3D projector avoids Elvis Costello effect

WHILE I WAS at the tech session by Reason Computer (www.reasonco.com) one of the devices shown fell into the 'way cool' category. No, not the 'how to set up your Viewsonic bird penholder, but something called GeoWall (www.geowall.org). In short this is a 3D projector technology made from cheap off the shelf parts.

The GeoWall project uses 2 off the shelf projectors with polarized lenses to project a 3D image on the screen. The audience wears the 'not quite as dorky as the red/blue ones' polarized glasses and stares at the screen. Unfortunately, 100 people in a room all wearing Elvis Costello glasses do look dorky en masse. The projected images appear in 3D as advertised, it works well.

The hardware itself is mostly rather dull and commonplace, which means it is rather cheap. This is a good thing seeing as how the GeoWall project is aimed at the educational market. The two projectors take up the vast majority of the cost, so if you have these already, the rest should be quite inexpensive.

Theory aside, does it work? The short answer is yes, very well. I was sitting in the back of the audience under the first row of lights that were still on, the rest of the room was darkened, and I had no problem seeing the images clearly in 3D. It worked much better than most of the 3D movies (see here) and shows I have seen.

The show was heavy with geology pictures, hence the Geo in GeoWall, and while things like the Grand Canyon are nice in pictures, to really get the point across, you need 3D. Rock formations look much more real when they are not flat, and topographic maps don't resemble habitual coffee drinkers desks, intertwining rings. Height is not hinted at, it is.

At the price point they are talking about, around $10,000, you can almost make this into a gaming rig. Imagine a counterstrike session on a 10 foot screen in full 3D. Half-Life 2 with this setup would most likely make my brain explode and drip out my ears. I will have to run over there as soon as I can get my hot little hands on a copy, the possibilities are rather mind-boggling. µ