AICHI, Japan — Opticality Corp. announced the deployment of what is believed to be the largest autostereoscopic 3-D display ever created: a formidable 180-inch (about 4.5 meters) projection wall.
X3D Technologies GmbH, Opticality’s R&D arm and full-service European affiliate based in Jena, Germany, developed the prototype for Japan’s National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation in Tokyo. The concept display currently resides in the Japanese Pavilion at the 2005 World Exposition in Aichi, Japan, and will move to its permanent home in Tokyo when the World Expo concludes Sept. 25.
“Opticality’s presence at the World Expo is a tremendous opportunity for us to demonstrate that we’ve found a new frontier in a medium that seems to have forgotten the world isn’t flat," said Tony Piazza, Opticality’s president and chief executive officer.
The wall’s software and hardware technologies enable observers to see lifelike images that float deep inside and project several feet in front of the display. Images are visible to the naked eye and require no special viewing aids, such as 3-D glasses. The technology is akin to removing 3-D glasses from the human face and attaching them to the display screen.
The massive display is designed with a wide field of view for multiple spectators, where the 3-D experience is uncompromised across a large area. In fact, Opticality provides a freedom of viewing that other competing 3-D displays simply do not currently afford — a primary reason Japanese authorities selected Opticality to produce the prototype.
The large 3-D projection wall is 173 inches (about 4.4 meters) wide and 122 inches (about 3 meters) high. Given the wall’s immense size, Opticality believes this 3-D display is one for the record books.
Nearly 4 million people are expected to visit the Japanese Pavilion during the World Expo and be seduced to stop and look at the projection wall’s 3-D images. One such visitor was German President Horst Koehler, who made a point to see the 3-D display during his recent tour of Japan. President Koehler briefly met with Paul-Louis Meunier, X3D Technologies GmbH’s managing director and CTO — congratulating X3D for bringing the concept product to life.
