NEWS
3D Displays & Applications
Valley View Bows Dual-Stack 3D Projectors
Valley View Tech (San Jose, CA; www.valleyviewtech.com) has been formed to offer 3D display technology to a wider commercial audience by leveraging 3D projection technology developed by Visbox (Champaign, IL, www.visbox.com) for government and university applications. The first need identified was to develop a 3D solution that was portable and did not require a silver screen. The answer: a dual-stack projector system that uses built-in Infitec narrow-band spectral filters and passive glasses.
 Portable 3D systems already exist, but these require DLP technology and active-shutter glasses. If solution providers or end users want to wear passive glasses, they need to move to a dual-stack solution. Most applications place polarizing filters over the projector lenses, but this requires the use of a polarization-preserving screen. These are heavy and costly, and typically not very portable.
Alternatively, Infitec (Ulm, Germany; www.infitec.net) has developed spectral filters that feature narrow-band RGB light-passing characteristics. It offers two sets that can pass the left- and right-eye images with little cross talk. Dolby commercialized this technology in theatrical applications and JVC has used it for its D-ILA projectors. In addition, projectiondesign has an exclusive right to use the technology with single-chip DLP projectors.
What Valley View Tech has done is adopt the approach to 3LCD projectors. In its approach, it uses two Epson 1730W projectors that offer WXGA resolution and 3K lumens when unmodified. Visbox then built a chassis to hold the two projectors in a firm and fixed position, with some mechanical adjustments to align the two images. These projectors do not have lens shift, so alignment can be very good at the center of the screen, but will be off a little in the top and bottom of the image. In addition, Visbox modified the projectors to place the Infitec filter inside so there are no external filters to manage. These filters reduce the light output to about 20% of the unfiltered value, or around 600 lumens per projector.
Visbox VP Paul Rajlich told us that they chose the Epson projectors because they are small, bright and offer good control over the color space. This latter feature is important, as adjustments are needed to offset the impact of the RGB narrow-band filters.
The product, called VisMini 2.0, weighs 11 pounds (27 pounds with case, glasses and cables), and it is rather compact at 11.2-inches wide x 9 inches deep x 6.3-inches high. And, at $13,995, it is about half the price of competitive 3D products that are much bigger. You can get it with a mobile workstation PC with an NVIDIA graphics card for an additional $4K. - Chris Chinnock
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Press contact:
Frances Mann-Craik
Addison Marketing
frances@addisonmarketing.com
408-868-9577 |
