Autostereoscopic Display lets you Toss Aside the Goggles

StereoGraphics just let us know about its first autostereoscopic display, the SynthaGram monitor, which allows you to see in stereo without wearing goofy eyewear. The company says that the SynthaGram monitor provides bright views with wide viewing angles, so that more than one person can see the magic. The monitor will start shipping next month. StereoGraphics thinks that being able to view the screen from different angles could make it a good fit for kiosks used in museums and other public places, as well as being a tool for computational chemists developing molecular models; design engineers involved in virtual prototyping; doctors and technicians in medical imaging; scientists and doctors in academic research; and, electronic game developers. Supported by Windows Me/2000/NT/98 operating systems, the SynthaGram Monitor includes a liquid crystal display panel; a lenticular screen; a software developers' kit including an API; a viewer to play back the stereo images on the display; a graphics card with a digital output adapter to ensure compatibility between the computer and the monitor; and software plug-ins enabling creation of autostereoscopic images within existing graphics programs. StereoGraphics says Linux and Unix operating systems will be supported in future versions of the SDK. The whole package will set you back $6,000. As a side note, there's an interesting article that gives an explanation of how 3D stereoscopic graphics work over at nV News .