Hardware Other devices with 3D screens

[spiritofcat]

When the 3DS was first announced I saw a news article about a smartphone in Japan that used similar screen technology, but today something in the ThinkGeek catalogue caught my eye.
A 3D camcorder with no-glasses 3D screen just like the 3DS has!
http://www.thinkgeek.com/electronics/camer...otography/e63f/

Product Features

* Pocket size camcorder allows you to shoot video in 2D or 3D mode
* Record HD quality video up to 720p resolution
* Built in LCD display is switchable between 3D and 2D mode. No glasses required!
* Shoot video or still shots
* Connect directly to your 3D TV via HDMI

Product Specifications

* Sensor Type - 5 Mega-Pixel CMOS (2592 x 1944); 1/3.2"
* Video Resolution - 720P (1280 x 720), up to 30 fps, 16:9
* Still Image - 5 Mega-Pixel CMOS (2592 x 1944), 4:3
* 3D File Format - Video: AVC H.264 (.MP4), Photo: .JPEG; Side-by-Side
* 2D File Format - Video: AVC H.264 (.MP4), Photo: .JPEG
* Internal Memory - 128MB for Software and e-manual (No Storage)
* External Memory - Up to 32GB SDHC Card
* Display - 2.4" 2D/3D TFT Panel (480 x 240 Pixels)
* Panel Type - Glasses Free Stereoscopic TFT
* 3D Display - Parallax Barrier
* Display Viewing - Best at 11.8" Distance
* Lens - Fixed Lens x 2
* Digital Zoom - 4x
* Focus Range - 1m ~ ?
* Night Mode - Auto (for Video and Photo)
* White Balance - Auto
* Exposure Control - Auto
* Self Timer - Yes, 10 seconds
* Power Save Mode - Yes, 3 minute Auto Off
* Microphone - Built-in Stereo Microphone
* Speaker - Built-in Stereo Speaker
* TV-Out - HDMI (3D/2D Output)
* YouTube Upload - Supported by Embedded Software
* USB Interface - Integrated USB2.0
* Battery - NP-60 1200mAh, 3.7V Li-Ion Rechargeable
* Tripod Port - Yes, 1/4"
* Dimensions - 2.75" x 1.0" x 4.5" (L x W x H)
* Weight - 4.3 oz. without battery; 5.2 oz. with

If I had a spare $200 I'd grab one right now just as a preview of what the 3DS is going to be like, but sadly I don't have any spare money.
Anyone seen any other no-glasses 3D screen devices out there?

 

[pachura]

FinePix REAL 3D W1 and W3:

 

[Wabsta]

There is a pretty simple phone, made in India, http://www.spiceglobal.com/spicemobiles/model.aspx?id=171
Also has the 3D withouth glasses.

 

[zuron7]

There is this mobile company in my country that has used the 3D without glasses technology in mobiles.
The weird thing is that the mobile isn't even 3G and it just costs Rs.4500/-(85$)

http://tech2.in.com/india/reviews/multimed...ol-you/154522/0

 

[Wabsta]

There is this particular mobile company that has used the 3D without glasses technology in mobiles.
The weird thing is that the mobile isn't even 3G.

http://tech2.in.com/india/reviews/multimed...ol-you/154522/0

Yea, the site I linked is that company

 

[pachura]

Sharp Galapagos 003SH and 005SH bring glasses-free 3D to Japanese Android lovers

A 1GHz Snapdragon powers Froyo on both, with the 3D-capable displays stretching to 3.8 inches and 800 x 480 resolution. The 003SH also comes with a 9.6 megapixel camera, while the 005SH settles for 8 megapixels, although both are capable of 720p video. There are also bundled 3D content deals in place, such as the one with Capcom that will see Mega Man, Resident Evil and Ghosts 'n Goblins titles coming preloaded on the handsets.

