distortion introduced by the optics.
It was a big box, somewhat reminiscent of both a radar console and an arcade game. If I
recall correctly, the tube was mounted overhead,
and you looked down into the mirror at its reflection.
--Bill
Wow!? How??
Using a display capable of
rendering actual depth?
I warned you that it was CRUDE, . . .
You looked into a dark cabinet, in which there was a moving
mirror,
reflecting a CRT.? The image would change according to
the position of the
mirror.? When it was moving fast enough, persistence
of vision would give
you a visual image in which parts of the image were
actually different
distances!???I think that the images were
chosen for maximum suitability.
I never saw a commercial implementation attempt.