Wayne Kawamoto
A newly developed system, called the High Definition Volumetric Display (HDVD), can project images from a PC so that they appear to be solid objects suspended in the air. This technology, from Dimensional Media Associates (New York, NY, (212) 620-4100; fax (212) 620-7771), can accept 2-D images from a variety of light sources, such as PC displays, and project them. The resulting 3-D aerial images can be up to 20 feet in width, and you can view the images under a variety of lighting conditions.
Projecting a conventional PC screen through an HDVD system results in a floating plane that displays real-time stationary and full-motion images. By generating and displaying image objects in a special format, a PC has the ability to act as a source of true 3-D images that you can view at dif
ferent angles. "What we have is technology that's unencumbered by 3-D glasses or virtual-reality headsets," says Susan Kasen Summer, DMA's chairwoman. "It gives consumers a new way of viewing the software that they already have on their PCs."
HDVD systems might one day enable businesspeople to give 3-D presentations. There are also numerous possible applications in such areas as education, museum and trade-show kiosks, entertainment, the military, and the medical field, which has already begun investigating its use in surgical rehearsal.
"HDVD is going to play an interesting role in the evolution of advanced display technology," says Jeff Marshall, senior managing director at Bear Stearns (New York, NY), a brokerage firm that specializes in high technology. "We are encouraged that they have been able to develop the technology this far -- and even more encouraged by the possibilities of future applications."
For now, no directly competing technologies appear to exist. Although other 3-D syste
ms are in development, including goggle-based virtual-reality viewing systems and Sanyo's image-splitting technology, they aren't projection systems. "It's still an image inside a box; it's not in free space," says Summer of HDVD's competition.
Today, HDVD technology is expensive (base prices begin at about $12,000) and, as a result, currently out of the reach of consumer products. DMA holds the exclusive patent on the technology and is now working with established hardware vendors to make the technology available to consumers at a lower price (
see the conceptual illustration
). "We have signed some multinational contracts, which will be announced," says Summer, "and I think that by the beginning of the year, you'll see it [HDVD] in some consumer products." Adds Marshall: "Within the next two to three years, I expect to see the new wave of display technology and applications in wide use."
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One use of HDVD could be to work in conjunction with a traditional 2-D PC display, such as in a kiosk. The 2-D PC display could show data on the computer's monitor while you view a 3-D display that hovers in front of the PC.
3-D Images That Float in Air
