Random Accesses

What ever happened to the virtual reality, 3D world of the web? Back in the late 90s, all the hype was about VRML—Virtual Reality Markup Language—which would turn the web into an immersive environment that you'd maneuver around to get to the information you wanted. We're here to tell you that the reports of the 3D web's death are greatly exaggerated. As evidence, we present three 3D browsers that will use that graphics card for something other than gaming: 3B, Browse3D, and SphereXPlorer.

As further proof that the 3D web isn't dead, an XML format called X3D—a free run-time architecture that can "represent and communicate 3D scenes and objects using XML"— is starting to take hold. You can find more info about it from The Web3D Consortium which is very active in its efforts to add one more dimension to the web as we know it. There's even a mobile browser for X3D, so that you could, for example, navigate around a city you're visiting on your handheld PC.

Source: http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1697,1974390,00.asp

MARS (Mobile Augmented Reality Systems) began in 1996, and is aimed at exploring the synergy of two promising fields of user interface research:

Augmented reality (AR), in which 3D displays are used to overlay a synthesized world on top of the real world, and mobile computing, in which increasingly small and inexpensive computing devices, linked by wireless networks, allow us to to use computing facilities while roaming the real world.

Source: http://www1.cs.columbia.edu/graphics/projects/mars/

A true 3D display was recently demonstrated in Japan by the Japanese National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST) in collaboration with Burton Inc.

Most "3D" displays draw pseudo-3D images on a two-dimensional plane by utilizing the human binocular disparity (your eyes are several inches apart, and see a slightly different view). This device creates a true three-dimensional picture with infrared pulse laser light that creates a small dot of plasma (light-emitting ionized gas) in mid-air. Software controls the galvanometric mirrors that aim the laser pulses; any figure can be reproduced.

Source: http://technovelgy.com/ct/Science-Fiction-News.asp?NewsNum=559

Developed to be an easy to use, low cost, active optical, full body motion capture system. Ideal use for games, multimedia, animation and realtime vision. The system overcomes the problems associated with traditional motion capture, providing clean data in real time without obstructing the movements of the actor with tethered cables and without the need for repeated calibration & setup.

Source: http://www.hypervision.co.uk