When the new 3D capable phones were announced, such as the HTC Evo 3D and LG Optimus 3D, nearly everyone I know was more interested in the faster, beefier hardware specs than the actual 3D capabilities.
The dual cameras on the back are capable of recording 3D pictures and videos to view on the device’s special glasses-free parallax displays, but would likely find little real-world usage outside of the wow factor to impress your friends. That is, if it even works on them. Take into consideration that there is a percentage of the population whose eyes make them immune to the 3D effect (of which Techcitement’s own Yoni Gross is admittedly a part of).
XDA TV‘s host Jeff Smith-Luedke, a.k.a. azrienoch, decided to find some real-world use for this technology outside of the novelty. His proposed use is to measure distance of objects in view of the camera via triangulation. Similar to the way your own eyes perceive depth, if the interpupillary distance is measured between the camera lenses on the back, the exact distance of an object may be calculated based on where it appears on each camera. Smith-Luedke begins discussing his 3D phone discovery at around the 2:40 mark of the following video.
[yframe url=’http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pPfGCCxjrp4′]
As of this writing, no one has written an app to do this yet, but it should be theoretically possible based on the technology and some simple mathematics principles.
I admit to having found apps that use the accelerometer as a level to be quite useful when hanging pictures around the house. If I could also use the camera to measure distance instead of pulling out a tape measure, well that’s one handy impromptu tool set I now have!
It makes me wonder what else the 3D tech could be used for that we haven’t thought of yet.
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