Impressive iPhone 4 3D Demo, No Glasses Required

The 3D graphics effect has been done on iDevices before. Apps like Labyrinth for the iPad 2 and the Cydia 3DBoard tweak use the accelerometer in the device to manipulate graphics based on user movements. This is a neat circus trick, but the device must be moved to create the 3D effect.

Jeremie Francone and Laurence Nigay of the EHCI Research group have created an impressive tech demo of 3 dimensional graphics on the iPhone 4. Instead of using the accelerometer, they use the device’s front facing camera. How’s that possible?

Using the iPhone 4’s front-facing camera, the engineers use head-tracking technology to judge where the user is in relation to the on-screen graphic. Movement from the user’s head then manipulates the graphic accordingly.

“We track the head of the user  with the front facing camera in order to create a glasses-free monocular 3D display. Such spatially-aware mobile display enables to improve the possibilities of interaction. It does not use the accelerometers and relies only on the front camera.”

Still not impressed? Check out the video of the tech demo below. I’ve played games like HoloToy before, but those graphics pail in comparison to the ones these guys are producing. I wonder if we’ll see this technology adopted by major developers. Imagine playing Infinity Blade in 3D.

What do you think?