SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Computer users may soon be able to work on screens with displays that give the appearance of being three dimensional.

The DVI actualdepth monitors, developed by a private New Zealand-based research company Deep Video Imaging, displays images on two physical planes to create a depth of field.

``People have tried like crazy to get the illusion of depth and the closest you can have is wearing (3-D) goggles and standing at a particular position,'' DVI director Lim Soon Hock said on the sidelines of a news conference to launch the product.

The monitor, which uses multiple layers of liquid crystal display (LCD) screens to create depth, allows users to work across what appears to be a foreground and background seamlessly, without the need for 3-D glasses or specialized software.

``We have not come across anything which comes close to a DVI monitor,'' Fong Yew Chan, an engineer and business development director for the Singapore government-funded Institute of High Performance Computing told Reuters.

The institute, focused on high-end simulation research, is collaborating with DVI on applications for the monitor.

``There are technological challenges to be overcome before you can have this kind of display (which) not even the LCD manufacturers could overcome so easily,'' Fong said.

A rainbow effect called moire interference, which occurs when two LCD screens are placed one behind the other, was one problem.

The ``window box'' effect where the side portion between the two planes can been seen had to be eliminated, along with the reflection of the screens off each other, DVI executive chairman David Hancock said.

The monitors, which are thinner than conventional cathode ray tube displays, are compatible with all operating systems.

DVI has filed for several worldwide patents and spent about US$3.5 million in research and development.

The company, funded by New Zealand and Singapore capital, will not manufacture the monitors itself, but hopes to license the technology to others.

The company plans to make prototypes for desktop computers by next year. The monitors are currently available as manufacturing modules in different screen sizes.

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