Tech

MIT Develops 'Cinema 3D' Watching Without Glasses

Elaine Hannah
First Posted: Jul 26, 2016 07:27 AM EDT

Researchers from the MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab (Csail) in collaboration with the team from Israel's Weiszmann Institute of Science invented a screen called the "Cinema 3D." This screen permits the viewers to watch the 3D movie without the use of 3D glasses no matter where the viewers are located in the room.


The 'Cinema 3D' uses an array of lenses and mirrors to produce a series of parallax barriers that envelops each viewing angle in the theater based on seat locations. It also preserves resolution in which it can provide the same crisp image to every member of the audience, according to Tech Times.

The results of the study will be presented this week at the SIGGRAPH computer graphics conference. According to Popular Science, the screen needs about 50 mirrors and lenses. It is also about the size of paper. The researchers are optimistic that it will be further developed into a full-blown theater in the future.

Wojciech Matusik, co-author of the study, said that it remains to be seen whether the approach is financially viable enough to scale up to a full-blown theater. They are hopeful that this is a significant next step in creating glasses-free 3D for large spaces like movie theaters and auditoriums. The Cinema 3D is not yet released on the market as of today.

 

See Now: NASA's Juno Spacecraft's Rendezvous With Jupiter's Mammoth Cyclone

More on SCIENCEwr