Past, Present & Future of 3D

“Stereoscopic 3-D is the most exciting evolution in cinema presentation since color and widescreen. The question for film-makers is not ‘why 3-D?’, since the reasons are obvious, at least to audiences, and the negatives have all been removed. The question should be ‘how do I make 3-D a part of my art?’” - James Cameron, Film Director.

3-D movies burst on the scene back in the 1950s. We had these funny paper glasses with red and green cellophane lenses which made things pop out of the screen. Sadly, 3-D didn’t last long. Cinerama tried to re-capture the same feeling without glasses, but the format proved to be too technically challenging for the movie studios and cinemas (three curved screens, three cameras and three projectors all in sync).

Recently, however, 3-D has made a resurgence at the movies with films like Beowulf, Chicken Little, Meet The Robinsons, Journey to the Center of the Earth, and Bolt, among others, utilizing new stereoscopic 3-D technology. New polarized glasses have been employed to reduce eye strain. Polarized lenses only allow light waves to the left and right eyes individually, which creates the depth of the 3-D illusion. And, I have to say that these films have been very impressive!

Both the NBA (2007 All Star Game) and the NFL (Chargers/Raiders regular season game) have experimented with 3-D broadcasts (theater or via closed circuit) and both received decent reviews. Fox Sports will broadcast college football’s championship game in 3-D at CES later this week.

A market research firm (Quixel Research) recently found that three-fourths of consumers have seen a 3-D movie with 3-D glasses and nearly 75-percent would recommend a 3-D experience to family and friends.

Here’s a look at the types of 3-D available and the manufacturers behind the technologies.

Stereoscopic 3-D (Glasses-based)
Concurrent with this renewed interest at movie theaters, 3-D has also entered the home thanks to innovative algorithms from Texas Instruments’ DLP technology that allows viewers to watch select films and video games in 3-D with glasses. Texas Instruments released DLP 3-D Technology in early 2007. The DLP 3-D Technology uses an innovative format that allows for the left and right images to be combined into a single frame on displays with 120 Hz refresh rate. This format preserves the horizontal and vertical resolution of the left and right views, and enables superior viewing experiences.

In order to configure the TV to 3-D mode, consumers need to purchase a 3-D Accessory Kit (available for $129 from Samsung). In the case of Samsung, the kit was produced with its partner DDD. The kit contains a pair of LCD shutter glasses, an infrared emitter that connects to the HDTV, and PC software. These special glasses utilize shutters that open and close every 1/60th of a second allowing a 120Hz HDTV to show left eye images at 1/60th a second (or 60Hz) and right eye images at 1/60th of a second (or 60Hz) so that there won’t be any flicker, which causes eye strain. After installing the software to a capable PC, the PC needs to be connected to the HDTV using a DVI to HDMI, or HDMI to HDMI cable (depending upon the consumer’s PC graphics card). Then you need to place the TV in 3-D mode and you’re ready to go.

Besides rear projection DLP TVs (with over 500,000 models sold so far) from Mitsubishi and Samsung (Series 6 and 7 DLP TV), Samsung has also been able to carry 3-D technology to its plasma displays (their Series 4 models). All models are 120Hz 1080p TVs.

While the movie studios like 3-D because they can charge an additional fee, sadly, there’s no true standard for the home. And, without a standard for the home, the studios are reluctant to come out with movies and programming in 3-D. Yes, the DVD version of Journey to the Center of the Earth has a 3-D version on the disc (as well as a 2D version); they also supplied glasses to watch the movie.

Right now, there are a handful of games, e.g. Call to Arms, and some films already encoded in 3-D. For glasses-based systems, it’s really a “chicken and egg” situation, and there are a couple of hurdles to get over in order to get a real toe hold in home theaters. There are about 25 different systems out there with no solidified standard for 3-D in either standard definition DVD or Blu-ray.

A bright spot for potential growth in 3-D programming in the home, however, is expected to be video games. Gamers will adopt very quickly to an enhanced reality with added depth for car racing and shoot’em ups. Gamers want to be immersed in the games, and 3-D will be the portal for them to accomplish it. Initially, PC games will adopt first to 3-D before it arrives on consoles like Xbox360 and PS3. In fact, it might not be till the next incarnation of these systems that will see true 3-D capability. Of course, this does not preclude a 3-D firmware update along with optional glasses.

Auto Stereoscopic 3-D (No Glasses)
It seems that the holy grail of 3-D viewing is to watch films and programs without glasses. For the past several years, Philips, LG, and others has been working on 3-D solutions without glasses, but so far these 3-D displays – I can’t call them TVs – utilizing LCD technology primarily are only for the commercial space and digital signage. While some of them aren’t bad, they’re not terrific either. And, they’re costly as well with prices ranging around $10,000 for a system including a 42-in LCD display.

