Your regular Etch-A-Sketch doesn’t offer enough of a challenge? Take the creative knobwork to another level with the Sketch3D, a giant Etch-A-Sketch that can fashion designs in three dimensions.
Instead of just a pair of dials, the three-dimensional rendering machine operates with the use of three knobs, all working together to create stereoscopic images. The user will need to wear a pair of two-color glasses in order to see the display in eye-popping 3D. Since the Sketch3D uses electronic components, instead of mechanical drawing tools, the device can be connected to even larger display setups, even multiple ones.
The interactive system runs off a Pico-ITX x86 SBC, a Windows Embedded Standard device, and includes two software components. First is a background interface for the three-knobbed controller, taking the input and passing it on to the main application. The second is a custom software built off the Unity game development engine. It manages the actual processing of input, rendering and display, using two software-based cameras that post the drawing in one color each (red and cyan).
The Sketch3D is not yet in commercial form, but the idea sounds like a lot of fun. I can easily see myself fashioning 3D images on a PC using a three-dial controller. Know what, though? All I want is a giant Etch-A-Sketch, even without all the 3D. I’ll hang that thing in my living room and doodle till I’m sick of it. Can somebody please make one?
I’m not sure what designer O2 Creative Solutions has planned for the Sketch3D, but it does look like it can make for a few nifty applications.
[This and Again via Gizmodo]