HP develops glasses-free 3-D for mobile devices

Researchers at Hewlett-Packard Co. havedeveloped a way to put glasses-free 3-D video on mobile devices with a viewingangle so wide that viewers can see an object more fully just by tilting thescreen.

Glasses-free 3-D is not unique. Nintendo Co. Ltd.'s 3DShandheld allows video game play in 3-D without glasses, but it requires playersto look straight into the screen with their noses centered.

HP's researchers have found a way to make images viewable in3-D from angles up to 45 degrees from center in any direction — up, down,side-to-side or diagonally. That means viewers can see a person's face with oneear blocked from view, but reveal the ear by swiveling the screen.

The company's findings will be published in the scientificjournal, Nature, on Thursday.

The scientists used nanotechnology to etch multiple circleswith tiny grooves into a glass layer of the display.

The grooves bend light in a way that allows for 64 differentpoints of view. By moving the screen, people will perceive two of those pointsof view at any one time, one with their left eye and one with their right. As aresult, the image will appear in 3-D.

David Fattal, the lead author of the paper, said the effectis "much like you'd see in the movie 'Star Wars' with the hologram ofPrincess Leia."

He acknowledged the effect wouldn't be identical to ahologram, however, since the images won't pop as far out of the screen asLeia's projection did in the movie.

The technology isn't exactly coming to a movie theater nearyou any time soon. While moving images can be created using computer animation,any live video capture would require an array of 64 cameras all pointed at anobject, Fattal said.