For the past couple of years, Philips has been offering 3-D displays to the commercial arena in 52-in, 42-in., 22-in., and 8-in. versions. In fact, the company has a dedicated 3-D Solutions subsidiary. Philips has recently shown a 132-in. prototype display in Europe along with a special Blu-ray player that can playback 3-D. Currently, both products are in the demoing stage with no plans to bring them to market in the near future. In its displays, Philips uses Multiview lenticular technology that allows multiple viewers wide freedom of movement without sacrificing 3-D perception. A sheet of transparent lenses is fixed on an LCD screen. This sheet sends different images to each eye, and so a person sees two images. These two images are combined (in our brain), to create a 3-D effect. Because the sheet is transparent, it results in full brightness, full contrast and true color representation

At the CEDIA show in September, Electronic House reported on a company called NewSight-X3-D. Their system does not require glasses either, and though previously limited to viewing from about 20 feet away, it’s reportedly one the best and most realistic of its kind. Currently, it is designed for commercial spaces only. NewSight-X3-D can be experienced in several shopping malls and airports in the U.S and Europe, and is used mainly for advertising with custom design content for these systems. The NewSight/X3-D uses 60-70 inch specially designed Pioneer and Mitsubishi flat screen monitors.

LG, on the other hand, uses a specially-designed 42-in. LCD display with proprietary 3-D software from Parallax that offers 3-D still and 2D, 3-D mixed movie possibilities. The specialized 42-in. 1080p display (at 60Hz) also requires LG’s True3-D player, which comes bundled with the display.

Connectivity
HDMI seems the likely conduit for 3-D signals in the home. The current HDMI version 1.3 spec supports video streams running up to 10 Gbits/s, which is enough to handle left and right eye versions of 1080-progressive video at 60 Hz (requiring no more than 8 Gbits/s). Ultimately, however, 3D-TV proponents want to support 120 Hz rates for each eye for truer high definition and multiple 3-D views (this would mean sets with a 240 Hz refresh rate, and the earliest those models will be available is sometime in 2009).

In the short term, however, the industry needs to define a way for HDMI to carry 3-D information from a device along with metadata in a 3-D video stream. This is the job of a special CEA (Consumer Electronics Association) task group working to update the CEA 861 standard that defines an uncompressed video interface referenced in turn by the HDMI standard. Although, it should be noted that it usually takes about a year or so to upgrade a specification standard. The 861 spec in future could also be the basis of other interconnects including DisplayPort and wireless links.

The Future
At last year’s CES (January 2008), there was a special workshop held on 3-D technology. The conclusion of the panel was that glasses-based 3-D system will become more prevalent in the coming years, but auto stereoscopic systems are still several years (or light years) away from a home theater near you.

The Blu-ray community is experimenting with different schemes to add 3-D to disc titles, but no standard has been finalized. Considering the fact that Blu-ray is still working its way into the mainstream, it’s doubtful one will be in the near future.

For any 3-D system to be successful, it needs the support of content creators such as the major Hollywood Studios, who would put a premium on 3-D content. And, of course, it begs the question that in this economy will home viewers pay a premium on top of already high-priced home video?

Honestly, I don’t mean to be pessimistic about 3-D, but it may be better suited for movie theaters, PC video games, and the occasional sporting event. Then again, there just might be a big announcement at CES 2009.

By Dennis P. Barker, ElectronicHouse

ProxyMill: Automated Movie Compression for P2 & QT Files

Imagine Products announces the release and general availability of ProxyMill for Macintosh, a new automated video compression application for Panasonic P2 media. With ProxyMill, designate a “Watch” folder and let the software create low resolution QuickTime proxies with frame accurate timecode directly from P2 MXF files in one simple step.

ProxyMill’s ability to create preview quality movies in an unattended fashion is a big time saver for those needing to share clips with remote clients. The adjustable visual timecode burn lets producers note segments of interest. Larger productions may want to use the proxies for preliminary “offline” edits to save disk space, and later conform to the originals. Compressed movies may be saved inside the source P2 Volumes’ “PROXY” folder(s). Alternatively, copies of the proxies may also be placed into a combined folder on your hard disk.

ProxyMill works with all Panasonic's P2 formats ranging from DVCPRO HD to DV and the new 10-bit AVC-Intra codec. It may also be used to compress standard QuickTime movies (*.mov files) of any format. The application is supplied with a number of popular presets for fast, highly compressed MPEG-4 (H.264) encoding of half screen clips, iPod/iPhone use, and others. Users may also select from any QuickTime codecs on their system and adjust size, quality and audio to suit specific needs.

ProxyMill watches a designated folder for existing or new folders containing P2 card images. A list of movies and the status of their processing is displayed in the main application window. The parent folder (the one above P2 “CONTENTS”), actual MXF video file name, beginning size and proxy size, and status are shown.

”ProxyMill is a huge time and money saver,” says Shane Ross, broadcast television editor who works with HD. “Prior to this application, you or the assistant editor had to import P2 clips into an editor (creating large QuickTime files) on a timeline, apply a timecode filter, export the movie, then compress, etc. With ProxyMill, just point at a folder full of P2 volumes, adjust the settings and hit 'Begin'! With ProxyMill there’s no more wasted time and money making DVDs of all the footage for producers and transcription houses. Plus you now have the ability to send the client home with their footage at the end of the shoot day. You can also send the proxies to transcription houses, without codec worries, to have transcripts made,” he said.

Because compression of large files can take a considerable amount of time, ProxyMill may be stopped and restarted as needed without duplicate proxies being made. The application also creates printable log files of all activities.

ProxyMill is designed for Macintosh OSX 10.5 (Leopard) Intel Mac’s only equipped with QT 7.5 or higher. It is not compatible with PPC or OSX 10.4. The software is provided by download only. Users may activate on one Desktop and one Portable computer. ProxyMill may be purchased from Imagine Products webstore starting at $199.00 USD.

