You wear an led by your left eye, and another by your right eye. The display has a retro-reflective backing so reflects the left light back to the left eye, and the right light back to the right eye. Somehow each light gets a different image. There are a couple of options for that. Each light could flick on and off, while the display flicks between the left and right view. Or the lights could be different colours, and the screen has a red/blue 3d image like for red/blue 3d glasses.

Several people can view the image at a time. It can either be a simple stereoscopic image, with a fixed left and right image for everyone, or allow parallax, and track separately the position of each light on each persons head, making a tailored image for each position light (this would require more colours or more steps in the flickering cycle for more people)
-- caspian, Oct 31 2009

Wikipedia page on retroreflectors http://en.wikipedia...wiki/Retroreflector
[caspian, Oct 31 2009]

umm... what ?

//led// lcd ?

you're reflecting a tiny lcd image from a pair of glasses, right ?
-- FlyingToaster, Oct 31 2009


No, there's a regular-size screen that has the lcd image, probably sitting on a desk, but with a retroreflective surface behind it instead of a backlight. Your head just has the lights to illuminate it.
-- caspian, Oct 31 2009


I'm not sure, but I think this might actually be a good idea. [+] until I think harder.
-- MaxwellBuchanan, Oct 31 2009


OK I think I get it: wearer is sitting in the dark.
light by left eye flashes, light bounces off monitor/screen (an lcd with no backlight), and back to the user's left eye only (noth the right eye) because the entire screen is retroreflective.
then, the screen switches to the right-eye image, the light by the right eye flashes, and the light bounces back to the user's right eye only.

-- sninctown, Oct 31 2009



random, halfbakery