Post date: Feb 08, 2013 3:29:34 PM
Silicon Valley start-up, zSpace, has produced a virtual 3D display its founders say will revolutionize the way people interact with computers. The system gives three-dimensional form to virtual objects and allows users to manipulate those objects as if they were real. Ben Gruber has more.
Innovations - According to California company zSpace - this is a vision of the future - an interactive 3D virtual display that will allow designers to examine and refine products of the future from a new perspective.
Chief Technology Officer Dave Chavez says the technology gives form and function to virtual objects. DAVE CHAVEZ, CTO, zSPACE,
"What we are really doing is fooling your brain into thinking that those things are really happening there which, of course, they are not. Those objects really aren't floating there.."
But they certainly appear to be floating there, when seen through glasses equipped with powerful eye motion sensors. Chavez says the combination of imaging and sensory technologies creates a world that seems real.
DAVE CHAVEZ, CTO, zSPACE,
"The system renders the images that are delivered to each eye based on the position and orientation of your eyes, which is what happens to real life. When I move my head around I can see things and everything moves back and forth, it's known as motion parallax."
Company CEO, Paul Kellenberger, says the ability to manipulate 3D imagery will have application, not just to design, but to fields like medicine and, later, a broader market.
PAUL KELLENBERGER ,CEO, zSPACE ,
"I think you will see down the road and in the not too distant future that we will be in the broader mass market opportunities and education and gaming and the intersection of education and gaming , which some people call edutainment, we see as a very big market. That is part of another phase still yet to come."
Chavez and Kellenberger predict that the days of conventional flat computer screens controlled by a mouse are numbered…and that their interactive technology will soon be much more than virtual reality