Source: Imagine Products

Any Movie Can Now Be 3D Says Mitsubishi

Any movie can now be a 3D movie. That's the promise of Mitsubishi America, as it took the wraps off an astonishing new 3D TV system at the 2009 CES. The company has partnered with graphics experts Nvidia to offer US consumers a 3D experience that requires no more than a transmitter and single pair of shutter 3D glasses. The bolt-on package to Mitsubishi's TV range will retail for just $199 when launched later in 2009.

David Naranjo, director of product development at Mitsubishi told HCC: "We have been selling 3D-ready Home Theater TVs in the US for the past few years. Now with Nvidia we can offer a 3D experience that's perfect for gaming and movies." At the show, the company showed a standard Mitsubishi display producing a 3D effect from an off-the-shelf copy of Devil May Cry 4, running on a PC. "The game is a standard shop-supplied copy" said Naranjo. "The consumer can choose any game he wants basically. The process is source irrelevant. It works just as well with movies on DVD and Blu-ray."

Nvidia has also partnered with Viewsonic, but only Mitsubishi has been licensed to produce living room sized 3D-ready TV displays. "Our entire product line of Home Theater TVs now feature 3D-ready technology," said Naranjo. HCC play-tested the 3D game on a 60in display and found the Nvidia processing offered a unique sense of depth to the image. The 3D effect wasn't about objects breaking out of the frame - as in old school movie 3D, more it was more about adding a sense of tangible depth to the 2D image. 3D looks likely to be a major theme at this year's tech expo, although it remain to be seen if consumers will share the excitement so obviously felt by the major AV vendors.

Source: Home Cinema Choice

'Journey' at Center of Visual F/X Race

In an upset, modestly budgeted 3-D kidpic Journey to the Center of the Earth has advanced to the Oscar visual effects bakeoff -- and created a logistics headache for the Academy in the process. Journey, one of the last hits from New Line, will compete for an Oscar nomination with six other films: Fox's Australia, Paramount's The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Warner's The Dark Knight, Universal's Hellboy II, Par's Iron Man and U's The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor.

Journey beat out several costly vfx tentpoles, including Par's Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, which featured effects from Industrial Light and Magic; Sony's hit Hancock; and Disney's The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian.

The inclusion of Journey, the first all-digital 3-D live-action feature, is a problem for the Acad because it has not yet installed a digital projector in its Goldwyn Theater, where the competish will be held. A digital projector is required for modern-day 3-D. While the Academy will install some sort of temporary 3-D system for the bakeoff, there already has been one high-profile failure of such a digital setup this season: The abortive debut screening of Benjamin Button at the DGA. Acad executive director Bruce Davis told Daily Variety in November that the org hoped to have a digital projector installed at the Goldwyn by the end of 2008, but that did not happen.

Journey helmer Eric Brevig expressed concern that an improvised digital setup that shows the footage "too dark or too small" would put his picture at a disadvantage.

David Gray, chairman of the Academy's Theater Standards Committee, said it would take two stacked digital projectors to get a 3-D image on the Goldwyn's 65-foot-wide screen at proper brightness, and the port in the theater's projection booth isn't big enough for two projectors. Renovations to accommodate a second projector will be done later this year, he said.

In the meantime, the Journey reel will be shown with a single projector, with only a 28-foot-wide image on the Goldwyn's 65-foot-wide screen. It will be as bright as the other reels but significantly smaller.

"It doesn't seem like they're not trying, they're just not able to have the highest quality system in place (for the bakeoff)," Brevig said.

Journey isn't the only competitor with a format issue. The Dark Knight features several major vfx sequences that were shot and finished in Imax. The supersized format is much higher resolution than normal movies and demands much more fine detail in the vfx. The difficulty of those sequences is a big part of the film's vfx pitch. However the Goldwyn Theater doesn't have an Imax projector and Gray said installing one would be "not particularly practical."

"In the future, it might be something that needs to be potentially dealt with, especially if in visual effects they feel it makes a different presentation," he said. In any event, he added, "It would be very difficult to turn the Goldwyn into an Imax theater."

Among visual effects shops, the list was especially good news for Digital Domain, which is represented on Benjamin Button and Mummy, and London's Double Negative, which worked on The Dark Knight and Hellboy II. Rhythm & Hues, which took an Oscar last year for The Golden Compass, is also in the running for Mummy. ILM is competing with Iron Man.

The list shows the growing decentralization and globalization of digital production. Two vfx giants are unrepresented: Weta Digital and Sony Pictures Imageworks. But several smaller shops in Australia and Canada have work in the competish.

The seven semifinalists will present their 15-minute highlight reels to the Acad's vfx branch at the Jan. 15 bakeoff. The members will vote immediately after for the three Oscar nominees. The visual effects bakeoff, which is open to the public, will be held at 7:30 p.m. Jan. 15 at the Goldwyn.

By David S. Cohen, Variety

Toshiba to Demo 3D Mobile Displays at CES

Toshiba Matsushita Display Technology (TMD) will be previewing technology at International CES 2009 that enables mass adoption of 3D viewing in handheld devices. In a technology demonstration, TMD has integrated an advanced 3D film with small and medium sized LCD displays that use Optically Compensated Bend (OCB) mode to deliver clear, true autostereoscopic viewing at a glance, without the need for special glasses.

