3D (sort of) on your iPad without glasses

There's a nifty little free demo you may want to pick up that uses the iPad camera to do some head tracking and create a kind of faux 3D on your iPad display. We took a look at an early demo for this last month, and now the app has arrived for your downloading pleasure. Unlike stereoscopic 3D systems, i3D doesn't send two images to your eyes.

What i3D does instead is show you several scenes that change perspective as you tilt your iPad side to side and up and down. The effect does not depend on the gyros built into the iPad, but instead uses the camera to track the position of your head and render a changing perspective in real time.

The demo was developed by Jeremie Francone and Laurence Nigay, and as you use it, you can just imagine the possibilities for games and educational apps. The app only works in portrait view at present. There is an iPhone version, but screen size makes a difference and the 3D effect on the iPad version seems stronger. I've seen some similar demos that use the built-in gyro, but they don't seem as responsive as this app. It's hard to give you a feel for this app in a static screen shot, so I'd suggest that you check out the fascinating video on the next page to get a good idea how it all works.