Corpulent Waiters Collected
Through a confusing exchange of information involving Nintendo President Satoru Iwata, Japanese newspaper The Asahi Shimbun and Kotaku, it would appear that the multinational corporation has let slip that they will reveal a new piece of hardware at this year's E3, the 3DS. Allegedly sporting highly detailed graphics and a motion sensor, the main attraction of the successor to the recently released DSi XL will be the ability to experience 3D effects without the need for any glasses.
Editor Opinions
What a crazy announcement. I've been blithering on about wanting 3d without dumb glasses as well for ages. While I'd love to believe that they've come up with a way of creating the full effect of a hologram, where it's like you are looking into a little box full of pixels, I bet it won't be anything that advanced.
The laziest way they could get a 3d-like effect would it to be like stereogram with two screens next to each other that you have to cross your eyes to make the images merge. This would of course be hard on the eyes for any length of time, and you don't really want to have people crossing their eyes while on public transport, it could lead to accidents.
That video of the head-tracking technology is neat, but I don't think it would look nearly as convincing seeing it with two eyes rather than a fixed camera. I also never want to move the thing I am looking around too much like games with heavy motion controls on the iPhone.
Hmm, I don't want to seem too down on this as I am genuinely excited to see what they have to show, I just can't imagine how they are going to do it. Guess I'll have to wait till E3, or the next inevitable leak.
I'm really not convinced that Nintendo's idea of 3D actually synchronises with the rest of the world's and the best we are going to see from this new piece of hardware is the background perspective changing when the motion sensor picks up movement. We've seen this sort of 3D before as a hack on the Nintendo Wii by a technical enthusiast working off his own back, so I wouldn't be surprised if someone in the company had seen it and realised they could release yet another DS iteration from the technology.
I have to say, I'm a bit sceptical about the whole 3D renaissance going on at the moment because as far as I can tell, it's still the same technology that did the rounds in the early 1980s, just with better branding. Nintendo are hardly known for their pursuit of cutting edge technology, so there's probably a better chance of Gears Of War not getting another sequel than the DS being the first piece of hardware to crack 3D.
This being said however, I'm fully supportive of any endeavour into 3D technology that doesn't involve you donning a pair of ridiculous glasses and looking like a complete tool.