This development overcomes numerous long-held negatives associated with 3D viewing. In addition to eliminating the need for special glasses, it allows for extended comfortable viewing. The 3D film easily integrates into today's thin, high resolution displays, and enables simultaneous 2D and 3D viewing on all or parts of the display with no picture degradation. TMD's OCB technology improves upon conventional LCD technology by increasing response time and contrast ratio to achieve near CRT-like image quality. The LCD panels from TMD use OCB mode LCD technology to create sharp, clear, motion blur-free 3D displays.

For the CES demonstration, the backlight modules of 3-inch and 9-inch LCD displays from TMD have been enhanced with 3D film. Through directional backlight technology, left and right eye images are focused sequentially into the viewer's eyes, allowing for full resolution of the display panel. Only one panel and modified backlight are required. Backlight module assembly is easy. No precision registration is required.



"This technology provides three dimensional viewing or natural depth that ordinary displays don't provide," explained Sean Collins, vice president for TAEC's Display Device and Components Group. "These 3D displays once again demonstrate TMD's focus on leading edge display technologies, and are ideal for use in handheld displays such as mobile phones, gaming devices and other integrated portable electronics."

TMD plans to commercialize 3D displays within the next year, to meet customer requirements.

Source: Toshiba AEC

SOYO Introduces 3D HDTVs and Monitors at CES 2009

SOYO Crystal 3D Series LCD HDTVs at 46 inches bring an entirely new experience to the world of television viewing. Now, you can watch all of your favorite 2D movies in 3D with the help of our 3D stereoscopic display panel. On top of all of the cutting-edge 3D features included in the Crystal 3D Series, you can also still use it as a normal 2D television to watch your favorite TV stations and movies without the 3D effect. The Crystal 3D series incorporates HDMI inputs allowing you to enjoy High Definition movies and television with crystal clarity. Also, with the display's fast response time, high brightness and high contrast ratio, your movies will look and feel more alive.

SOYO Pearl 3D Series Monitors at 22 and 24 inches feature superior TFT (Thin Film Transistor) display technology wide viewing format (16:10 aspect ratio) for watching movies and HDTV, ultra-high contrast ratio (1000:1), high brightness, super-fast pixel-response times (2ms), 2 watt stereo speakers, VGA, DVI, HDMI and audio inputs, and cables. This monitor leaves no room for compromise when it comes to enhancing videos, gaming, flight simulation or the latest AutoCAD model.

Source: QuoteMedia

Animators Envision 3-D TV at Home

Animation giants have vowed this year to turn three-dimensional technology from a curiosity to a fixture in theaters. Now comes the attack on homes. The quest to deliver 3-D versions of television shows, movies and videogames to the living room will be a hot topic at this week's Consumer Electronics Show, which kicks off Wednesday night in Las Vegas. The offerings face some big challenges -- including a grim economy and the difficulty of persuading users to wear special glasses associated with most 3-D technologies.

Yet some industry executives see the technology as an inevitable step to generate user excitement now that high-definition TV sets are reaching a mainstream audience. "The next big wave is 3-D," says Bob Perry, a senior vice president at Panasonic Corp.

Some of the key building blocks have already arrived, and more are expected at CES. Companies including Samsung Electronics Co., Mitsubishi Electric Corp. and Hyundai IT Corp. have begun selling what they call "3-D ready" TV sets. Such new sets and computer monitors refresh images at high speed to help reduce the headache-inducing tendencies of early 3-D offerings. There isn't much programming yet to exploit the new TV sets. But companies such as Dolby Laboratories Inc. and TDVision Systems Inc. plan to use CES to discuss new formats to encode and distribute 3-D signals, removing a roadblock to creating content.

Many videogames were created using 3-D modeling techniques, making it easy to render them in three dimensions. Chip maker Nvidia Corp., for example, at CES is introducing for $199 special glasses and associated software that it says can play more than 350 existing videogames in 3-D for users with advanced displays. In a demonstration, zombie enemies in one shooting game appear to grab in front of the screen, while players dodge and fire around 3-D bushes and trees.

"When you've seen it, you kind of don't want to go back," says Dan Vivoli, Nvidia's senior vice president of marketing.

Simulating three dimensions requires two images, one each for the user's left and right eyes. One approach used since the 1950s distinguishes the images using colored filters in paper glasses. That technology, known as anaglyph, has recently been used with DVD versions of 3-D movies released in theaters.

But consumer-electronics companies want to create a much richer experience in the home, akin to the eye-popping effects being shown in theaters by companies such as DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc. and Walt Disney Co. Their animated movies exploit a projection technology using polarized light and inexpensive plastic glasses, which creates effects that most viewers prefer over anaglyph technology.

For the home, Nvidia and other companies at CES favor what the industry calls active glasses, with shutters that are synchronized to open and close rapidly with the aid of an infrared emitter. Those approaches require fast-refreshing TV sets or displays and are considerably more costly than the anaglyph or polarized glasses.

The first of the 3-D ready TV sets use a rear-projection technology from Texas Instruments Inc. known as DLP. But some companies also have begun selling flat-panel models that can play 3-D content. Samsung, for example, in February began selling a 3-D-ready plasma TV set in a 42-inch version for $1,850 and in a 50-inch model for $2,656.

More high-end 3-D ready models are due this year, according to Samsung executives who spoke at a recent technology forum in San Francisco, saying the technology could help counter a generally weak market for TV sets. "3-D TV is real, and it is here," says Yun-Tae Lee, Samsung senior vice president.

