September 11, 2003
(IDG News Service)
Sharp Corp. has unveiled a notebook computer with a display that gives the illusion of depth and can display objects in three dimensions without the use of special glasses. The new notebook is scheduled to be on sale in Japan and the U.S. before the end of this year.
The PC-RD3D is the first computing product from Sharp to feature the 3-D LCD technology and is targeted at developers writing applications or creating content that will use 3-D technology either in the notebook or subsequent products, Miyuki Nakayama, a spokeswoman for Sharp in Tokyo, said today.
"The notebook is for content developers writing business applications such as for CAD [computer-aided design] or for medical use," Nakayama said.
Based on an Intel Corp. Pentium 4 processor running at 2.8 GHz, the machine has 512MB of memory, a 60GB hard disk drive and an Nvidia Corp. GeForce 4 440 Go display adapter, Sharp said.
The display, which can be switched between conventional 2-D mode and 3-D mode, is a 15-in. model with a resolution of 1,024 by 768 pixels and is based on a 3-D display system developed at Sharp Laboratories of Europe Ltd. in Oxford, England.
It consists of two LCD panels, one mounted on top of the other. The front panel is a conventional thin-film transistor LCD, and the rear panel is used to control the path of light within the display and thus the image that reaches a user's right and left eyes. For an image to appear to have depth and be in three dimensions, the right and left eye need to receive different information.
In 2-D mode, the switching panel allows an identical image to be delivered to each eye.
The fitting of an extra panel means extra cost, and so the notebook is more expensive than an equivalent 2-D-only machine. Sharp said it expects that the computer will cost around $2,990 when it becomes available in Japan on Oct. 27. That's about $555 more than a similar machine with a standard display, Nakayama said.
U.S. pricing and launch details weren't announced, although Nakayama said Sharp plans to have the machine on sale in the U.S. within this year.
Release of the computer comes at a time when several of Japan's largest computer and technology companies are beginning efforts to popularize 3-D technology. The 3D Consortium is a Tokyo-based cross-industry group formed earlier this year to promote the use of 3-D displays and compatible content. Sharp is a founding member of the group, alongside Itochu Corp., NTT Data Corp., Sanyo Electric Co. and Sony Corp. More than 60 other companies are involved.
The release also follows the debut in November of a cellular telephone handset that features the same type of display. That handset and a subsequent model are both manufactured by Sharp and available through NTT DoCoMo Inc. "They are very popular, especially for games on the cell phones," Nakayama said.