3Tube – An Immersive Tube for You

Team: J. Konrad, R. Arun, H. Huang, N. Mulcahey, A. Roy, M. Schoen
Funding: Capstone Senior Design Project
Status: Completed (2009-2010)

Background: 3-D movies, TV and gaming have been around for over a decade, but only in the last two years have Hollywood and electronics industry taken notice. The current craze about 3-D, including the 2010 World Cup, will catch on if comfortable, realistic, real-time 3-D visualization can be accomplished. Although most manufacturers offer 3-D TV with glasses, it is the TV without glasses that is the “holy grail” of 3-D.

Summary: In this senior design project, a team of five BU students under the supervision of Prof. Konrad has built a real-time system for stereo capture (1600×1200-pixel cameras), advanced processing and display on a 9-view lenticular 1600×1200-pixel screen.The system runs on a state-of-the-art PC at up to 25 fps at full resolution. The system is one-of-a-kind and demonstrates that glasses-free 3-D video can be accomplished today on commodity hardware.