Panasonic at CES plans to demonstrate a special Blu-ray DVD player that will be able to play back movies with 3-D images, with high-definition quality images for the right and left eyes. Filming in 3-D typically requires at least two cameras placed next to each other. If cameras need to be moved or aren't properly synchronized, users can experience nauseating effects, says Sandy Climan, chief executive of 3ality Digital LLC. His company sells technology that helps manage cameras for 3-D shooting and helps produce high-profile 3-D events. The company last month helped shoot a National Football League game in 3-D for the first time and is taking part Thursday in a 3-D broadcast of the college football championship game to theaters equipped with technology from RealD Corp.

Getting such signals to homes will take time. Some broadcasters aren't eager to explore 3-D yet because they have just invested to upgrade their networks for high-definition TV and are still waiting for a return on that investment, according to Michael Lewis, chairman of RealD.

There are exceptions. On Thursday, the British Sky Broadcasting Group PLC -- known as the Sky Network in the U.K. -- says it has begun filming some sporting events in 3-D. On Dec. 18, the network demonstrated a 3-D TV in operation at its West London headquarters.

But there's no agreement on a standard format for broadcasting 3-D events, nor for storing movies on discs to be played in the home. Movies can be adapted for today's 3-D ready TVs, but studios aren't expected to do so until they can be sure they are compatible with most user equipment -- hoping to head-off the kind of standards battle that raged until Blu-ray emerged as a high-definition standard, Mr. Lewis says.

Dolby, known for setting audio standards, is proposing a format that it says is compatible with existing DVD and Blu-ray players and 3-D ready TV sets. Companies could encode 3-D images alongside two-dimensional versions on one disc, avoiding the problem of maintaining two sets of inventory, says Bill Jasper, Dolby's chief executive.

Others, including RealD, TDVision and DDD Group PLC, also are hoping their technology will play a role in any 3-D format. Proposals are being evaluated by groups that include the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers, which may take 18 months to settle on a standard, estimates Wendy Aylsworth, an engineering vice president with the group. Picking a technology that doesn't require glasses -- an approach favored by companies such as Philips Electronics NV -- may take several years, she says.

Meanwhile, exactly how consumers will react to home 3-D isn't clear. The Entertainment Technology Center, a consortium at the University of Southern California funded by major studios, has set up a lab so that 3-D systems can be evaluated side-by-side and shown to students and other users.

In a soon-to-be released survey conducted by the center and the Consumer Electronics Association, which sponsors CES, 16% of U.S. adults said they are interested in watching 3-D movies or television programs in their home. That's pretty good considering that few people know anything about home 3-D, says David Wertheimer, the center's chief executive. Nearly 19% of the respondents said they would prefer seeing a film at a theater in 3-D. Only 5% said they've seen a 3-D demonstration on one of the new TV sets, according to the survey.

By Don Clark, Ben Charny, Jerry Dicolo and Christopher Lawton, The Wall Street Journal

Blitz’ 3D Tech Stands Out

Last month Blitz went to Hollywood to demo what it believes was a world-first – a game demo running in real 3D on a 3D TV, driven by an Xbox 360. The demo was a glimpse of a future where what we call 3D games aren’t projections onto a flat 2D screen but true solid-looking game worlds you can peer about and almost touch. Develop asked Andrew Oliver, CTO of Blitz Games Studios, for his perspective.

How did your presentation go down with the folks in Hollywood?
It was great, thanks. I was invited to give a short presentation at the 3D Entertainment Summit about the potential of real 3D in console games. I finished by showing a game demo running on an Xbox 360 through a 3D cinema projector - it looks pretty impressive. I think the Hollywood execs were pretty surprised at the quality. I let the audience play the demo for themselves - this is definitely one of those 'see it to believe it' experiences.

Just to rewind for readers who aren't aware of the technology, how do 3D TVs work?
There are various 3D technologies available for the home. There's the DLP '3D Ready' standard that alternates the left and right images very fast, synchronised with LCD shutter glasses, coordinating the flickering with the shutters on the glasses. Sounds a little odd, but the newer models give very good results.

Other manufacturers using LCD panels are opting for using polarised light on alternating pixels. So the left eye can only see half the pixels and the right eye seeing the others half, when viewing with glasses that have the polarised filters. The effect gives you the same 3D effect as the Imax 3D and new Digital 3D cinema films.

How long have you been working on a game application?
We've been working on the Stereo 3D drivers with various screens for over a year now. But actually, the largest challenge is to do with the architecture of our graphics engine. It's a significant layer added on top of an already very powerful games engine. We have a team 26 in our BlitzTech team, which has grown steadily over the last 10 years.

In what sense was the L.A. presentation a world first?
People have been driving 3D screens from PCs for some years now, with special nVidia graphics cards. It takes a powerful PC, and I heard a prominent games spokesperson speaking at a 3D session at the CG film conference Siggraph say that modern game consoles were not powerful enough to run 3D displays. So we set out to set the record straight.

Granted, it was more difficult than we anticipated. But we were able to show a game we have in development running live on both Xbox 360 and PS3 running in 3D on a few different types of 3D TVs. So it's the first time anyone has seen this running and it really does literally add a whole new dimension to gaming.