It seems Nintendo has some pretty strong competition:
- 3D screen with double vertical resolution (800x480 vs. 800x240 in 3DS, 3.8" vs. 3.5")
- way better camera (9.6/8 megapixels vs. 0.3 in 3DS; although one camera instead of two)
- better processor (1GHz vs. 2 x 266MHz)
- Resident Evil !!!
- Android (Android Market !!! lots of great apps !!! homebrew out of the box !!! great internet browser !!!)
- 720p video playback (I seriously doubt Nintendo allows playback of your own multimedia content)
- plus, it is a mobile phone, so there's 3G

I am seriously considering buying this one, although I will wait until 3DS is released to compare. Yes, I know controls in this mobile phone will suck compared to 3DS, however video playback and internet browsing are quite important to me.

 

[DeMoN]

Damn, this makes me wish that the 3DS had video recording capabilities.

 

[Midna]

@pachura

Strong competition? lolno

While devices like this may strike a blow against Nintendo's claim to be the first glasses free 3D device in the mass market, Ninty still has some major advantages over the competition. A massive library of fantastic games, which I doubt those phones have, Ghosts 'n Goblins or not. Plus... Gaming controls. Playing games on a phone keyboard is not fun.

Edit: Also, while they may support up to 780p video playback, don't be fooled into thinking those devices are 780p. The resolution for that is 1280×720. And Nintendo will be offering 3D movies to watch on the 3DS.

 

[DiscostewSM]

- 3D screen with double vertical resolution (800x480 vs. 800x240 in 3DS, 3.8" vs. 3.5")

If that is true, then playback of 16:9 3D videos would have to make use of a resolution of 400x225 to keep the aspect ratio, which is just barely under the 3DS's native resolution per eye (400x240 for 15:9, which is exactly what the 3DS would display). That's a lot of empty space (53.125% of the screen not being used for 16:9 to be exact).
Now take that into effect with 3D games, which will have 400x480 pixels per eye. No widescreen there either. In fact, you wouldn't even get 4:3. You'd be getting 5:6.

It can play widescreen, but that is assuming that when in 2D mode, every other pixel won't draw the same pixel as the prior one.

EDIT:

I may not have done enough searching, but I have yet to find an article about the device having any graphic acceleration, which is really a bummer if there was any competition for it with the 3DS.

 

[KingVamp]

@pachura

Strong competition? lolno

While devices like this may strike a blow against Nintendo's claim to be the first glasses free 3D device in the mass market

Yea that and the fact one being a phone and the other a game system.

I thought they was going for the first glasses-free 3D portable gaming device in the mass market?

 

[pachura]

Ninty still has some major advantages over the competition. A massive library of fantastic games, which I doubt those phones have

This is one of the few advantages of 3DS - its library of exclusive first-party games, Mario/Wario/Pokemon/Metroid franchises etc. And already some of them are being ported to other platforms - Megaman and Resident Evil are "real" games, don't you agree ?

Also, while they may support up to 780p video playback, don't be fooled into thinking those devices are 780p. The resolution for that is 1280×720. And Nintendo will be offering 3D movies to watch on the 3DS.

720p, you mean? This is obvious you cannot play 1280x720 movies on a 800x480 screen without some downscaling. But I can bet Nintendo will not allow you to play ANY of your own content AT ALL - you'll be forced to buy these 3D movies at their online store (after all, DSi was not even able to play MP3s). Myself, I prefer to rip my own DVDs or download movie rips. Also, 720p decoding comes pretty handy as you don't have to re-encode movies to some proprietary format (DPG, whatever) - you just download them, put them on the SD card and you're set.

And who said Sharp will not support 3D movies ?

- 3D screen with double vertical resolution (800x480 vs. 800x240 in 3DS, 3.8" vs. 3.5")

If that is true, then playback of 16:9 3D videos would have to make use of a resolution of 400x225 to keep the aspect ratio, which is just barely under the 3DS's native resolution per eye (400x240 for 15:9, which is exactly what the 3DS would display). That's a lot of empty space (53.125% of the screen not being used for 16:9 to be exact).
Now take that into effect with 3D games, which will have 400x480 pixels per eye. No widescreen there either. In fact, you wouldn't even get 4:3. You'd be getting 5:6.

Your calculations are wrong as you're assuming that pixels are always square. Which might not be the case here. You can e.g. imagine two screens with identical physical sizes - say, 50x50cm - one with resolution 500x500px, and the second one with 500x1000px. The second would have sharper picture vertically due to rectangular pixels.

