Do want 3D? And do you have $4,000 going spare? Then the Planar Systems SD1710 may be just what you’re looking for.

Invented by Sir Charles Wheatstone in 1838, stereoscopes were all the rage in the late 1800s to early 1900s. These days they’re collectors’ items, but they’re still a lot of fun, allowing owners to see things the way they used to be - in 3D.

In the 21st century, all you need is four grand, US, and Planar’s SD1710, two monitors placed at a 110-degree angle separated by a piece of polarized glass.

“ The glass lets the image from the bottom monitor pass through and it reflects the image from the top monitor,” explains CNET News.

“A person wearing special glasses gets an accurate, three-dimensional representation of digital photographs without the jagged edges, blurriness or other visual artifacts that can occur with competing technologies, according to the company.”

Systems that don’t require glasses force a person to keep his or her head a specific distance away from the monitor, adds the story, adding:
“Planar’s system also gets rid of the nauseating screen flicker common with CRT-based stereoscopic monitors, the company claims. In the CRT system, the monitor toggles rapidly between the images for the right eye and the left eye. The effect leads to a composite 3D image, but it can give people headaches.”

Planar StereoMirror technology, “makes use of off-the-shelf display components,” says the company.

“In addition to two AMLCD monitors, a simple stand, half-silvered mirror, hardware for performing a video mirror flip in one channel, and passive polarizing glasses are utilized for stereo viewing. Conversion to 2D viewing only requires turning off one monitor or lifting the mirror to the upright position.”
Via p2pnet.net