How does your technology work?
For every frame, you need to draw a left view and a right view and then put that through a filter to combine them into one image suitable for the format of the TV. Unfortunately, various screens use different methods of displaying the two images needed, which makes it a big hassle. However the biggest problem is the fact the format needs to be 1080p at 60fps. It's obviously being created for 3D films and making full HD at 60fps is how people want to watch 3D movies in the future. Creating a game running at this resolution and speed is difficult at the best of times! After that, you then have a further step of interlacing the entire two screens into a single frame, which needs an extremely fast graphics engine.

You've stated that a 3DTV and non-3D TV version of the game can be contained in the same copy. Does this imply that there's no impact from the technique on the creation of art assets and so on?
Once you have a game running at 1080p at 60fps then this can run in 2D for normal TVs. But we will implement a display option that enables you to select the 3D TV you have, and then the game will add the further steps for the special 3D format relevant for the display.

Actually there is a further downside to art asset creation. To get a game running fast, game developers cheat by 'bill boarding' graphics – drawing things like flat trees for example. But any tricks like this look very bad when you see the scene in true 3D. Therefore, a lot more models will be required, which will impact the art asset pipeline and budget.

Anything else?
We now have the feature in BlitzTech, so if our game is running fast enough we have the option to give it the feature. For the demo we retrofitted it into one of the games we already have in development. Ideally it would be best to start a game knowing that the feature will be added, and to adjust the design and art style accordingly to accommodate it.

Could we see existing games in 3D TV versions in the future?
Sadly not. There would be a slim chance you could retrofit a game that was already running in the right mode. But you would have to make a further 10 per cent speed saving for the extra processing required, remodel any flat objects and ensure the camera is designed to not create uncomfortable viewing situations. Unfortunately you can’t just 'plug-in' 3D drivers to a game.

Are there any gameplay consequences for the technology, or is it more about making more graphically immersive games?
There's no doubt it makes the game more immersive. Anyone who has seen the demo we have has been very impressed – it really has to be seen to be believed. We've proven it works well and are now playing with the technology as we believe that yes, there are new gameplay opportunities possible, which is very exciting.

How widespread are 3D TVs in the market?
Sadly, 3D compatible TVs are fairly rare at this point, with about 1.4 million expected to have been sold – mostly in the US – by the end of 2008. But the film industry is working out how to get 3D films to the home and most TV manufacturers are working on 3D capable TVs for launch next year.

When then would you expect these televisions to become a decent chunk of the market worth developing games for?
I think it will be a year or two. But games take this kind of time to develop, so it's a case of considering the option now. We wanted to show people a glimpse of the future, which we did and it certainly drew the crowds.

Do you have any plans to license out your 3D technology?
Yes, we already do license our technology to other game developers and this is obviously a very cool new addition to our very powerful multi-platform games engine.

What do the console manufacturers make of it?
Those individuals that have heard about it have been curious but not convinced. Those who have seen it have loved it and agree that it looks stunning and almost feels like we've moved on a console generation. The games start to look like holograms and you very quickly you forget you are wearing glasses. It should be noted that the glasses have changed significantly and look like graphic designer-stylee specs - a world away from the dorky red and green cardboard things!

By Owain Bennallack, Develop

Dolby Makes Push to Bring 3-D Home

Dolby Laboratories Inc, a company best known for its audio technology, is now targeting one of the most buzzed-about areas in video: bringing digital 3-D entertainment to the home. Dolby says it is currently talking with content providers about encoding its digital 3-D technology into Blu-ray movies. It declined to identify potential partners. The company is also working on getting its technology used in 3-D video games.

In its push into home 3-D, Dolby will face stiff competition in a nascent market. Many companies at this week's Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas will be showcasing various ways to bring 3-D into the living room. Meanwhile, the entertainment and consumer electronics industries are working to avoid any 3-D format war like the one that erupted between Blu-ray and HD-DVD. Dolby is already a player in digital 3-D cinema, having introduced its technology to theaters in 2007. It is now used on more than 400 screens in 24 countries.

"Millions of people are seeing it and going home and saying they want to see it at home" said Guido Voltolino, the company's director of business development.

Dolby's home 3-D technology is designed so viewers would not be required to buy additional hardware, he said. It would work on any 3-D enabled TV -- currently available from companies including Mitsubishi and Samsung -- with a standard Blu-ray player. Most 3-D entertainment requires the use of glasses, from simple polarized lens to costly pairs with extremely fast-moving shutters. Dolby said its technology would support whichever glasses the TV manufacturer specifies.

Audiences are warming to digital 3-D in theaters. Many people now head to their local cineplex to see movies such as Journey to the Center of the Earth in 3-D, and a number of major 3-D releases are planned for 2009. However, when 3-D movies are released on DVD and Blu-ray, the only choice is to see them in an older technology -- the more low-tech blue-and-red lens colored glasses.

The progress of digital home 3-D has been slowed by the lack of a unifying technology standard. Groups including the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE), the Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA) and the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) are working on ways to help standardize 3-D home entertainment.

Dolby said it presented its technology to the SMPTE group in September and "received some very positive feedback." The company said it is now looking to inform "key industry stakeholders." Dolby added that its approach to 3-D is completely "backwards compatible," and will not disrupt any standards currently being used.

Panasonic has reportedly proposed a 3-D Blu-ray standard to the BDA.