QUOTE(DiscostewSM @ Nov 12 2010, 01:31 AM)

I may not have done enough searching, but I have yet to find an article about the device having any graphic acceleration, which is really a bummer if there was any competition for it with the 3DS.

Snapdragon is actually a SoC with a graphics core Adreno on board. I don't know which version exactly they are going to use - there is Adreno 205 and 200:
- OpenGLES 2.0
- 22 M Triangles/sec
- 133 M Pixels/sec

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SIkb_kDbrRE

@KingVamp: thought they was going for the first glasses-free 3D portable gaming device in the mass market?

Games from Android Market do not count ?

 

[Midna]

Ninty still has some major advantages over the competition. A massive library of fantastic games, which I doubt those phones have

This is one of the few advantages of 3DS - its library of exclusive first-party games, Mario/Wario/Pokemon/Metroid franchises etc. And already some of them are being ported to other platforms - Megaman and Resident Evil are "real" games, don't you agree ?

Resident Evil Revalations and Mercenaries =/= "Resident Evil"
Mega Man Legends 3 =/= "Mega Man"

Who said they were porting squat?

 

[DiscostewSM]

- 3D screen with double vertical resolution (800x480 vs. 800x240 in 3DS, 3.8" vs. 3.5")

If that is true, then playback of 16:9 3D videos would have to make use of a resolution of 400x225 to keep the aspect ratio, which is just barely under the 3DS's native resolution per eye (400x240 for 15:9, which is exactly what the 3DS would display). That's a lot of empty space (53.125% of the screen not being used for 16:9 to be exact).
Now take that into effect with 3D games, which will have 400x480 pixels per eye. No widescreen there either. In fact, you wouldn't even get 4:3. You'd be getting 5:6.

Your calculations are wrong as you're assuming that pixels are always square. Which might not be the case here. You can e.g. imagine two screens with identical physical sizes - say, 50x50cm - one with resolution 500x500px, and the second one with 500x1000px. The second would have sharper picture vertically due to rectangular pixels.

Now that you mention it, the 3DS doesn't use square pixels. Each pixel is twice the length vertically than it is horizontally (because they crammed 800 pixels into an area 400 square pixel would have taken up by width), but in 2D mode, every 2 pixels horizontally would have the same color, forming square combinations (unless developers have access to allow more detail in that mode horizontally). By that example, the Galapagos device would be considered having square pixels, but the detail of the images displayed would still be twice as much as it would be horizontally in 3D mode.

 

[KingVamp]

@KingVamp: thought they was going for the first glasses-free 3D portable gaming device in the mass market?

Games from Android Market do not count ?

Those are just small games/apps (are there even any 3D ones?) meant for phones not for portable gaming... ok fine dedicate portable gaming device.

 

[pachura]

Games from Android Market do not count ?

Those are just small games/apps (are there even any 3D ones?) meant for phones not for portable gaming... ok fine dedicate portable gaming device.

Asphalt http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fDlYgLWv6aQ
Nova http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Vn2DuPeE-E
Radiant http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=njfWuInxuWQ

 

[KingVamp]

Let us back up... Are we talking about 3D without glasses or 3D style?

 

[pachura]

Let us back up... Are we talking about 3D without glasses or 3D style?

I was just responding to your statement "Those are just small games/apps meant for phones". As I've shown, more mature and sophisticated games are now being created for iOS and Android. Now for the stereoscopic 3D, there is nothing, as 3D screens are not yet popular. But I believe they will be soon (hence this thread) and 3DS might loose "the thing" which is differentiating it from other mobile platforms.

For instance, I've seens on my friends Samsung Galaxy S a game which was a total Mario Kart rip off. Obviously, it did not contain Nintendo's copyrighted characters (Mario, Wario, Bowser...) but looked and felt almost identical. Some people might just not care and go with smartphones, which already have much more functionality and better hardware than 3DS...

 

[KingVamp]

hmm... 3DS is for people who do not want the phone part I guess and want games from companies.

Funny is people buy a smart phone and game portable, so 3DS might still have "the thing".

hmm... We see when it comes out