Hacked 1950s View-Master Now Plays 3D Videos From DVDs

When the View-Master was announced back in 1939, it became one of the most popular entertainment gadgets you could possibly get. Since then, the glory of it has somewhat fallen into the shadows. However, it is still available if you would like to purchase one which should definitely speak of its impressive impact as a simple viewing gadget. A guy by the name of Alec took one of these View-Master devices and hacked it into a 3D video player, and it is a beauty to behold.

Usually when customizers and modders undertake these incredible builds they change the casing of it and rarely the way the gadget works overall. Well, Alec is not one of those people, and what he has been able to create is something that should definitely speak of his master skills in solving space issues, as well as technological ones. The View-Master he took apart and modded is as the title says from the 1950s and was given to him as a present.

When he suggested the mod, the previous owner was not exactly thrilled. However, he continued with his ideas and one day later the completed View-Master mod was a fact. It features two 0.9 inch OLED displays, each with a resolution of 96 x 64 pixels. The whole thing is driven by a Raspberry Pi pocket computer, but in order for the displays to work he had to write new software and drivers for them to collaborate with the Raspberry Pi.

The device is not portable, but that doesn’t really take away from its awesomeness, but to connect it does make the old View-Master feel a little bulky if you ask me. The hacked View-Master does have stereoscopic view, which supposedly is not completely adjusted and refined, which is something that Alec has further to do before this masterfully crafted View-Master is entirely complete. Hopefully Alec will also add a battery pack somewhere in there if there is room in order to make it entirely portable. If he manages to do that it would be a majestic gadget to bust out on the train to work, don’t you think?