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Regardless of its ability to present a 3D image without glasses, we just weren’t very impressed with Sharp’s 10.6-inch display at the IFA show. That’s not to say that its parallax barrier technology doesn’t perform well at smaller sizes, like say, oh, the Ninentdo 3DS. In fact, Sharp’s 3.8-inch switchable 3D (400 x 480) / 2D (800 x 480) display did a decent job of tricking our eyes into seeing a 3D image by exposing different pixels to each eye though tiny slits placed in front of a normal LCD. What we didn’t see, though, was this smartphone-looking prototype (lacking radios, unfortunately) that combines that 3.8-inch parallax barrier panel with Sharp’s twin-lens 3D camera module. So unlike some other 3D prototype cameras we’ve seen, Sharp’s pup will present the 720p/30fps video in 3D immediately after taking the snap — no special glasses required. Of course, with Sharp promising a 3D cameraphone before the end of the year, well, you’ve now got a pretty good idea how it will look. Backside, front, after the break along with a video from Engadget Spanish.

Continue reading Sharp’s twin-lens 3D prototype camera isn’t a smartphone, yet (video)

Sharp’s twin-lens 3D prototype camera isn’t a smartphone, yet (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 07 Sep 2010 04:15:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Carl Zeiss keeps on making minor improvements to its Cinemizer head-mounted display, announced way back in 2008 and intended to be the most amazing way to watch stuff on your iPod. They didn’t exactly catch on then, and two years later we’re not entirely sure that the latest revision will either. The tiny screens that sit a fraction of an inch from your eyeballs have been upgraded to OLED, which should make them bright and lovely as they pummel your rods and cones, but sadly they’re still stuck in VGA land — 640 x 480 is not a lot of pixels these days. This version also pledges greater compatibility with non-Apple devices, a welcome change, and even more welcome is the new visual styling, which makes you look a little less walleyed than the last model. Despite this the price hasn’t changed much, estimated to be around €400 ($515), but that’s still a lot to pay just to have the coolest Frozone costume ever.

Carl Zeiss Cinemizer 3D Plus glasses get OLED infusion, still no attention originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 06 Sep 2010 10:44:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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THREEE DEEE. Sorry, just had to get that out of our system. We just played with Panasonic’s HDC-SDT750 THREEE DEEE, er, 3D camcorder, and it certainly works as billed. The lens is designed for close-up depth perception in the 3 to 15 foot range, and doesn’t have any zoom capability. Luckily, it isn’t too hard to pop the screw-on lens off, giving yourself a regular zoomtastic 2D camcorder. When you do pop the 3D lens back on there’s a quick set of setup menus, which let you adjust the dual lenses within the 3D add-on with a few knobs hidden under a door on top of the assembly.

We didn’t get to do any free roaming with the camera, but that’s none too thrilling anyway: your preview image is a slightly fuzzy 2D on the built-in LCD. What we did do was watch the camera feed its 3D capture live to a Panny 3D TV (in one of the hilarious outfits provide for us by Panasonic, as pictured above), and while the 3D effect is certainly for-reals and non-janky, the actual image quality takes an obvious hit from the fact that a 1080p sensor is being cut in half to capture the dual images. It almost took us back to the early days of HD cameras, or your friendly neighborhood “HD” webcam, where the output resolution is clearly higher than the sensor is physically capturing. Similarly, we doubt the early adoption of cameras like this is going to be dramatic at first, and even after the tech is perfect we’re unsure how big of a consumer need there is for something like this, but with easy options like Panasonic’s own Micro Four Thirds 3D lens, the barriers to adoption are quickly disappearing. Er, we merely mean to say, THREEE DEEE.

Panasonic HDC-SDT750 3D camcorder preview originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 05 Sep 2010 10:10:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Now that the Nintendo 3DS is announced using a parallax barrier display, we bet that many of you were hoping to see a 10-inch 3D tablet or laptop with a similar glasses-less display. Hell, we were… until we actually saw Sharp’s prototype 10.6-inch parallax barrier display here at IFA in Berlin. Unfortunately, the panel at this larger size suffers from some very serious vertical shadows (check the video) unless you’re right in the sweet spot and alligned with the barrier’s precision slits at a distance of about 20 inches. Even then, it’s very hard to maintain your position, and the 3D effect isn’t all that dazzling. Fortunately, this 3D (640 x 768) panel also functions in 2D (1280 x 728) mode. Guess a 3D tablet that requires glasses isn’t so crazy after all. Wait, yes it is.

