Posts Tagged ‘3d’

In the long and impressive cinematic history of James Cameron, there is one film he refuses to put on his resume but is reminded of every so often: “Piranha 2.”  The young auteur was hired to direct the sequel years before he made the landmark “Terminator” in 1984, but was fired after only a few days of work.  Not enough for a credit in the “Titanic” creator’s mind.  Now, with “Piranha 3-D” in theaters and purposely shot in the immersive medium Cameron has rejuvenated with “Avatar,” the subject of the killer fish and their potential for cinematic mayhem has reached the visionary once more.  Needless to say, he’s hardly a fan.

Speaking to Vanity Fair, Cameron bluntly said, “I tend almost never to throw other films under the bus, but that is exactly an example of what we should not be doing in 3-D. Because it just cheapens the medium and reminds you of the bad 3-D horror films from the 70s and 80s, like Friday the 13th 3-D. When movies got to the bottom of the barrel of their creativity and at the last gasp of their financial lifespan, they did a 3-D version to get the last few drops of blood out of the turnip. And that’s not what’s happening now with 3-D.”

Cameron went on to note the medium is in a “renaissance” right now.  

”[The] biggest and the best films are being made in 3-D,” the Oscar winner told the magazine. “Martin Scorsese is making a film in 3-D. Disney’s biggest film of the year—’Tron: Legacy’ —is coming out in 3-D. So it’s a whole new ballgame.”

The filmmaker has been on something of a media blitz the past few weeks in anticipation of the re-release of “Avatar” this past weekend.  Unfortunately, the demand for the blockbuster’s return wasn’t what either he or 20th Century Fox expected.  In just 881 3-D and IMAX theaters, “Avatar” grossed $4 million which put it outside of the top ten movies at the weekend box office.  With $2.751 billion in worldwide theatrical revenue alone, neither party is crying over the result. For more on Cameron’s thoughts on the “Avatar” re-release, check out his exclusive interview with HitFix’s Drew McWeeny below.

The US Open will be broadcast in 3D for the first time when the annual tournament begins next month, but yet again its availability will be extremely limited.

Panasonic, which has a big 3D content deal with DirecTV, will be supplying all the equipment and production costs for the 3D coverage. The event will thus only be aired in 3D to DirecTV customers.

3D coverage of the US Open will air on n3D, a channel that only DirecTV carries. However, Panasonic has also teamed up with big box electronics retailers like Best Buy to showcase coverage of thetournament on in-store 3D TVs as well.

Panasonic has taken a much more active approach in 3D content than any of the other TV manufacturers. It has singlehandedly made it possible to broadcast prior PGA events as well as Nascar races, in the TV medium. It also is responsible for a lot of the equipment used in DirecTV’s studio-based 3D series.

It is possible that the US Open may also be streamed live online. That would require viewers to have a special kind of computer monitor as well as proprietary 3D glasses from Nvidia. So far, though, it has only been confirmed for DirecTV customers.

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No matter your age, there’s a good chance that a View-Master was lying around either your bedroom or a friend’s. The iconic red goggles are the perfect childhood diversion—cheap and briefly amusing. They also have a long history.

The principle that makes the View-Master a bit of quasi-3D fun is a fundamental one behind all our vision. Stereoscopic viewers—simple devices that essentially make you go cross-eyed to perceive photographic depth—have been exploiting this principle since the 19th century. All it takes is a basic optical effect the brain teaches itself early on: when two images from slightly different angles are viewed by our eyes, we combine them into a unified perception. The Victorians, with their pipes and smokestacks and monocles, used to laze about and amuse themselves with the first stereoscopic toys! Oh my! A vivid image of a savage tribesman! Fast forward a century, and the idea gets an interesting makeover.

In the 1930s, amateur photographer William Gruber teamed up with Sawyer’s Photo Services, a small firm that produced souvenir postcards. But postcards were boring, even in the 1930s. What wasn’t boring was Gruber’s ingenius, custom-made stereoscopic photo setup, which combined two Kodak Bantam Special cameras onto a single tripod. Calibrated correctly, the dual-cam system produced a pair of images that could be turned into a rudimentary 3D scene through stereopsis.

Realizing that he had a hit on his hands, Gruber put together a prototype that would allow people to take their favorite scenes with them. He debuted his creation at the 1940 World’s Fair in New York—a year later, he had sold 100,000. The device’s simplicity and quick fun caught on even quicker—soldiers used it to train during WWII, families toured national parks from their homes, and after landing the humungous Disney license, lots of kids stared at 3D stills of Mickey.

