pCubee: Sort of 3D, Without Glasses

"3-D Tabletop Display Gets Rid of the Glasses"
Gadget Lab, Wired (March 25, 2010)

"A handheld cube-shaped display promises to offer all the thrills of 3-D without the annoyance of the glasses. The device called pCubee arranges five LCD screens into a box-like shape so viewers can pick it up, watch content or play with virtual objects inside.

"Weighing in at about three pounds, pCubee gives users a chance to poke and prod objects virtually using a stylus. You can shake the cube, tilt it or interact with a touchscreen, all while retaining the 3-D experience.

" 'Most people think 3-D is all about stereo and having alternating frames to help the brain perceive depth,' says Sidney Fels, who leads the Human Communication Technologies Lab at the University of British Columbia, where the project was designed. 'What we wanted to offer is a fish-tank-like experience in a handheld device.'..."

Pretty cool. Here's a YouTube video that's embedded in the Wired article:

"pCubee: a Perspective-Corrected Handheld Cubic Display"

CHIMadness2010, YouTube (March 5, 2010)
video, 0:27

"pCubee is a handheld cubic display system made with five flat-panel screens that uses perspective-corrected rendering and real-time physics simulation to create compelling visualization and interaction techniques for 3D content.
http://hct.ece.ubc.ca/research/pcubee/"

The pCubee could be this year's pet rock: a nifty fad.

Or, it could introduce a whole new set of displays. As the article says in the last paragraph:

"...'The pCubee can be used as a game platform, a CAD-CAM platform and in museums,' says Fels. 'We imagine this as something that would be on everybody’s coffee table.' "