Yesterday's news and re-inventions that have been submitted to the Creativity Pool. See what they look like and where to get them.
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By Steve
#3748
I wonder why so many ideas are about inventing the perfect TV...

Anyway, here's another one. ;) You probably know those postcards where you can flip the card and suddenly you see a different image. I've also seem money machines where the screen will turn black when you're standing just a few degrees away from the center of the screen.

Why not combine both, and invent a TV screen that will show two or even three different programs depending on your viewing angle?

Ever noticed that when you go to a pub to watch football, there are only men watching? Solve the problem by showing the shopping channel or the Chippendales on the same screen, just from a diffent angle. Ever had discussions in your family about what program to watch? No big deal! The smaller kids (who are sitting on the floor) can watch Disney, while mom (or dad), who is busy ironing, can see her favorite soap opera on the same screen.

Reward: Such a TV for free.
User avatar
By cynet
#3816
You would also need three seperate wireless headphones.

Or better yet. You have probably seen those posters where you have to focus beyond the poster to see the picture.
You could use this Idea of focus to supply three different pictures.

Normaly the tube would look like snow, but if you wear certain glasses that change focus slightly you would see the picture.

:-C
User avatar
By Steve
#3824
Agree with the headphones - depending on the situation. In the pubs I frequent, you could do without because you'd be hearing music anyway, and that is pretty much what you want. ;-)
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By Michael D. Grissom
#3847
Steve, having thought about it for a while, I figured out how to accomplish your 'double-view' idea by adding a sheet of specially groved plastic to the screen like that used on toy animated cards in Cracker Jack boxes. The bad news is that viewing from dead center would get you both views unless you closed one eye. The good news is that if you used this sheet to visibly divide the even and odd number RGB dots horizontally (cut resolution in half) then you could achieve a 3D monitor with a $3 sheet and software change. IF the glass on the front of the monitor were made that way (groved) then you wouldn't even need the add on sheet plastic. You would display one image for the left eye and one for the right. I see this primarily as a great innovation for video games at arcades where the display is dedicated to one viewer dead center -- no special 3D glasses needed but full 3D effect anyway. The new higher resolution screens make this possible without visible loss of quality in the game display.

BTW -- I realize that each vertical groove would have to be of a slightly different angle than its neighbor (for perfection) but is easily doable. Anybody out there in the pool know anyone that manufactures flat panel LCDs, CRT'S, or Plasma displays?

I'll try to do an illustrated cross section of the screen design and post it here when I have time. This will work!
User avatar
By FlatTop808
#3882
I can't help with the visual part, but i may have a solution to the sound part. Check it out here: http://www.atcsd.com/tl_hss.html .Everyone watching the TV could have the sound from their own program essentially "beamed" into their head. Cool, no?
User avatar
By Steve
#3883
Wow that's terrific - nice find! ;-D
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By cynet
#3902
Or, for sound, you can create a very directional sound laser. I saw this on the History channel. Only people who step into the "Sound Beam" hear the deafining tone. You could use this to beam sound to a pinpoint location.
On the History channel they were using this as a alternative means to using a gun, or more leathal device.
By MissPlayful
#3950
Not only will you need to isolate the soundtracks broadcast from the different programs so viewers hear only the one from the program they are watching, but you may need to isolate the ‘soundtracks’ broadcast from the different viewers. Imagine this situation - one person watching the gripping climax to some epic movie where the heroine is dying in her lover’s arms and imploring him to come with her into the next world, and the other person watching some hysterically funny situation comedy.

Cones of Silence from Get Smart perhaps?

If you want to sell your modified television set into the general market, you would perhaps need to design it so it could also act as a normal set, so two or more people could watch the same program at once. It might not be sufficient to simply show the same program for each of your directional displays unless the directions can be changed to suit the viewers’ positions. In your typical living room situation you can find a wide range of spacial separations between viewers, determined in part by conceptions of personal space, which may not easily adapt to fixed positions. What’s good for cuddling couples may not be good for various relatives.

Cynet’s idea of using special glasses that allow you to selectively view one of two or more simultaneously broadcast programs sounds like a good alternative to broadcasting two or more programs in different directions.

How could this be achieved in practice? If using slightly different focussing could not be made to work for the glasses, another possible solution is this. The television set broadcasts two programs ‘simultaneously’, but it alternates between the two - it broadcasts first one and then the other, switching between the two programs perhaps thirty times a second. The viewers’ glasses are adjusted so they are synchronized to whichever program you want to watch. They have a coating on them which can be modified by a signal from the television set so when the program you are watching is being broadcast the coating is clear, but when the other program is being broadcast the coating is opaque - no light gets through. You see only your program, at a rate of thirty images a second, and the other program is completely shut out.

As an alternative to the glasses you could blink thirty times a second and synchronize your blinking to the blinking of whichever program you wanted to watch.
User avatar
By Michael D. Grissom
#3982
The blinking syncing glasses idea would work perfectly with LCD lenses and doubling the TV's the frame rate to compensate. You were definately thinking outside the box on that one MissPlayful.
;-D
By myst1q
#4776
Steve, if you are talking about multiple programs in pubs/bars and restaurants, simplest way is to have multiple monitors (which they already have). for homes, I dont this would work even if we have the technology. two or more groups watching two or more programs on a single screen in a single room - do you guys think this is fun?


Steve wrote:Agree with the headphones - depending on the situation. In the pubs I frequent, you could do without because you'd be hearing music anyway, and that is pretty much what you want. ;-)
User avatar
By Steve
#4780
myst1q wrote:Steve, if you are talking about multiple programs in pubs/bars and restaurants, simplest way is to have multiple monitors (which they already have).
Forgot to mention - I had the idea in place that had just one huge screen. Actually it was a beamer that projected the image to the wall. All the men were watching, while the girls were trying to while away their time someother way...
By shankitr
#5426
hi,
i had a smiliar idea, but a notch different... i wonder why not a TV with screens on either sides ( back n front)... place the TV in the centre of the room so that u cud accomodate people on either sides . also , i guess the problem of acoustics is dealt with toan extent .
shankitr
By Stewie123
#6501
That is a good idea and to add to that you can have it be like a flat screen with a screen on each side and you set it up in the middle of the room, the cable can be an inside of it or under the floor boards it can also be on wheels for easy transporting, just a\imanging playing a counsle game on that with a 4vs4 B-)
By jacobpatrick
#6502
i think the glasses are a great innovation.
you put sheet of plastic or glass in front of your eyes and a blinking light on the other side, that turned the glasses into a small mirror.
you would need to have a small chip on them somewhere to
calibrate the glasses to your tv program.
this would be very flickery at first but it would only get better with age.

as for sound has build it to the glasses.

timing would be an issue at first but it was for the talking movie.
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