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NDON: Now you can squash or stretch the vibrant images that pop out of the TV screen, thanks to a new 3D system developed by Japanese researchers. 

In a demo, a 3D image of the Earth was squished like a soft rubber ball and then stretched wide across the screen. 

Six motion-detector cameras are used to monitor the viewer’s fingers and tiny clips attached to their index fingers vibrate when they ‘touch’ an image, reports the Daily Mail. 

The multiple cameras are angled so that there are no blind spots. 

The breakthrough i3Space device was developed by scientists at the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology ( NIAIST) in Japan. 

A spokesman said: “This system recognises the user’s behaviour and offers tactile feedback and the illusion of using the tactile sense of force. It is the first time you can feel images in the air.” 

The team believes i3Space could be useful for surgeons to practise techniques before an operation and also has great potential in gaming. Perhaps one day it could even make a Star Trek-style ‘holodeck’ a reality. 

It builds on an interface called the GyroCubeSensuous, which the institute developed in 2005. This palm-sized device used gyroscopes and rotary force-feedback to simulate the virtual sensations of push, draw and buoyancy. 

AIST will present the technology in September at ‘CEDEC 2010′ – Japan’s Biggest Conference for Game Developers. 

Read more: 3D TV: You can stretch, float images – Computing – Personal Tech – Tech – The Times of India http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/tech/personal-tech/computing/3D-TV-You-can-stretch-float-images/articleshow/6460041.cms#ixzz0yLhMv89o

LG shows a broad range of exciting new 3D devices at the IFA 2010. The highlight at the LG booth is probably the 180-inch Plasma 3D TV prototype. Besides this monster 3D Plasma TV, LG also introduces a new 3D Plasma that we will actually be able to buy at the IFA 2010. The LG PX950N is LG’s first Plasma 3D TV and the first TV in the world to receive 3D THX Certification, the ultimate recognition for cinema-quality 3D on a TV. For a truly outstanding 3D picture, 600Hz Max Sub-field Driving ensures smooth viewing of even the fastest action sequences, while LG’s 3D Panel phases out light faster to produce images that are practically blur free.

What’s more, the LG PX950N Plasma TV’s self-illuminating pixels enable a wider viewing angle, meaning viewers can see complete, smooth 3D images wherever they choose to sit or even lie down in the living room. In addition, the PX950N supports the Multi Picture Format (MPF) function, enabling users to connect their 3D cameras to the TV and view their 3D pictures directly on the big screen. 

Along with the FULL LED models, the PX950N provides effortless, seamless connectivity through NetCast, DLNA certification and a wireless AV link. With these functions, viewers will have access to a growing range of 3D movies and shows, whether they’re online or stored in home digital libraries.

LG also exhibits the brand new LEX8 and LEX9 3D TVs at the IFA 2010.

The IFA 2010 Consumer Electronics Show will take place in Berlin from September 3rd to September 8th. The IFA 2010 is celebrating the 50th edition and we will be reporting about all the new announcements. Stay tuned for tons of 3D TV related news.

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Nokia and Intel have announced they are collaborating on 3D holographic projectors for phones, a new technology that could make the Motorola Droid 2 even more R2-D2 like. It may sound far-fetched but the planned three year research intends to create a device that can project an image much like the hologram of Princess Leia in the first Star Wars movie. Roughly two dozen R&D experts will be employed by Nokia and Intel at the University of Oulu in Finland.

The main goal of the research is to develop new ways of using increasingly more powerful mobile technology to create user experiences that are more natural and intuitive. The one use in particular that is mentioned in the statement issued by Intel is holographic 3D technology, allowing you to see a holographic rendition of the person you are talking to on the phone, a “capability only found in science fiction movies today”.

Research will be conducted using the MeeGo platform which is well suited for developing 3D applications and is of course open source.
“Our new joint laboratory with Intel draws on the Oulu research community’s 3-D interface expertise, and over time will lay down some important foundations for future mobile experiences” said Rich Green, Senior Vice President and Research Officer at Nokia.
Any form of three dimensional technology that requires glasses has fad written all over it, but something like this could really be revolutionary. The mind boggles at the applications of such a device but it’s easy to imagine how popular holographic gaming could be.
It’s not the first time such a leap in technology has been attempted. Indian company Infosys issued a patent in 2008 for “Displaying Holographic Three Dimensional (3-D) Images” which aimed to have similar holographic devices ready by 2010, but there are no signs of a product being ready yet. Their system would be used for watching truly 3D movies and playing games.

