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Kodak focuses on 3D display

Dinesh C Sharma CNET News

Published: 16 Mar 2004 10:05 GMT

Eastman Kodak on Monday announced plans to introduce a new display that allows people to view 3D effects without needing to wear special glasses or headgear.

Kodak said the Stereoscopic Imaging Display, currently in prototype, could be used in technologies ranging from video games to molecular and chemical modelling. The company is looking for technology partners and early-stage customers. It aims to license the product for integration into third-party products and systems.

This is the first initiative from the company's new Ventures Group. Kodak, long a mainstay of the traditional film photography industry, is trying to reshape itself as a provider of digital imaging technology.

To get its 3D effect, the display makes use of a wide field of view and virtual images from two high-resolution liquid crystal display screens, Kodak said. The desktop device has a field of view that measures 45 degrees by 36 degrees and a 1,280-by-1,024-pixel resolution.

"Unlike other 3D imaging systems, which rely on a barrier screen placed over an existing monitor, the Kodak display is an entirely new concept," Lawrence Henderson, vice president of Kodak Ventures Group, said in a statement.

Last year, several high-technology companies, including Sony and Sanyo, unveiled a consortium to create technical and safety standards for 3D displays, desktops, laptops and cell phones. Sharp at the time was already selling a cellphone with a 3D screen in Japan and showing off a notebook that could play a 3D version of the video game "Quake."