3D TV Without the Goggles
A Sydney internet cafe is the first venue in Australia - and among the first in the world - to install high-tech computer monitors capable of displaying games and movies in 3D without forcing the user to wear special 3D glasses. Customers of Beyond Internet Gaming, which is located below the movie cinemas on George Street, can from today play a variety of video games in full 3D with images appearing to pop out of the computer screen.
While 3D entertainment has been trialled for years without much success, doing away with cumbersome glasses - coupled with advances in PC processing power - is expected to propel the technology into the mainstream. Hollywood has already begun migrating to 3D. The first 3D film was Chicken Little in 2005, followed by titles including Meet the Robinsons, Beowulf and Journey to the Center of the Earth. James Cameron's highly-anticipated Avatar, due out next year, will be 3D-ready. DreamWorks Animation and Disney/Pixar have both announced that, from next year, all of their animated features would be released in 3D.
But until now, in order to view any of the 3D films, it was necessary to find a rare 3D-equipped cinema or invest thousands of dollars in professional equipment. Today, home computers are powerful enough to support films and video games rendered in 3D.
NVIDIA, the world's largest maker of computer graphics cards, this week unveiled technology allowing people to play games in 3D provided they wore special glasses - like those found at an IMAX theatre - and used a 3D-ready display.
But Australian company 3D Motion, which owns the Beyond Internet Gaming cafe, has managed to avoid glasses altogether by effectively building them into the computer screen itself. The technology - known technically as autostereoscopy - was provided by 3D Motion's Chinese parent 3D Group, which in turn licensed it from a German company. Philips and Samsung have demonstrated TVs using the same technology but have not announced plans for a consumer rollout.
3D Motion plans to sell its monitors directly to consumers but is testing the technology at the internet cafe to determine whether there is a market for it. For $4.50 an hour, customers could hop onto one of 10 3D-equipped computers and play a range of video games that have been ported to 3D by the company. The list of supported games includes Call of Duty 2, Counterstrike: Source, Half Life 2: Deathmatch, Need for Speed, Unreal Tournament and World of Warcraft.
3D Motion is also shopping the monitors around to commercial operators such as advertising and marketing firms. The only similar 3D screen installation in Australia at present is a 52-inch display in the reception area of Telstra's Executive Briefing Centre in Melbourne. However, this simply loops short advertising clips.
The technology was first used for simulation exercises by the military but could also be applied to medicine, design and education, 3D Motion director Ben Liu said.
"Right now purpose built [applications] is fine - just for playing games or just to do digital signage, that's perfect - but to actually go to home use where you can switch between 2D and 3D and do all the things you can do on one monitor, is still another half year or year away," he said. Liu said manufacturing costs had already dropped 30 per cent in the past year and within 12 to 18 months, people would be able to buy a 3D Motion display for around 10 per cent more than a regular 2D screen.
In China, 3D Motion's parent has sold the displays for use in shopping malls, nightclubs, karaoke clubs, subway stations, internet cafes and concerts. For Australia, gaming has been identified as the technology's first killer application. Liu said traditional arcade machines with 3D screens would be installed in his internet cafe from mid-September.
With the attention of gamers now focused on the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Wii consoles, and most remaining PC gamers opting to play from home over their broadband connections, the popularity of internet cafes is waning. Liu hopes the 3D technology will give his cafe a competitive advantage and entice players to keep coming back. However, he conceded that some people suffered eye strain and headaches after long periods in front of the 3D screens.
"Gaming is always more fun when you play with friends actually together," Liu said. "I still see internet cafes as being a community ... it's really about bringing all the people here together and having fun."
By Asher Moses, The Age
