Living In 3D

Global 3D TV Market To Grow 5-Fold In 2011: iSuppli

The global 3D television market will grow more than 5-fold to account for 11 percent of flat-screen TV sales this year, as prices fall sharply and manufacturers add the function as an add-on feature, research firm IHS iSuppli predicted on Friday.

It projected 3D TV shipments would rise to 23.4 million units this year from last year’s 4.2 million units, gaining further to 159 million units in 2015. By that time, iSuppli said, 3D TVs would account for more than half of global flat-panel shipments. Read more…

MIT: New Approach To Glasses-Free 3D Technology

Researchers at MIT’s Media Lab announced on Wednesday that they have developed a new approach to glasses-free 3D technology.

The team said they could double the battery life of devices like Nintendo’s 3DS portable gaming system without compromising screen brightness or resolution.

The researchers also said that their technique would expand the viewing angle of a 3D screen.

According to Doug Lanman, a postdoc in Associate Professor Ramesh Raskar’s Camera Culture Group at the Media Lab, Nintendo’s 3DS relies on an older technology known as parallax barrier.  This requires two versions of the same image, both of which are sliced into vertical segments and interleaved on a single surface.

The team’s HR3D system uses two layers of liquid-crystal displays.  The top LCD displays a pattern customized to the image beneath it.

This top layer consists of thousands of tiny slits, whose orientations follow the contours of the objects in the image.

The slits are oriented in so many different directions that the 3D illusion is consistent no matter whether the image is upright or rotated 90 degrees.

Lanman said in a statement that if a device like the 3DS used HR3D then its battery life would be longer because the parallax barrier would block less light.

The 3D image would also be consistent no matter the viewing angle.

“The great thing about Ramesh’s group is that they think of things that no one else has thought of and then demonstrate that they can actually be done,” Neil Dodgson, professor of graphics and imaging at the University of Cambridge in England, said in a statement.

“It’s quite a clever idea they’ve got here.”

However, Dodgson said that HR3D is very computationally intensive.

“If you’re saving battery power because you’ve got this extra brightness, but you’re actually using all that battery power to do the computation, then you’re not saving anything,” he says.

See the full article from Red Orbit here>>

3D Pioneers, DIRECTV And Panasonic, To Host Inaugural 3D Film Invitational

Accoridng to BusinessWire:

Six Filmmakers to Train with Technicolor and Panasonic; Films to be Showcased on DIRECTV and at Premiere Screening Event at the Paley Center for Media in Los Angeles

Winner of the 2011 DIRECTV n3D Film Invitational Presented by Panasonic will Take Home $25,000 Grand Prize

Furthering their commitment to the 3D category, DIRECTV and Panasonic will host the inaugural 2011 DIRECTV n3D™ Film Invitational Presented by Panasonic.

The Invitational will give six filmmakers the opportunity to train on the latest 3D equipment and create a short film that is funded by DIRECTV and Panasonic. All six films will premiere on DIRECTV’s 3D channel, n3D™, powered by Panasonic, and will be screened at a premiere event, which will be held at the Paley Center for Media in Los Angeles this summer. The winner of the Invitational’s n3D Excellence Award will receive a $25,000 grand prize. In addition, Technicolor will also present a 3D Technical Achievement Award and $5,000 prize. Read more…

Luddites Rejoice! New Glasses Let You Watch 3D Films in 2D

Per Discover:

Eyestrain. Headaches. Nausea. For some people, this is all part of the 3D movie experience. And until now, your choice was to either suffer through 3D; find a cheaper, low-tech theater; or else forgo some new films altogether. But that was before one guy invented 2D Glasses, a pair of specs that converts projected 3D images into 2D (yup, you read that right). It’s touted as a way of preventing eye strain while still enjoying a flick with your 3D-loving friends. Read more…

iPhone 3D Camera With Panorama4D: Face Detection

Per Phones Review in the UK:

The big technology of today is looking to be 3D, with numerous smartphone makers working on pushing out 3D enabled devices, something Apple hasn’t yet done with their iOS gear. But that doesn’t mean iOS users have to miss out on that 3D action.

The Panaorama4D iOS app can apparently turn your iPhone into a 3D camera and works with the iPhone 4, 3GS, iPod Touch 4G and the Apple iPad 2 and is the first iOS app that enables the user to shoot 3D photos.

The Panaroma4D iOS app offers such things as Gyroscope 4D mode that delivers a 4D effect, face detection, the ability to share in 3D on Twitter and Facebook, and an Anaglyph 3D mode whereby the user puts on anaglyphs glasses to view a 3 dimensional show. Read more…

3D Erotic Movie A Hit In Hong Kong

The erotic movie ’3D Sex and Zen: Extreme Ecstasy’ has become a huge draw in Hong Kong, a media report said.

Shanghai Daily reported Thursday that the pioneering 3D movie, which is $3.5 million Cantonese-language production, has beaten the first-day record set by ‘Avatar’. Read more…

Global Spending On Blu-ray 3D Booming Thanks To PlayStation 3

PS3

One of the reasons 3D TV sales got off to a slow start was because of lack of content. Those gamers and early adopters who picked up a new 3D TV to try out their PlayStation 3 stereoscopic upgrade had very little to watch on it, or play. But with Hollywood now starting to release some of its biggest 3D movies on Blu-ray 3D, IHS Screen Digest research predicts that Blu-ray 3D (BD3D) sales will explode in the U.S. and major European economies this year.

“We certainly view gaming and video content as equal drivers of the 3D experience, and we know that the PlayStation 3 is the device that most people are choosing as their 3D player for the living room because it plays such a variety of 3D content,” said John Koller, Director of Hardware Marketing, Sony Computer Entertainment America. Read more…

How 3D TV Works

According to PC World:

If you want to see a 3D image in a 2D plane (on your HDTV), you need a way to show your eyes slightly different images—that’s how you “trick” your brain into perceiving depth. The easiest way to do this is to wear glasses that can help to present a different image to each eye. (Smaller displays, such as the one found on the Nintendo 3DS, don’t need glasses because the display itself is designed to show each eye a slightly different image, but this technology doesn’t work well enough for larger displays quite yet.) Read more…

Next For 3D Movies: Better, Brighter Technology for the Screen and For Your Glasses

There is no doubt that 3D movies are here to stay. The people who do such things came to CinemaCon, the annual gathering of that National Association of Theater Owners, attended by exhibitors, studios and manufacturers of movie going accoutrements from seats to snacks, to tell those in attendance what others changes are being brought by 3D.

For example, back in the day, 3D movies were projected on any old screen that happened to be hanging in the theater. Now, however, screens are specialized for exhibiting digital and 3D film. Read more…

3D Technology Could Brighten Solar-Industry Output

With the solar energy industry booming, companies large and small continue to look for ways to squeeze efficiencies out of decades-old technology. So why not 3D technology?

Santa Barbara-based startup Solar3D wants to harness concepts found elsewhere in high tech to increase the capture of more of the sun’s energy hitting solar panels and turning it into electricity.

“Our inspiration comes from fiber optics,” says Solar3D CEO Jim Nelson. “They manage the light to make it do what they want it to do, versus [flat] solar [panels] that just takes it as it comes.” Read more…