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Pop-Out Video High-Tech 3-D Specs Oct. 14th Remember those funky 3-D movies of the 1950s and the oddball two-colored spectacles you had to wear in order to see images leap off the screen? They're back. Sort of. X3D Technologies Corp. in New York City has developed an electronic version of the 3D shades that can give any electronic flat, two-dimensional image the illusion of having depth. "We have the world's first technology that can transform TV broadcasts, videos, and games in real time from 2D to 3D on any PC," Elliot Kline, chief executive officer of X3D Technolgies. How the technology works involves similar principles used in the cheap cardboard viewing glasses of old but without the two-tone lenses. The X3D system is a simple box with software and a pair of special glasses that can be used with a PC or a TV. The software takes the electronic signals that would create a single image on a display screen into two distinct "left" and "right" images. Both images flicker on the PC's monitor or TV screen faster than the human eye can detect. The glasses, however, are equipped with tiny shutters that open and close in time to those images so that the left eye sees one image and the right sees a slightly different version of the same image. The result, in the viewer's mind, is a single image that appears to have a third dimension, "depth." Officials at X3D Technologies say the technique will work with almost any electronic display and image type video games on a PC, TV shows, still pictures from a digital camera. The company also offers games and "shows" specifically created for the glasses on the Web at www.x3dworld.com. The 3D viewing systems start at $100 and are available on the company's Web site. |