After 3-D movies and 3-D TVs, it’s time for computers to go into the third dimension.
Companies such as MSI and Asus will be showing 3-D PCs at Computex, a huge trade show for manufacturers of PCs and PC components held every year in Taipei, Taiwan. This year, Computex runs from June 1 to 5.
MSI plans to introduce a 24-inch 3-D net-top: a desktop computer with its internals built into the display case, similar to an iMac.
“We can run 3-D movies, games, photos and TV,” says Clifford Chun, product manager for all-in-ones and desktops at MSI, “and by just pressing a button you can switch between 2-D and 3-D modes.”
MSI’s rival Asus will debut a 3-D laptop with a 15.6-inch display and desktop similar in screen size to that from MSI. The 3-D PCs are expected to be available in the third quarter of the year.
“People may choose a 3-D PC because it is a less expensive way to get 3-D content,” says Rob Csongor, vice president of marketing for Nvidia, which makes graphics cards that power the 3-D PCs. “Companies are coming out with some beautiful devices that are going to be a higher-end product initially but they will be very attractive to consumers.”
With Hollywood’s success in films such as Avatar and Alice in Wonderland, the 3-D format has made a big comeback. And it’s not confined to just the big screen. The 3-D TV was one of the biggest stars of the Consumer Electronics Show this year. Almost every major TV maker, including Sony, LG, Panasonic and Mitsubishi, plans to offer big-screen 3-D TVs, while broadcasters such as ESPN and Discovery have promised 3-D channels by the end of the year or early next year.
Meanwhile, amateur 3-D content is taking off as consumers use 3-D cameras or homemade 3-D rigs to shoot photos. In a sign that homemade 3-D videos could soon be ready to hit mainstream, YouTube has started offering a 3-D display option.
Makers of 3-D PCs hope to step into this world. “3-D PCs are for consumers who see the 3-D stuff everywhere and wonder, ‘How can I get this home?’” says Csongor.
Close to a million 3-D PCs will ship in 2010, predicts Jon Peddie Research, and annual sales could reach 75 million by 2014 as 3-D PCs become ubiquitous.
With a powerful graphics card, most PCs are 3-D capable — in principle. But critical to the 3-D experience is a 120-Hz monitor and special glasses. PCs with 3-D have stereoscopic displays, which means their screens can present a rapidly alternating set of images for the right and the left eye so the brain can fuse them together into a single image that includes depth.
MSI’s 3-D desktop, called ‘Ripple,’ has an Intel Core i7 860 processor, an ATI Radeon HD 5730 graphics chip, 4 GB of memory, a 1-terabyte disk drive, a Blu-ray player, 1.3-megapixel webcam, and Wi-Fi capability. The 24-inch multitouch display has a refresh rate of 120 Hz and will come with its own pair of active-shutter glasses.
“With active-shutter glasses you don’t lose transparency or contrast as you do with the polarized versions,” says Chun. “We think its the best way to experience the 3-D feeling.”
If you are wondering what you will use your 3-D PC for, there’s plenty of 3-D content already out there, assures Nvidia’s Csongor. Nvidia’s graphics chips, which are embedded in Asus machines, can support any of 400 3-D-enabled video games already on the market. Of course, they can also show 3-D photos, streaming video from sports such as golf tournaments, and Blu-ray 3-D movies.
And if you get tired of all that 3-D, just switch the display back to the old-fashioned PC mode, suggest MSI’s Chun.
“Since we can move between 2-D and 3-D, you can see clear images even if you don’t wear the glasses,” says Chun. “No blurring or fuzzy images in 2-D.”
The 24-inch MSI desktop will cost $2,200 — not exactly cheap, but just a little more than what most users would pay for a high-end multimedia machine. For many, it will also be easier to buy a 3-D PC rather than a 3-D TV.
“Not everyone wants a 3-D TV when they are ready to buy their next TV,” says Csongor. “But a 3-D PC for their next laptop or desktop is something that may be willing to go for.”
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Photo: (bigchus/Flickr)
Microsoft’s Steve Guggenheimer may think that Android on tablets is still just an experiment, but it looks like NVIDIA CEO Jen-Hsun Huang would beg to differ. Speaking at Computex, he said that “Windows is too big and it’s too full featured for smartbooks and tablets,” and that Android is instead finally an “operating system to unite behind.” He also admits, however, that Android isn’t quite ready for primetime in its current incarnation when it comes to tablets, but he says that Google knows this, and recognizes that Android “has to evolve, and be enhanced in certain capabilities, in order to be a good tablet operating system.” According to Huang, “we’ll have to wait until the Fall” for that to happen, but he seems confident that it will indeed happen, adding that the “operating systems are coming together” and “the devices are coming together.”
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