Now, you can watch 3-D without glasses
By siliconindia   |   Tuesday, 22 June 2010, 22:55 IST   |    1 Comments
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Los Angeles: The technological advancement has proved incredibly that, the 3DS displays true 3-D images without the use of special glasses. It actually works. Unlike many 3-D movies with objects that might appear to come whizzing out at you, the 3DS images appear to have depth that recedes into the screen. Without delving too deeply into the technology (known as a parallax system), the 3DS works because the user holds the unit directly in front of the eyes at a somewhat fixed distance, The New York Times. Similar technology does not work effectively on home televisions because you have to look at the screen from close to a direct perpendicular angle for the image to retain coherence. Anyone slightly off to the side will get a distorted image, and that's why the first generation of 3-D TVs require cumbersome special glasses. Nintendo's success in making 3-D work without glasses in an easy-to-use, immediately accessible fashion is a triumph akin to how the Wii reshaped home gaming by rethinking what a game controller is, how it functions and who might be able to use it. Nintendo did not announce when it would begin shipping the 3DS, but senior industry executives expect it to hit the shelves in Japan this fall and in North America next spring. Microsoft's new Kinect system is profound in a different way, and represents that company's attempt to out-Wii the Wii. The Wii, after all, redefined the game controller by allowing users merely to wave it around rather than mastering complicated combinations of buttons. With Kinect, an add-on for the Xbox 360 that Microsoft plans to introduce in November, there is no controller at all. Kinect uses cameras to recognise the bodies of people standing in front of the machine without the use of any special markers. As with the 3DS, the first time you use Kinect it feels a bit like magic. Kinect also includes an advanced voice-recognition system for controlling basic technical functions. It does not appear to be of much use for playing complicated and sophisticated games, but that is not its function. Kinect is designed to attract the women, children and families that Nintendo has appealed to so famously with the Wii, and in that regard it appears formidable. The real question will be the cost, which Microsoft has not revealed. That said, playing a dance game with Kinect is a grin-inducing experience.