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PRODUCTWATCH
Eyes on with Sony’s 360 degree 3D display
By Martyn Williams of IDG News Service (Tokyo Bureau)
Sony has unveiled an impressive
3D display that can be viewed
from any direction. The screen
sits in the upper half of a black, circular
case that’s 13 centimeters in diameter
and 27 centimeters tall—about the size
of a small blender. Sony is keeping the
technology used in the display under
wraps except to say it uses an LED light
source. The produced image appears
to have depth to it and can be viewed
through 360 degrees around the device.
Objects displayed on the screen included
a globe, car, cartoon character and
model. Sony created the objects either in
3D on a computer or by keeping them
still while taking photographs from all
around. As a result it’s possible to walk
around the display and view each object
from any angle on the horizontal plane.
So, for example, when a model’s head
was being displayed a visitor could walk
to the other side of the screen and see the
back of her head.
The screen has a resolution of
96 pixels by 128 pixels, which
doesn’t sound like it would
make for a very good image but
is surprisingly good, especially
when images of people are displayed.
Sony has two of the displays
on show at the DC Expo, both
of which are early prototypes—
and possibly the only two prototypes
judging by the “No.1” and
“No.2” stickers on them—but
bigger screens could be on the
way.
While it has taken Sony roughly three
years to develop the prototypes, it will
not take a great leap to make versions
with larger screens, said Naoya Eguchi,
general manager of the photonics development
department at Sony’s core device
development group. He hinted that
a larger version would be ready sometime
in 2010.
Sony sees several potential uses for
the screen.
“This is a very good display for educational
purposes and there are many design
applications,” said Ryoji Chubachi,
vice chairman of Sony, in an interview.
“There are so many, I’m expecting to accept
many proposals from visitors.”
As for when it might come to market,
Chubachi said that for now Sony is soliciting
ideas on how it might be used and
then will consider future plans.
“It all depends on the application,” he
said regarding commercialization. “If
we can develop a good application then
we’ll invest more.” 3
Clothes-folding robot
It might earn them university credits but a robot developed
by students in Japan won’t help dispel the
image of the lazy student. The robot has been designed
to fold clothes.
The bot, called “Foldy,” works with a camera mounted
above a flat surface. An item of clothing is laid out on the
surface and an image of it is captured into a PC. The robot
operator can then draw fold lines on the PC. Once that’s done
it’s just a case of clicking a button and Foldy goes to work.
The wheeled robot is about the size of a shoe box and has a
pair of long grippers that it uses to grab the clothing and fold
it. A 2D bar code sits prominently and clearly on top of the
robot and allows the PC to control it by watching its position
and movements through the camera.
The robot was developed by students at Keio University
as part of the Japan Science and Technology Agency’s Erato
project for advanced research. It was one of several futuristic
prototypes on show last month at the Digital Contents
Expo in Tokyo. 3
48 Computerworld Hong Kong Nov 2009 www.cw.com.hk