By Gabriel Madway, Thomson Reuters

3D Games and Films to Launch in Living Rooms

Three-dimensional technology is spreading from the cinema to the home with media companies and consumer electronics manufacturers gearing up for living-room launches of the viewing technology. A number of 3D product announcements are expected at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this week, the biggest electronics trade fair of the year, with video game devices expected to be among the first to find their way into the hands of consumers.

The graphics chipmaker Nvidia will launch its GeForce 3D Vision product: 3D spectacles that link up wirelessly to a personal computer and allow gamers to play more than 350 existing PC games in 3D. Nvidia has also developed a video player that will allow 3D films to be played on a PC monitor or through one of the “3D ready” television sets that will be on display at the show. But one problem is that Hollywood studios have yet to agree on a common standard for 3D.

“It’s in its infancy. One studio is going one way and another in a different direction, but we plan to support all standards,” says Ujesh Desai, Nvidia’s GeForce general manager.

Also for gamers, a $400 22-inch 3D monitor from iZ3D, special glasses included, will go on sale across the US this week and the company will demonstrate at CES a version that displays Xbox and PlayStation 3 console games in 3D.

With high-definition television having come into the mainstream, consumer electronics manufacturers are seeing 3D as the next big innovation that will boost TV sales, although the initial sets on display have little content to show at present. Consumers may be more ready for 3D than companies imagine. A recent survey by the Quixel research company of more than 750 HDTV owners found that about half were interested in watching 3D at home and more than a third expected 3D TV in one to two years’ time, with content coming from their cable and satellite operators and Blu-ray disc players.

“Consumers have a very positive outlook on 3D, but economic conditions are making people less likely to want to pay more for it,” says Tamaryn Pratt, Quixel research principal.

CES attendees will also be able to see a cinematic live sports presentation in 3D of the national college football championship game, filmed on specially modified Sony HD cameras and presented by Fox Sports. David Hill, head of Fox Sports, has already warned TV makers not to expect 3D on broadcast television unless they agree to subsidise the cost of cameras and other equipment needed by the networks to convert to the format.

In the UK, the satellite broadcaster BSkyB has been trying out 3D cameras and testing the delivery of 3D programming through set-top boxes.

Jeffrey Katzenberg, chief executive of the DreamWorks Animation studio, told analysts recently that 3D on TV currently had to be watched close up in a darkened room to get the same impact as in a cinema. He said: “It’s new hardware. It’s going to take a long time before there’s wide penetration”.

By Chris Nuttall and Kenneth Li, The Financial Times

Dolby, Nvidia Demo Stereo 3-D at CES

Dolby Labs and Nvidia Corp. will demo separate stereo 3-D technologies at the Consumer Electronics Show this week. Dolby will give a first sneak peek of its approach for playing stereo 3-D video on digital TVs and Blu-ray players. The company, which already is shipping products for 3-D video in theaters, will show its 3-D encoding technology for home products. The company's technology uses a checkerboard pixel pattern similar to techniques employed in current 3-D-ready digital TVs from Mitsubishi and Samsung. It works with existing Blu-ray, HDMI and MPEG products and existing video formats. The technology can be used with active or passive 3-D glasses. Dolby has not said when it might release products based on the approach.

Dolby is the latest of many vendors to announce a direction in stereo 3-D for home products. A handful of industry groups are exploring standards in the field, driven by rising interest from Hollywood studios. Separately, Nvidia will roll out at CES its 3D Vision product, a $199 PC add on for viewing computer games in stereo 3-D. The product includes active shutter glasses, an emitter box and drivers supporting as many as 350 game titles. The product requires use of an Nvidia graphics card and a 3-D-ready TV.

By Rick Merritt, EE Times

Taking 3-D to a New Dimension: the TV

For nearly a decade, television makers have been asking consumers to step into high definition. This week, they'll be asking buyers to step into three dimensions. At the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, companies such as Panasonic Corp., Samsung and Texas Instruments Inc. will show off TV technology capable of displaying 3-D-like pictures. The industry is billing it as the next big leap in TV technology.

The idea of bringing 3-D to screens in the home is making a comeback after failed attempts, in the 1950s and then again in the 1970s. Hoping the third time will be the charm, manufacturers are making a concerted push this year to promote 3-D TV as the best way to enjoy live sporting events and action films.

"Unlike earlier attempts, it's not just gimmick to try to sell a bad horror movie," said Doug Darrow, a Texas Instruments executive. "It's a whole different picture now."

Backers of 3-D say there are compelling forces behind the technology, which they say has evolved significantly from the days of the red and cyan glasses. Already, some 1,500 U.S. theaters are capable of showing 3-D images. In recent years, movies such as Bolt and Beowulf were shown in 3-D. Rock band U2 last year recorded a concert film in 3-D with the help of Burbank production company 3ality Digital.

In December, the National Football League dipped its toe in the water by broadcasting a 3-D game between the Oakland Raiders and the San Diego Chargers to select theaters, and the National Basketball Assn. is doing the same with some events during next month's All-Star game weekend. What's more, a slate of nearly two dozen movies that can be shown in 3-D is scheduled for release over the next two years, including Toy Story 3, A Christmas Carol and Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs. Now, those same forces are lining up to find a way to bring 3-D into the living room.

"In many ways you have the perfect storm brewing," said David Wertheimer, executive director of the Entertainment Technology Center at USC. "Content makers, electronics vendors and consumers are aligned in their interest in bringing 3-D from the theater to the home."

