Snap-On Stereoscope Viewer For Your Cellphone

Remember those chunky red 3D scene viewers back in the eighties?  I had one with scenes of Postman Pat going about his daily mail delivery duties, obviously this was before email made him redundant and whiskey made him belligerent.  Anyway, Patrick Amaru's Neochroma stereoscopic cellphone display viewer reminds me of that, albeit slightly more useful than showing photos of a big-nosed mailman.

The idea behind the concept is that while the megapixel count in cellphones has been steadily rising over the past few years, the screen size (obviously) hasn't been growing proportionally.  That means people are taking – and sharing – photos on their phones that they're not making the most out of.

Neochroma presents each eye with a magnified view of the cellphone display, roughly equivalent to using a 19-inch monitor from 30-inches away.  It can be used to present stereoscopic 3D images, where the handset is capable of them, and has applications not only with slideshows but navigation, mobile video and web browsing. 

One primary concern I have is the resolution of mobile screens; yes, they're pretty crisp and clear when used normally, but magnified they'd start to get unpleasantly blocky.  Still, in the two years Amaru is claiming it will take before Neochroma reaches the market, manufacturers have plenty of time to up the pixel-count!

Neochroma [via picturephoning]