Continue reading Sharp’s 10.6-inch parallax barrier display makes us love our 3D glasses (video)

Sharp’s 10.6-inch parallax barrier display makes us love our 3D glasses (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 04 Sep 2010 01:54:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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And here it is, Panasonic’s prototype G-series micro-four-thirds shooter with new interchangeable 3D lens. We caught the pair hanging out at IFA with nary a soul around to take notice. Too bad for them, good for you if you’ve made the jump to a panny MFT as the lens will ultimately be compatible with your Lumix G micro system… probably — unfortunately, Panasonic isn’t saying which cams will be eligible for the software update. From the sound of it, the whole kit will get official in just a few week at Photokina with a new G-series body playing host to the new 3D lens. Here in Berlin, however, we’ve got a G2 body with an updated 3D image processing system doing the dirty work. Nevertheless, it was fully functional and produced a reasonable 3D image with plenty of pop that was ready to view on a brand new Panasonic 3D television. Come on, a 3D television is nothing without 3D content. Sneaky Panasonic, sneaky.

Panasonic’s prototype Micro Four Thirds 3D lens and body arrive in Berlin originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 03 Sep 2010 20:20:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The problem with the future is that it’s always 3 to 5 years away. Nevertheless, what you’re looking at is what Philips and Dimenco, a small company of ex-Philips engineers, say will be coming to the consumer television market as early as 2013 — earlier if you’re in the professional advertising business or just want to view your family photos on a small 3D photo frame. Just remember that Philips has been showing off variations of the glasses-free technology behind this prototype lenticular lens television for years, so we’re not getting our hopes up. Nevertheless, Dimenco assured us that the path to the consumer market for its 3D display is clear.

So how did it look? Well, it was ok, we guess. It doesn’t have that in-your-face pop of the current generation of 3D televisions that require 3D glasses. The effect is more subtle (or maybe the content was). Our biggest problem was with the sharpness of the display. Although the 56-inch prototype CCFL LCD was 4k (that’s 4 times the resolution of your Full HD TV) the image we saw was coarse in appearance due to the lenticular lens required to refract the left and right images for each eye. Having said that, the lenticular lens technology used is certainly better suited for non-stationary viewing. While the border around objects on the screen tended to shift quickly and blur (see the video after the break) when looking at the panel frombetween any of its 15 viewing angles (spread across a 120-degree arc), at least it didn’t exhibit those horrible dark vertical bands seen when changing your angle even slightly while viewing 3D panels based on the parallax barrier method of glasses-less 3D. Still, it was hard to find the viewing sweet spot and honestly, given the option to sit in front of this display and a 4k panel “limited” to 2D, we’d have to opt for the latter. Get back to us in 3 to 5 and see if we feel the same.

Continue reading Philips Dimenco glasses-less 3D TV of the future, hopefully our future

Philips Dimenco glasses-less 3D TV of the future, hopefully our future originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 03 Sep 2010 09:15:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We still have memories — some would say nightmares, but we digress — of hanging out at a neighbor’s house and taking turns playing matches of Mario’s Tennis, our biological ocular displays assimilated into a rubber mask that engulfed our brains and left us in a permanent state of viewing the world in red wireframe. Crude 3D though it may be, it’s still a part of history we must accept, and if you happen to own a Virtual Boy, we have just two things to say to you. One: we’re insanely jealous. Two: if you ever need to know how to rip it to shreds for repair / stress relief, iFixit’s got you covered. In the world of Man with Screwdriver vs. Game Console, yet again Man wins. Seems a perfect ending to a week that featured Atari 2600, Nintendo Famicon, RCA Studio II, and Magnavox Odyssey 100. Check out highlights in the gallery below, or hit up iFixit for the whole shebang.

iFixit celebrates Friday with teardown of Virtual Boy, the greatest game console man has ever known originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 03 Sep 2010 09:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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