Microsoft making it real. Microsoft's floating display.

Many of us are waiting for something new. Holograms. 3D input. Magic. The day will come when something fresh comes along and perhaps it's Microsoft who will bring it to us. Please MS, get this right and put it in a tablet and in a box and break up this monotony of look-alike, act-alike gadgets. Please Microsoft, you're my only hope:

From Microsoft's Applied Sciences Group:

HP holograms displays.

MIT Tech Review Story >>


KEY MOBILE TRENDS: holograms, displays, components

The long, long-term future of displays is holograms. Hologram move theaters, hologram televisions, hologram computers, even hologram mobiles.

Just like multi-touch input, some smartphone vendor will come along some day and shift the market in a new direction. This is a vision.

Here is some hologram display research from HP:

Microsoft's IllumiRoom project. More super cool stuff from Microsoft we'll probably never see.

Here's another nice research project from Microsoft, the IllumiRoom Project creates an Immersive Gaming Experience. Not much detail is given which usually means smoke and mirrors. But it looks like a great idea:

Apple 3D breakthrough? Should Apple's new 3D GUI IPR for iOS worry other vendors?

STORY via Patently Apple >>

I've been trying to follow mobile 3D developments for quite many years now. This is no sudden technology disruption: 3D has been around for more than 50 years and there's no doubt at some point some company will get this right. As opposed to television sets, individual-user 3D-enabled handheld devices have the advantage of only have to cater to one single user, so it's more appropriate for glasses-free 3D viewing.

There have been a few handsets on the market supporting 3D content, but the first mainstream handheld electronic gadget is probably Nintendo's 3DS. I've tried the 3DS a few times. I'll reserve judgement here as I understand I'm not the core addressable audience for the device. But to go mainstream in handsets, some company is going to have to do better in 3D.

Will that company be Apple?

Apple has filed a number of 3D-related patents over the past few years. If you work at a large handset company, I recommend your IPR department do their research here.

Here's some new info via the very useful site Patently Apple on a new 3D GUI patent applications for iOS. Stick-figure drawings in patents aren't always so clear,
patent application from Apple that reveals an exciting new 3D GUI for iOS mobile devices.

The patent covers the use of device sensors such as gyro sensors to adjust the 3D display. I would think that this isn't the only patent out there covering this general approach and it will be interesting to see who gets to market first with a 3D smartphone with a real WOW effect.

3D will be coming someday. It might even be holograms. But some company will get this right. Get ready to stick out in a crowded marketplace full of look-alike products.

Steam Punk. “Hugo” survives on the mean streets of Paris in 3D. Does 3D matter now?

Is this the breakthrough 3D has been waiting for?

Woody Allen once quipped that by making “Schindler's List,” Steven Spielberg finally earned the right to “eat at the grownups’ table.” Well, Martin Scorsese’s latest film, “Hugo,” has earned that director the right to sit in the back of the banquet hall with the kids.

A Scorsese family flick, fun for all ages? Yup. But not only is “Hugo” a bona-fide kids’ movie, it’s also a new level for 3D in which three dimensional imaging is used in such a subtle way, it never seems forced or fails.

If you haven’t seen “Hugo,” I do recommend it. And do throw down the extra three bucks for 3D. The story, which first centers around the gritty daily survival skills of 12-year-old orphan Hugo Cabret, slowly turns into a tribute to French revolutionary filmmaker Georges Méliès. It’s some smooth story telling by Scorsese and gives recognition or a rather unknown innovator and a man Scorsese certainly studied while a young film student at NYU.

“Hugo” is “Mean Streets” crossed with “Sesame Street.” It’s “Gangs of New York” crossed with “Oliver Twist.” But “Hugo” is not only a new genre for Scorsese, it’s a new genre for 3D content. It is 3D done right. Now I wonder if it’s soon time that mobile 3D will be done right.

Will more 3D get in our face? And in our pockets soon? More to come.

Une adventure 3D.

Microsoft’s HoloDesk. Sometimes Microsoft can be so transparent.

via GIZMAG >>

Microsoft Research pages >>

Here’s a fun research project from Microsoft. It’s “HoloDesk,” which uses a clear display, a projector, and a Kinect to allow users to interact with virtual 3D objects. While this doesn't seem like a very mobile implementation, you never know how these things develop. Remember how multi-touch seemed out of touch?


http://research.microsoft.com/apps/video/default.aspx?id=154571