AerVue beamsplitter solution coming soon.

[AerVue]

AerVue would like to announce a 3D solution coming soon that will allow ANY identically polarized pair of LCD monitors to be used in a beamsplitter setup designed by us.
We currently have no plans to make our own drivers, but the older nvidia drivers support the beamsplitter setup.
I'm not going to promise a specific release date or price point now but I think it will be a pleasant surprise to the community.
I'll announce more details once we get closer to releasing it.
For now here's a pic of Goldeneye in 3D: http://www.mtbs3d.com/gallery/displayimage.php?pos=-721

[Okta]

Could you explain what your beamsplitter is and what it does? Is this a dual monitor polarized mirrored glass solution?

[Okta]

Could you explain what your beamsplitter is and what it does? Is this a dual monitor polarized mirrored glass solution?

[AerVue]

Yes, the user must have 2 of the same model of LCD monitor (with exceptions however) and we provide the beamsplitter and the part which attaches to the monitors and holds the beamsplitter in place.
Beamsplitters are basically glass half silvered mirrors that reflect roughly half of the light and let the other half through without reflecting it. This is true of light coming from either side of the glass, and the polarized light coming from each monitor is either flipped about 90° when reflected or is almost unaltered when it passes through the glass.
The beamsplitter when placed at an angle half way between two monitors (e.g. monitor1 at 0°, monitor2 at 90°, beamsplitter at 45°) will superimpose both images when viewed without polarized glasses. When the viewer wears the right type of linear polarized glasses, each eye sees the correct image intended for it without a lot of ghosting. The pair of monitors I'm currently using happens to allow me to use the same pairs of glasses I saved after watching 3D IMAX films at the theater over the years. Not all LCD monitor models support the same IMAX type of glasses, but we will offer the correct glasses for any model that is available.

[CarlKenner]

That's excellent news. I know nubie always talks about how good this kind of planar mirror setup is for stereoscopic 3D.
Thank you for making that. It will save people a lot of effort trying to build their own system for holding monitors and mirrors at weird angles.

[LukePC1]

If we're lucky iC3D (IZ3D) will implement the support for planar systems to their driver (the one which is not for free).

You need monitors polarized at 45° : / becomes \ when mirrored, but 'I' stays 'I' or '-' stays '-'

The advantage of the system is, that its relativly easy to make the driver for a planar system - at least compared to Shutterglasses

[nubie]

If we're lucky iC3D (IZ3D) will implement the support for planar systems to their driver (the one which is not for free).

You need monitors polarized at 45° : / becomes \ when mirrored, but 'I' stays 'I' or '-' stays '-'

The advantage of the system is, that its relativly easy to make the driver for a planar system - at least compared to Shutterglasses

Luke has hit on an important point, many of the 15" screens I tried didn't work, and I have heard reports of "high contrast" larger screens (20" and up) as not working.

Basically the mirror Must flip the polarization left to right, and if it has a vertical or horizontal polarization system the only way you will get it to work is in a diamond shape (AKA put the screen on a 45° angle itself), while potentially cool in a B-Rated Sci-Fi movie kind of way, useless for gaming or general PC usage.

Not so hard to check, just a couple $ for a pair of polarizing glasses, if they work correctly (one eye black when on your face with head level) then you can use that monitor.


(More) On Topic:

I like this idea, I am having a couple engineering problems with my rig, number one is that the beamsplitter Cannot ba allowed to sag or the coating be susceptible to moisture (mine looks freckled, and has a warp to it, I think it is acrylic of some kind).

The screens need an elegant method of adjustment, this is more and more important the heavier and larger the screens are.

The mirror needs to be adjustable quickly for height and focus, as well as completely swinging out of the way.

Price, with the iZ3D and the Zalman, the cost of a Planar rig is not favorable, a pair of similar screens and all ancillary equipment must fall under $700 for a 22", and that is hard to do, most especially the beamsplitter.

Drivers and cards, the ultimate card is a 7 series with a hefty overclock and 512MB of RAM, these are getting to the sub-$190 on ebay, and require you to use XP for drivers. For $150 brand new for a much faster 9600GT it starts to look like a rip-off.

I would be interested in seeing the product. It needs a supporting frame for the mirror (with flip-up and adjustment), and preferably a high quality surface that resists etching or washing off. Glass is preferred, as it doesn't warp like plastic.

[AerVue]

We've actually developed 2 types of ways of using either vertically or horizontally polarized LCD monitors in a beamsplitter rig. In the first attempt we added a layer to both monitors(vertically polarized NEC 20WMGX2) which changed the vertical polarization of the light into circular polarization, and used circular polarized glasses for viewing. This worked but resulted in what seemed to be between 15 to 30 percent ghosting, which is much worse than monitors with 45° or 135° polarization.
The much better 2nd way is to rotate the polarization and use linear polarized glasses, which requires around $100 of polarization materials for a setup with 20" monitors. We will eventually provide an extensive list of the polarization angle of many monitor models so that people know if they need to pay this extra cost.

We did test acrylic with an aluminum coating and it was pretty bad. We will definitely be using glass beamsplitters.

Many different designs have been kicked around over the last several months and I'd consider the current prototype to be pretty versatile. But we're still trying to perfect the design while taking lots of needs into account, some of which you've mentioned.

It will be tough to beat or even match iZ3d or Zalman on price, especially in cases where a person has to buy 2 new LCD monitors. Although this is not always the case as a lot of people already have at least one LCD monitor and some even have a matched pair.
I haven't seen either the iZ3D or Zalman monitors myself but based on reading a lot of what has been written about them, the iZ3D has more ghosting, and a narrow vertical viewing angle. However iZ3D is apparently working on new glasses that help with the ghosting problem, and their drivers are the best around. The Zalman has half the vertical resolution with every other row of pixels blacked out for each eye, as well as a narrow vertical viewing angle problem. I don't really think they can have as good an image quality as with glass beamsplitter setups.

The only drivers that currently work are the older nvidia ones but as Luke pointed out iZ3D might implement support in a future version(1.09 possibly) of the driver they're selling. We can all push for support in the thread where this is being discussed: http://www.mtbs3d.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=1063

[Neil]

Hi AerVue,

I am happy to hear about your new products! I want to avoid a potential conflict with our sponsors, so I would like to chat with you before you give more information in our forums.

Thanks for your understanding,
Neil

[nubie]

Just a quick question, how do you plan to deal with any previously existing patents on this setup?

Or are you ostensibly providing a monitor mounting kit, not a finished product?

I don't know about the horizontal intrleaved and half resolution, I would need to see for myself. Basically if the resolution is going to be very high I can't see it being a real problem, depending on the dot-pitch.

Are you going to offer an affordable beamsplitter for use with an existing setup? How about mounting systems and polarizers for LCD and DLP projectors? (same technology).

edit: Screw it, I am not rocking the boat in public, the rest of this post is gone.

[sharky]

hi nubie.. the point is easy.. the forum is open, everybod ycan post whatever he wants. you can post about your private products, and whatever you want, but it simpl yisnt nice to post in name of a company selling products, without even asking for permission or anything. we have locked such threads in the past because ther eare paying sponsors which may have something to say. we personally have nothing against it, but we have to treat everybody in teh same way. without this REALLY TINY rules mtbs could not exist. he is more then welcome to post about his personal bought unit, tell how its done, and so on, but it hink its not nice and not correct to advertise it on the board to try to sell and gain money from it... we have nothing against him and his company, but we have to act the same way for everybody, so all neil is asking is to talk to him and see if there si something that could satisfy both.. something does not necessarely mean money.. that has dto be decided by neil and him.

regards

igor