360-Degree Light Field Display: The Future of 3D Gaming?
By Jonathan on Tuesday, August 28th, 2007 at 11:45 AM PST In Game Related Science, Gamer Life
Maybe it’s the fact that they chose to render a TIE Fighter as a demonstration, but this Interactive 360 degree Light Field Display looks like something right out of Star Wars to me. Developed at USC Institute for Creative Technologies, researchers have produced a low cost 3D display system that can be viewed from all angles and requires no special glasses. The video above shows how it works, essentially by having a high-speed projector aimed at a spinning, diffusing mirror. Right now, they can even scan in actual objects and create a display of it, as demonstrated with a gnome statue near the end of the video. A person can also move and rotate the image thanks to a controller on the side. This display won the award for “Best Emerging Technology” at SIGGRAPH 2007, which includes the chance for the researchers to show it off at the International Conference on Virtual Reality in France next April.
So what could be the next step for a fully 3D display that’s interactive? Games of course. Granted, while the technology is quite cutting-edge, the imaging still looks like a throwback to the 80’s arcade days. But if the TIE Fighter is any indication of the researchers’ level of geekiness, I wouldn’t be surprised if they at least came up with a 3D version of Space Invaders at some point. Having fully 3D displays in the home is still a long way off, but this looks to be a step in the right direction.
Via CGSociety
That looks quite awesome, though it’s hardly the “future of 3d gaming”; that type of display would be good for, for example, top down shooters and real time strategies, but it hardly fits with, say, FPS. For that, the line of technology would be VR goggles, and motion booths and sensors.
@First Comment
Yea ur right it would be hard to play games with that, But it’s still AWESOME!
I can’t wait till they perfect it. 