Real-Depth imaging: a new 3D imaging technology with inexpensive direct-view (no glasses) video and other applications

Floating Images, Inc. has developed the software and hardware for a new, patent pending, 'floating 3-D, off-the-screen- experience' display technology. This technology has the potential to become the next standard for home and arcade video games, computers, corporate presentations, Internet/Intranet viewing, and television. Current '3-D graphics' technologies are actually flat on screen. Floating ImagesTM technology actually produce images at different depths from any display, such as CRT and LCD, for television, computer, projection, and other formats. In addition, unlike stereoscopic 3-D imaging, no glasses, headgear, or other viewing aids are used. And, unlike current autostereoscopic imaging technologies, there is virtually no restriction on where viewers can sit to view the images, with no 'bad' or 'dead' zones, flipping, or pseudoscopy. In addition to providing traditional depth cues such as perspective and background image occlusion, the new technology also provides both horizontal and vertical binocular parallax (the ability to look around foreground objects to see previously hidden background objects, with each eye seeing a different view at all times) and accommodation (the need to re-focus one's eyes when shifting attention from a near object to a distant object) which coincides with convergence (the need to re-aim one's eyes when shifting attention from a near object to a distant object). Since accommodation coincides with convergence, viewing these images doesn't produce headaches, fatigue, or eye-strain, regardless of how long they are viewed (unlike stereoscopic and autostereoscopic displays). The imagery (video or computer generated) must either be formatted for the Floating ImagesTM platform when written or existing software can be re-formatted without much difficulty.