One of the not ready for retail concepts released this year at CES was the possibility of 3-D…without the glasses.
The Toshiba Qosmio laptop, and also cleverly–named Nintendo 3DS, suggest a future without that iconic but pesky eyewear. The way it works is simple: the screen is “smart.” It changes for you, based on the distance and angle you’re looking at it.
Okay, so great. You don’t have to wear those glasses. Big deal. There are still a number of problems with 3-D. It still bugs your eyes a little. And then there’s that paranoia with every screen having a camera of its own, so now your TV really is watching you back.
But let’s ignore those for a moment and look at the bigger picture: there’s a lot of money going into 3-D R&D. That means that, quite possibly, 3-D is more than a fad this time. And with 3-D PCs already in development, it could mean a completely new dynamic to the Internet.
Imagine the entire web going 3-D.
On the positive side, think of what it means to location-based social networking. Heck, think about Google maps alone. With the right kind of screen, you can virtually walk though a neighborhood without being there. Then, match that with a device like the connect and the Avatar program demonstrated and suddenly you can be anywhere and everywhere- or at least your avatar can be.
On the negative (or at least futuristically creepy side, it puts us one step closer to the world suggested by Robert Venditti and Brett Weldele (or the Bruce Willis film) in Surrogates. First, imagine the programming involved in creating a 3-D website. It changes everything, maybe even making the Internet inaccessible to any but those with high end programming. Then again, it has survived several updates thus far. Second, picture an Internet that’s so much more realistic that you’ll want to stay there.
Let’s face it; there may not be anything better than the real, thing, but suddenly, like digital paper, it’s not as far away as we think.