3D TV / Projector with LabVIEW

[MarcDub]

Overview

As seen in the earlier document on using the Oculus Rift with LabVIEW, it is possible to use LabVIEW to generate images that can be perceived in 3D when using the Oculus Rift. Even though the Oculus Rift provides a great immersive experience, its use is more appropriate for gamers. The steps to set it up for a user, the lack of mobility due to the cable and the blindness from actual environment; and the difficulty to communicate between several users make the Oculus Rift not a good choice for scientific or industrial applications.

A 3D tv or a 3D projector appears as a better choice. Even though the purchase cost would be higher (at the current prices, > 2X), the initial investment is justified as soon as 2 users or more use the system simultaneously.

Description

3D images can be generated with LabVIEW on a 3D tv or 3D projector that uses 3D glasses and that offer the option to generate 3D images based on 2 stereo images that are sent through the standard input (HDMI for example) either side by side (SBS format) or stacked on top of each other (top-bottom format) as a single frame. The 3D tv or projector then splits each frame in two and projects each resulting image at full screen resolution in a manner by which each image is seen by the corresponding eye of the 3D glasses.

The application developed for the Oculus Rift in the document 42169 can be seen in 3D as-is using the SBS format on a 3D TV or projector. The only drawback is that the images were scaled for a 960x1080 display and are therefore deformed.

For the use of the SBS format, the images must be pre-deformed to compensate for the switch from 960-pixel width in the SBS format to the 1920-pixel width as displayed on the screen.

The spaceship application can be modified to compensate for this deformation by using the Model View Matrix available from one of the property nodes of a 3D Picture control in LabVIEW. The Model View Matrix of the 3D picture controls of each eye must be multiplied by a matrix where the determinant has a value different equal to the required factor, as shown below:

This operation results in the typical SBS image shown below for the spaceship application:

The additional benefit of using a 3D TV or projector with simple 3D glasses is that the hand commands are more readily interpreted by the Kinect, probably due to the minimum impact of the 3D glasses on the Kinect human interpretation in comparison with the Oculus Rift.

Application

To demonstrate the use of LabVIEW to generate 3D images in SBS format, a simple application was developed. The application simply consists in balls of various sizes, colors, directions, and speeds, being thrown to the user. The code for this application is available for download from the current document.

3D Videos on Youtube

Additionally, the 3D effects generated by LabVIEW can be observed directly in 3D without the need to download the application or even have LabVIEW installed. Two videos were uploaded on Youtube in 3D SBS format. If the 3D TV or projector has access to Youtube, these 2 videos can be watched in 3D by setting the 3D TV or projector in 3D SBS mode.

Summary

For some applications, the use of 3D perception might be beneficial to better communicate or verify an idea or concept. For those applications, LabVIEW provide the tools to easily generate the 3D images that can be observed using ubiquitous 3D tvs and projectors. LabVIEW programming make it possible for the users to interact with those 3D image in real time.

Videos

(link: www.youtube.com/edit?o=U&video_id=oNcRYRZPetQ).

(link: www.youtube.com/edit?o=U&video_id=oNcRYRZPetQ)

Instructions for VI: Have the 3D TV or projector set as the 2nd monitor on your computer in 3D - SBS mode. Run the VI. The VI is configured for a resolution of 1920x1080 so if the TV or projector resolution is different, the 3D picture controls must be adjusted in size and position accordingly. Pressing any key stops the VI.

The VI and the videos were only tested using an Epson HC3000 projector with Samsung SSG-5150GB active 3D glasses.