[Visualpython-users] Vpython active stereo 3D -- Will it work with the new Acer Aspire 5738DG that has 3D LCD display screen?

[Stanley S. <ove...@ea...>]

Acer has started selling a rather affordable laptop with a special 3D LCD
screen.   I remember reading a whitepaper a couple of years ago by the guys
who inventing this type of display, if it's the same technology.   The LCD
screen has an additional layer in front which has alternating horizontal
lines of polarizing filters so that even numbered display lines are
polarized one way and odd numbered lines are polarized opposite.   With
appropriate drivers, the graphics chip shows left eye images polarized one
way, then in the next frame the corresponding right eye image polarized
opposite.   By wearing simple polarized glasses that have left and right
polarizing filters oriented at 90 degrees to each other, the observer sees
stereoscopic 3D.  The glasses are passive, not the active shutter type.  The
Acer has a 120 Hz display, so each eye is updated at 60 Hz, which is fast
enough that no flicker would be seen.  One drawback is that the vertical
resolution is effectively cut in half in stereo mode since every other line
is used.  That is, the stereo mode would in effect be 1366 x 384, since the
Acer specs say the "maximum resolution is 1336 x 768".

Here's a link to one place that sells this new Acer:
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=5285802&CatId=4938.
  Try
www.nextag.com to find competitive prices.

By the way, if you are thinking of getting one of these and using it with
other 3D glasses besides the ones that come with the laptop, be sure to get
the correct type of polarizing 3D glasses -- some have the eyes oriented
with the filters passing vertical and horizontal polarized light, but others
have the filters oriented diagonally at 90 degrees to each other's
polarization.  I don't have the laptop myself, so I don't know which kind it
needs.

Does anyone know if this laptop would display Vpython's active-mode stereo
correctly?   I've only read about Vpython doing active stereo with the LCD
shutter type of stereo, but it seems that this might be just the same from
the API, with the driver and graphics chip just doing the alternating
screens a different way at the display side.

Stan Sokolow