Re: VRSurfer Wireless LC Shutter Glasses

[P3D apec <apec@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Oliver Dean Says:


> 2.  The gray plastic cover over the outside of the glasses is not
> optically flat enough.  Slight ripples in the flatness of the plastic
> are clearly evident when the glasses are moved while you are looking
> through them.  The result is a slight but distinct reduction in
> sharpness when viewing images on a computer monitor.  The loss is not so
> apparent when viewing the lower resolution images of a TV, but it is
> annoying with the computer, especially at 1024 x 768 resolution.

I think it is not only the plastic cover reduces the sharpness but also the
LCD shutter does it. Any LCD shutter consists of two polarizers, aligned
vertically agaist each orther, which cut off at least 70% of the incident
light. You found that the loss in case of monitor is worse than TV. The
reason is the luminosity of TV is much better than monitor. Besides, in
order to reduce flickering, vertical refresh rate of monitor will be
increased up to 90 Hz, or higher, in stereo mode. This results in shortening
the scanning time of electron beam and reducing more luminosity of monitor.
However, this situation never happens on TV, it's always scanning at 60 Hz,
30 frames with 2 fields. You might already notice that TV always gives you
uncomfortable flickering.


> 
> 3.  The flat area on the gray plastic cover is not large enough.  The
> edges of it, which severely distort the view, are clearly visible
> through the LC openings.


The reason is that they are concerned with cost down. It's no necessary to
make it larger if they offer a small LCD shuuter, e.g. 5cm x 3cm. LCD
shutter is still an expensive component. The cost of LCD shutter is
proportional to its dimension.

> 5.  The software for use with computers seems unnecessarily complicated.
> Making it dependent on the video drivers is, I think, a mistake. 
> StereoGraphics seems to have a much better approach, which modifies the
> bottom scan lines of the resulting raster, requiring only that an
> interlaced driver must be running at the time the stereo function is
> enabled and that the Windows 95 task bar be moved to the top of the
> page.  These are small prices to pay for a very stable, trouble free,
> uncomplicated, and easy to install software approach. I realize that
> there may be patent problems, however, but it may be worth looking
> into.  
>

I can not figue out how complicated the installation is because I don't have
any VRSurfer at hand. But I really saw local distributor of VRSurfer failed
to make it when they wanted to demonstrate it for me. The best realistic way
is to run your applications directly without any installation of driver. But
this seems impossible at this moment. Sorry! I got to leave now. I'll
continue talking about this issue tomorrow.


Albert Lin




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