3D has become hugely popular once again, but for some the experience is just not right with a pair of ‘should have gone to Specsavers’ 3D glasses. We have explored developments in autostereoscopic displays and they have so far been limited by very restrictive viewing angles and distances. In an attempt to solve these problems – Microsoft (Applied Sciences Group) has come up with a special ‘wedge’ lens (below).

Image Source: Technology Review

The lens is thinner at the bottom than the top, and is designed to ‘trap’ light from a monitor and then focus it at a viewers eyes using LEDs at the bottom of the lens. The system includes a camera at the bottom to track head movement and focus light at the correct place (i.e. right into your 3D-glassesless eyes). Not only does this system allow stereoscopic 3D effects, by projecting different images into each eye; it can also beam different 3D images to two different viewers or 2D images to four different viewers simultaneously.

The lens itself is only 11mm thick at the top and 6mm thick at the bottom, allowing it to be incorporated into LCD monitors. We are not sure whether the system could be integrated into OLED computer monitors as they lack a backlight and emit coloured light directly, but we are sure this is being worked on. You can read more about the technology here.