* * * Will The Web Ever Become "3-d"? * * *

[~0]

Will The Web Ever Become "3-d"? - When, and What will will that require?

[jdiben]

I read somewhere a few months ago that someone (probably IBM) is developing a 3D monitor. It will likely be too expensive for me to buy and it will probably require an updated markup language to be used for the web. Since I wont be able to afford it my sites will be remaining 2D.

Joe

[swstyles]

What ever happened to vrml?
Or is it vml?

[tertius]

The internet is choking now with emails, viruses(virii for the taxonomically correct <grin>) and Flash...I don't see the infrastructure being upgraded significantly to support the expected big bandwidth needed for true 3-D communications at a reasonable size.

My 2 cents...(worth less now than when I first programmed a vacuum tube based computer...<grin>)

[~0]

the Web WILL in fact become 3-D
http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/77/5tech.html
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,4149,1367840,00.asp
http://www.io2technology.com/

Chad Dyner >> Interactive floating display
Chad Dyner quit his job at one of the world's most famous architecture firms because he wanted to do something different. He wanted to become an inventor.

In 2000, Dyner left the Los Angeles firm of Gehry Partners to spend time tinkering in the two-bedroom apartment that he shared with a roommate in Hermosa Beach, California.

Dyner wanted to transform thin air into a movie screen--a full-color display. And he wanted users to be able to use their hands to manipulate the images, the way Tom Cruise did in the film Minority Report. "I wanted to come up with a system that would allow for collaboration," Dyner says. "It would give designers and architects a way to manipulate data and discuss a project together."

Dyner bought a digital projector--the same kind used to display PowerPoint presentations--and took it apart. Inside was a micromirror system, a single chip that relies on a million tiny mirrors that tilt back and forth to create images. Dyner spent "seven days a week, 18 hours a day" trying to figure out "how to make the light stop in free space" using the micromirror system.

The key lay in using a fan to create a sheet of air that would reflect light projected at a given angle by the micromirror system. Dyner won't be too specific since his patents haven't yet been issued. But his first prototype made images from a computer hover in midair, something like a two-dimensional hologram. The nifty part: Sensors built into the box can tell when a user's hand (or an object used as a pointer) "touches" the image, allowing a finger to serve as a mouse.

Dyner formed IO2 Technology to develop his invention, dubbed the Heliodisplay. "What people respond to is that [the Heliodisplay] allows for digital information to coexist spatially with the real world," Dyner says. "You can imagine it being used as a heads-up display for doctors doing surgery, for videoconferencing, or for commanding a submarine." Not to mention video games. After seeing a demo of the Heliodisplay, a member of Disney's Imagineering group had one question: "How many can you build by May?"

IO2 is considering licensing the technology to other display manufacturers but may build the product itself. The price, at least initially, will be about the same as a plasma-screen TV--several thousand dollars.

Meanwhile, a team of contractors is working on producing a prototype capable of creating a 42-inch image. "I like the idea that an image can now be anywhere--it doesn't have to be confined in a box or stuck on a screen," he says. And Dyner is already onto something that could be another big idea. Now at MIT's Media Lab, the inventor is working to develop an intelligent material--call it "digital clay"--that can change form, texture, and color in response to user input.

[Kira Scurro]

depends upon what you mean by 3d. if you're speaking holographic, then the post above demonstrates that's a possibility for the near future.

if you're speaking of 3d such as you see in pc games, but in common usage on the web, there is an accessible alternative to vrml that is html based.

check out flatland.com for easy to learn and use 3d. the environments are more realistic than vrml and far less complicated to code.

there is also a company, tholos systems, working on 3d for tv, that i wouldn't be surprised couldn't also be eventually translated to the computer monitor.

[alienzhavelanded]

You guys been living under rocks? 3D monitors are here.

http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,102605,00.asp

The Martian

[TrafficProducer]

Breakthroughs in Science. Links to cutting edge science related web sites
http://www.future.wizkids.co.uk/index.html

What no Holograms? Search Google==>
http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=Hol...e+Search&meta=

[Kira Scurro]

and here we have it...a 3d notebook just in time for xmas.

http://www.sharpsystems.com/news/pre...e.asp?press=45

wired's offering it for $300 less.

http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/1...w=wn_tophead_4

[DylanW]

See this Jakob Nielsen column on the subject.

Basically, three-dimensional displays are only useful if there's something that needs to be displayed in 3D (3D diagrams, models, etc.). Otherwise, it's just eye candy that's more complicated to use. Therefore, no matter how much rendering and modeling software improves, we're still going to stick with 2D for the basic stuff.

Of course, this may change somewhat when 3D holographic-type displays (as mentioned earlier) hit the market.