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The problem is as soon as you get somewhat out of view of the camera it doesn't work right. It's a cool concept but in the real world probably wont go anywhere.

Yes and no. Whenever introducing a new technology, it needs to be in a form where there is little risk to the end user. This is what a lot of the game market is all about. I can easily see this technology go into a game such as many wooden maze games on the iPhone / iPad already. From that, you have a public with a more familiar technology and you can make production / enterprise apps from it.
 
I suspect this technology will get much better once it starts using more iPhone sensors in tandem. Imagine if it worked by accelerometer and gyroscope and only used the camera to re-calibrate every half second or so. Then it won't be as big a problem when the camera loses you for a second.

In the demo the 3d works both while tilting the device and with the device stationary (while the cameraman moves around). With your suggestion, only the first ability is retained.

I think it's pretty cool, and will get better as algorithms and hardware improve.
 
wow i thought it was going to be good, but when downloading the app, i had a sneaking suspicion it wouldn't work right. it barely works guys, at all on my ipad 2
 
Overall a pretty impressive prototype, considering the available hardware was not engineered with this as a use case. The initial demo that tracks your head with a red rectangle demonstrates that they're doing a pretty solid job with the tracking part.

I think the stuttering and hesitation on the subsequent demos might have more do with the graphics processing & rendering than the actual tracking algorithms.

Note: I tested on an iPhone 4.
 
I see Apple using something like this on at least a few selected apps...
But If indeed this is used we won't see it for a year at least...
 
It's interesting, for sure. But you're still just getting 1 image per eye so it doesn't really appeal to me.

There are some regular DS games that use this technique too.
 
Sure, it needs a small amount of work but WOW, unlike most others I was very impressed!

Looking forward to this being introduced into iOS and apps real soon!

much the same, its a shame apple are slow to act on things like this though, android will nab it before apple start working on it. however when they finally release it, it will probably own the face off androids lol
 
I think that head tracking on a handheld device is not necessary. My initial instinct when I loaded the App was to move the device itself. Then when I realized "hey, it's tracking my head!" I noticed it just wasn't as natural to move my head than it was to tilt the device. While I think it's great that the technology is there, I'd think this would be much easier and accurate to pull off with the accelerometer and gyroscope.

I would imagine that head tracking would make more sense in a environment when using a TV, where the screen is stationary. Though I've heard bad reviews of how head tracking was implemented in The Fight on the PS3 using the PS Move, the technology is still early too.
 
Best performance tips

The performance improved greatly when I positioned myself so that the camera saw only my head and a blank wall six feet behind me.

This also doubles as a pretty good hand warmer :)
 
It's experimental at this point.

Yeah for POC I think it worked pretty well. It worked better once I held my iPhone 4 a few feet from my face rather than fairly close, and I think the movement could be exaggerated a little bit more, but overall it does as advertised and paves the way for some really cool possibilities.
 
Tried it on the iPhone, haven't tried it on the iPad yet. It's awfully low-res and notchy... I didn't really get much effect out of it. The YouTube video, though, looks so good I swear at times it is tricking my brain into thinking it is stereoscopic, and it's not even my own head being tracked.

So this demo is a little rough but I think the concept is still good. I'd like to see them add in/out as well. When my head moves closer or farther the view should compensate, like I'm walking up to or away from a window.
 
Neat concept but really isn't any good without an actual 3D screen.

The point is that this is 3D without a 3D screen. It's a very cost effective way of implementing 3D on tech that everyone already has. It's a great proof of concept. Combine head tracking with stereoscopic 3D and a 'lenticular lens' type wall and the 3D will be as good as any, but without the glasses and will work no matter where you sit.

I hope this is developed further. There's huge potential in this.
 
Is this the same thing Johnny Lee came up with for the Wii three years ago? The picture of the Demo looks exactly the same.
 
Is this the same thing Johnny Lee came up with for the Wii three years ago? The picture of the Demo looks exactly the same.

It's building on what Johnny Lee did. He used a Wii sensor bar attached to a camera and a laptop. This uses a front-facing cam. Nice work.
 
It's building on what Johnny Lee did. He used a Wii sensor bar attached to a camera and a laptop. This uses a front-facing cam. Nice work.

That's cool. You mean "Nice work" as in getting it to work with a front-facing camera is nice work right?
 
This is a cool demo but I don't see the tech going anywhere.

The problem is when you use a device like iPad or iPhone is that you would have to be aware of it all the time. If you have your ipad on a table and go to touch the screen your camera angle will change because your hand will probably block the camera.

And of course the iPad front facing camera is not very wide angle so once you move out of bounds it can no longer track you.

It might be a neat trick for games or a little bit useful in a 3d modeling app (to peek around the side I guess...still not that useful.) but I don't see it being used in anything other than that.

The extra processing power required for head tracking plus switching to a 3d interface wouldn't be worth the small benefit that the "3d" would allow.

IMO 3D will remain a gimmick until we can interact with our computers in 3 dimensions (Mouse: 2d, trackpad: 2d, touchscreen: 2d). That and we have displays that allow multiple people to see the effect without glasses.

I somewhat disagree. Right now this technology was using the existing camera as a proof of concept. As others have said, future versions would likely take into advantage the other hardware also in the device to help with tracking. In addition, if implemented, I'm sure the hurdles of blocking the camera will also be addressed. For example, perhaps they put multiple cameras or implement a camera behind the actual display (there's been some rumors about the camera moved here in the past).

Mike
 
Loads of potential IMHO. I'm not sure it's "3D" per se, but rather "artificial perspective." With front and rear cameras churning simultaneously this could be amazing in augmented reality apps.
 
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