Sony patents two-player 3D technology

Stereoscopic screen sharing

Sony has recently published patents which will allow two-player 3D gaming on a single screen.

The new technology, which is so simple it could be filed under the heading 'D'oh... why didn't I think of that?', could see an end to split-screen gaming but is unlikely to see the light of day for a few years at least.

Current stereoscopic technology uses shuttered glasses to allow your left and right eye to see subsequent frames of the images on a TV or monitor. Put simply, your left eye sees frame one, your right eye sees frame two, and so on.

Sony's method would allow player one to see frames one and three whilst player two would see frames two and four. Current technology requires a display with a 120 Hz refresh rate so it seems likely that we'll have to wait for 240Hz screen technology to become commonplace before two-player 3D becomes a reality.

Current single screen two player games use a split screen view which means that you can always see what your opponent is up to. The new technology could, of course, be used for dual-player 2D games where the shuttered glasses simply shut off every second frame to both eyes making it possible for players to sneak around in secret and shoot each other in the head from point-blank range undetected.

Via: Broke My Controller