Sony's 3D Display Unveiled: 360-Degree Hologram, No Glasses Needed (PHOTOS)

Sony's latest gadget looks like a cross between a coffee-maker and a fan, but it's a whole lot cooler (see photo below).

The "360 Degree Stereoscopic Display" unveiled by Sony is a prototype of a tabletop 3D display that can be seen from 360 degrees and doesn't require funky 3D glasses for full effect.

According to Sony's press release, the gadget measures 13 cm in diameter and is 27 cm tall (or about 5 by 10 inches).

So what's it for? Seems that Sony isn't sure yet. Speculations are swirling that the device could be used commercially (for advertising, medical visualization, and digital signage) or in the home as a 3D digital photo display.

PSPWorld brainstorms some uses:

Imagine a future PSP shaped like a snow globe, in which images were conjured up in full 3D, with users controlling the action with touch input from the outside. Sony has already said that it intends to build 3D support into its PlayStation 3 games console, Vaio laptop computers and its Blu-ray movie players.

Comments

[Valkyrie Ice]

04:48 AM on 10/21/2009

a pair of stereoscopic OLED lenses light enough to wear while playing a videogame would be far more useful.

Virtual 3D holograms are far easier to make and far more useful in Augmented Reality systems than such relatively cool, but useless devices like this.

[WisdomFirst]

04:26 PM on 10/20/2009

Wow! 3D! No way. Pssst! Wuh? Huh? What did you say? Oh, yeah. I guess I can look in the mirror and see myself in 3D, or look out the window out into the street and see buildings and trees and people walking their dogs -- all in 3D! Like having us buy water in bottles when we can already get it from the faucet.

[AlwaysRightLeftist]

05:15 PM on 10/20/2009

Party pooper.

[WisdomFirst]

05:49 PM on 10/20/2009

:)

[Iwpach]

10:40 AM on 10/20/2009

Sweet sassy Mollassy,we're only a few years away from Astromech droid smuggling readouts from the Death Star and projecting images of Alderaanian princesses. EEK!

[Doug Flight]

10:07 PM on 10/19/2009

CNN wants a really big one with lifesize imagery...Wolf Blitzer in Hologram...Yeesh.

[liberalbug]

08:57 PM on 10/19/2009

No 3-D glasses needed, special mushrooms included in the price of purchase.

[Kyle Anderson]

09:17 PM on 10/19/2009

Hahahahaha, sign me up for two!

[FreedomBeforeSecurity]

08:34 PM on 10/19/2009

This technology has been around for AGES!!
I remember seeing a large western, sh00t-em-up up video game at the local arcade as early as a 1990. It was amazing at the time, but then nothing came of it.

If you want to impress me, sell one that's as large as a 32'" plasma.

Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/10/19/sonys-3d-display-unveiled_n_325732.html

[FreedomBeforeSecurity]

08:33 PM on 10/19/2009

This technology has been around for AGES!!
I remember seeing a large western, shoot 'em up video game at the local arcade as early as a 1990. It was amazing at the time, but then nothing came of it.

If you want to impress me, sell one that's as large as a 32'" plasma.

[ILuvBubbles]

08:02 PM on 10/19/2009

Where are the flying cars?

[Iwpach]

10:42 AM on 10/20/2009

Yeah and the jetpacks
Screw this Healthcare reform crap,we need Nano-tech to fix cancer and Lou Gehrig's Disease and we need it yesterday!

[bbriani3842]

07:54 PM on 10/19/2009

I want my HOLODECK!

[Kevin Ting]

07:40 PM on 10/19/2009

I'm still waiting for a 40inch paper thin OLED TV. :P Come on Sony!

[karen1p]

07:37 PM on 10/19/2009

This totally freaks me out. I have ocular lens implants that cannot let me view 3D images.....I keep thinking that eventually, I may never be able to go to the movies, as they will all be filmed in 3D......ACKKKKK!

[NeverRepublican]

07:30 PM on 10/19/2009

Ok..not sure what it is for...says Sony....

That means it's more crap for our land fills... or the giant plastic island twice the size of Texas floating in the Pacific...

[jick]

08:20 PM on 10/19/2009

PHEW ... wouldn't be Hu.P.o. if SOMEONE didn't rain on the parade!!! Thanks!

[cooket]

07:02 PM on 10/19/2009

I CAN'T BELIEVE I LIVED TO SEE THE FIRST BLACK PRESIDENT AND THE FIRST 3D PORN!!!!

[jack s]

08:01 PM on 10/19/2009

Lol

[Teadye]

06:11 PM on 10/19/2009

Note: this is holography not flat screen "3D" like the iMax or the TV coming out next year.

[gorgol]

06:08 PM on 10/19/2009

I "see" the Start Trek Holodeck, right around the corner...

[JoyinAZ]

07:29 PM on 10/19/2009

Just what I thought.

[FreedomBeforeSecurity]

08:42 PM on 10/19/2009

Sorry, but an interactive Holodeck is way off.
For those that don't know, there's are multiple images being projected from the stand on the bottom, to mirrors behind the image you see. These two images are aligned in such a way to give the illusion of depth. If you change your viewing angle, the angle of the image doesn't change, and eventually the illusion breaks down.

It's a novel idea, but a Holodeck it's not. And it can't be unless someone spends over a million dollars setting up a wall-to wall unit, and runs enough power to make Al Gore keal over.

[Iwpach]

02:03 PM on 10/20/2009

Well that and the whole forcefields and molecular resolution matter teleportation thing. :-B