By Kim Tae-gyu
Staff Reporter
A Korean venture start-up has developed a portable computer, which displays video footage in a three-dimensional (3D) format on a large screen.
KDC Corp. said Monday that the Seoul-based company plans to market the computer equipped with a 3D display panel, tentatively titled M100, in August.
``Our products are designed to feature a pair of 2D images on the 4.3-inch liquid crystal display to make viewers feel as if they are watching 3D videos,'' KDC Corp. head Kim Tae-sub said.
``Thus far, 3D technologies have failed due to the dark display but we have addressed that problem _ our 3D images are almost as bright as 2D video clips,'' Kim said.
Not all audio-visual files can be featured in 3D on the miniature PC, weighing about 480 grams _ merely dedicated ones created with two cameras can be shown in 3D.
However, Kim predicted the applications of the M100 will be quickly extended, saying many other handheld devices such as cell phones will sport 3D technologies in the not-so-distant future.
``The M100 already has the capacity to record videos in 3D as it incorporates two cameras,'' Kim said.
``We checked the stability of the 3D display over the past year and concluded that it is viable. We hope the M100 will be a big hit,'' Kim said.
KDC Corp. will retail the M100 at somewhere between 700,000 won and 800,000 won in August and looks to cut back on the price by about 100,000 won later.
The M100 also boasts other features including mobile broadcasting dubbed terrestrial DMB and portable Internet access from WiBro.
Short for digital multimedia broadcasting, DMB refers to Korea's homegrown solution enabling people on the road to watch TV through portable terminals.
WiBro is also the nation's indigenous technology of zapping data wirelessly at the speed of the current landline broadband.