Researchers at the Heinrich Hertz Institute (HHI) are developing the new MVC (Multiview Video Coding) video compression standard, which would allow compressed 3D video to be transmitted over the Internet or satellite without interruption, the institute said this week.

The institute, based in Berlin, will showcase streaming of 3D movies based on the standard over the Internet and satellite at the International Broadcasting Convention (IBC), which will be held in Amsterdam Sept. 10-14. The research is being done by the Fraunhofer Institute for Telecommunications, which is a part of HHI.

3D movies and broadcast content are being created for new devices like 3D TVs and Blu-ray 3D players, but an efficient way to transmit them over broadband networks is missing, the institute said.

The content requires considerably more bandwidth than regular video feeds, and observers have said that a large percentage of homes do not have capacity to play streaming 3D movies. MVC could potentially resolve quality-of-service and buffering issues by squeezing 3D movies into compact files that can be transmitted over existing broadband networks.

The trick is to load files quickly so 3D video can be viewed without interruption, and the standard packs two separate images — each for the left and right eyes — needed to provide the stereoscopic 3D effect. The MVC standard helps reduce the bit rate significantly, which helps transmit the movies faster.

The latest 3D TVs and Blu-ray 3D players will be able to decode the separate images from MVC-coded movies to display the 3D effect.

“The first view corresponds to the signal that the existing television can receive and we would hide the second view in the same stream so that only the new receivers can use it,” said Thomas Schierl, a scientist at the HHI, in a statement.

The MVC file format is a 3D add-on to the existing H.264/MPEG-4 AVC video compression standard.

“What H.264/AVC is for HD movies, Multiview Video Coding (MVC) is for 3D movies,” the institute said.

Movie services like Netflix are already delivering movies in HD format, but do not yet offer 3D streaming. Samsung has said it will start streaming 3D movie trailers from content providers later this year, but not full 3D movies.

Sony and Toshiba are reportedly in a race to develop quality 3D technology that you can watch with bare eyes, though they seem to be concentrating on this benefiting television screens. There are some pricing and tech issues, but there’s no reason to think at least an expensive model will be ready in a few years, perhaps just in time for Sony to market its product as a tie-in with a 3D Blu-ray release of its Spider-Man reboot.

Don’t expect to see that superhero movie in the format without glasses on the big screen, though. Given how long it took (and is still taking) for theaters to convert to digital 3D-capable screens, I don’t see the industry going too crazy for any further advances requiring more costly equipment upgrades. Not anytime soon. So the big issue here is that 3D TVs will keep improving and adapting to consumer satisfaction while cinemas will have to deal with what they’ve recently invested in for a long time. And people will have another reason to stay home: the 3D in their living room will be better and more comfortable.

Despite some spin made by blogs like Superhero Hype and Splash Page, I have to note that there’s no real connection made by Sony or by AP’s report on this topic between the Spider-Man reboot and its potential to be available in glasses-free 3D. By the time the Marc Webb-directed film hits home video 3D DVDs and Blu-rays will be fairly common, so it’s not a big deal or surprising that this 3D movie would also be available for 3D home video formats. However, it would behoove Sony to mark the film’s home video release as a temporal aim for its tech plans due to it being a Sony title. 

TOKYO — A Japanese research team said Thursday it had developed the world’s first 3D television system that allows users to touch, pinch or poke images floating in front of them.

“It is the first time that you can feel images in the air,” said Norio Nakamura, senior scientist with the research team at the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology.

“You can have the sense of touch like poking a rubber ball or stretching a sticky rice cake” when manipulating images, he told AFP by telephone.

The technology changes the shape of three-dimensional images in response to “touches”, aided by cameras that monitor how the fingers move, Nakamura said.

It is not known when the technology will be put to practical use but its creators see it being used to simulate surgical operations and in video game software allowing players to experience the sensation of holding weapons or sports equipment.

It could even use scanned images to supplement existing realities, said Nakamura.

“This technology could create a virtual museum where visitors, including vision-impaired people, can put their hands on valuable sculptures that are usually untouchable,” Nakamura said.