The trick to 3-D is to present our eyes with two different but nearly identical images. When the brain attempts to make sense of what it's seeing, it is fooled into thinking there are three dimensions to a two-dimensional screen.
The latest attempt at 3-D is Antic Software's new Stereo Tek, a pair of glasses plugged into the cartridge port of the Atari ST computer. Instead of plastic filters, Stero Tek glasses have a "liquid-crystal shutter" in each eye. Every time the image on the screen changes, one shutter closes and the other opens, so the computer displays two different images 1/60th of a second apart. This creates alternating views faster than the eye can perceive. The result is the illusion of three dimensions.
Antic's glasses and software will sell as a package for $200.
TVLI, a New York company, has designed a system - Leavision - in which prisms are embedded in clear eyeglasses. The prisms are positioned to send one image to the left eye and the other image to the right. TVLI calls the system "Leavision."
General Electric has shown a 3-D television projector, and JVC, the audio company, has a 3-D videodisc system, which has been introduced in Japan. Sega of America Inc. recently released WallBall 3-D and 3-D Gunner, video games for the Sega Master System.
With the new 3-D, we can expect to see software that will make it possible for engineers to design three-dimensional objects onscreen and view those objects from different angles, distances and perspectives. Architects, industrial designers, ophthalmologists and ad agencies may also be interested in using 3-D in their work.
I'd like to tell you how amazing all these new 3-D systems are, but the wizadry is lost on me - I can't see in three dimensions.