To defray the extra expense of creating 3-D movies, which can cost 15% more to make, Hollywood studios are taking a hard look at ways to deliver 3-D to the home.

"The studios are putting a lot of money into producing 3-D movies for digital cinema, and there's an incredible slate of 3-D movies coming" in 2009, said Brad Hunt, former chief technology officer of the Motion Picture Assn. of America and now president of Digital Media Directions, a consulting firm in Westlake Village. "They're now very interested in creating a thriving 3-D home video market to generate payback for their investments in making these movies."

It's too early to tell whether consumers will bite. So far, audiences have taken well to 3-D releases in theaters. Last year, half of the tickets sold for Bolt were for the 3-D version, even though 3-D screens represented just 32% of the total number of screens that played the movie, Wertheimer said.

A joint study by the Consumer Electronics Assn. and the Entertainment Technology Center that's scheduled to be released at this week's trade show found that nearly 15% of the 1,000 adults surveyed saw a 3-D movie at a theater in the last 12 months. And 16% said they were interested in watching 3-D movies and TV shows at home.

"While the numbers may appear small to some, it is important to remember that 3-D is a technology few consumers associate with a home experience," the study said.

One big question: Who will want to don 3-D glasses? The current generation is essentially miniature LCD screens that flicker at high speeds, filtering different images to the left and right eye to produce an image that appears three-dimensional.

"Early pairs looked like welders' goggles," said Dan Schinasi, senior manager of product planning at Samsung's consumer electronics division. "They functioned well but they weren't very stylish. Now, they're pretty lightweight and they look just like sunglasses. Of course, in a perfect world, we wouldn't need glasses, but at this point, we believe glasses produce the best optical experience."

Glasses or not, it will be several years before 3-D TVs become mainstream. That's because the consumer electronics industry, movie studios and broadcasters have yet to agree on standards for recording, transmitting, receiving and interpreting 3-D signals. Many are hoping those technical details can be ironed out this year, Hunt said. Only then can the work of creating discs, players and TV sets to display 3-D video begin in earnest, he said.

That hasn't stopped companies such as Philips, Samsung, Mitsubishi and Panasonic from introducing "3-D-ready" sets. Philips last fall demonstrated a 3-D display that didn't require glasses. Panasonic is expected to make announcements about its 3-D plasma technology at the Consumer Electronics Show.

Some 3-D-capable televisions are already in consumer homes, including a number of Mitsubishi rear-projection models as well as Samsung's rear-projection and plasma TVs. They still need the 3-D programming, conversion software and the glasses to display such images.

"There's in excess of a million TVs in homes today that are capable of showing 3-D, and most people don't even know it," said Darrow, the brand and marketing manager for Texas Instruments' DLP Group in Dallas, which makes high-end chips responsible for displaying 3-D images in the vast majority of rear-projection TVs. Darrow said that figure would easily double by the end of the year as the format gained momentum.

By Alex Pham, Los Angeles Times

'Monsters vs. Aliens' Gets 3D Super Bowl Promo

Some 150 million 3D glasses will be given away for Super Bowl viewers to watch a 90-second 3D sneak preview of the big-screen animated feature Monsters vs. Aliens. While 3D telecasts are nothing new, this marks the first time one has been done for such a large audience.

DreamWorks Animation chief executive Jeffrey Katzenberg called the stunt "perhaps the biggest media-advertising event in history." He wouldn't give a hard figure on the cost, but said it "involves tens of millions of dollars."

Jeffrey Katzenberg and the directors of "Monsters vs. Aliens", Rob Letterman and Conrad Vernon
Katzenberg promised the quality of the 3D will be superior to what has been done in the past. He said the glasses will use Intel InTru 3D and ColorCode 3-D, which updates the old red-blue Anaglyph system. The technology will also allow those without the glasses to see an almost ordinary image on the TV screen. But, Katzenberg added, it still doesn't come close to the 3D quality moviegoers will see in theaters when the film opens stateside March 27.

The glasses will be distributed free at Pepsi/SoBe Life Water displays at 28,000 locations including grocery, drug and electronics stores and big-box retailers. The promotion was unveiled Saturday during NBC's telecast of the AFC Wild Card Playoffs between the Indianapolis Colts and San Diego Chargers. NBC, which will air the Super Bowl on Feb. 1, has its own interest in making sure the glasses are used, as it will air a 3D episode of its series Chuck the following night.


Click to watch the video
Monsters vs Aliens is co-directed by Rob Letterman (Shark Tale) and Conrad Vernon (Shrek 2), who supervised production of the promotion that will air during the Super Bowl. The directors said they will be watching the telecast from home. "With beer," Vernon said, laughing. "We're going to test the effects of beer and 3D," said Letterman.

By Michael Cidoni, The Associated Press

College Championship Game Rides the 3-D Wave

With 3-D sports production beginning to catch on in a big way, Sony is sponsoring a live 3-D broadcast of college football’s championship game Jan 8. FOX Sports will broadcast the game to a special event in Las Vegas as well as to 82 specially equipped digital theaters around the country. The special telecast follows a similar broadcast of an NFL game in early December and a NBA All-Star Game in 2007. (Sony also sponsored the later.)

FOX Sports, whose two separate crews will handle the respective productions, will also broadcast the FedEx Bowl Championship Series (BCS) Championship Game in 720p HD. The required 3-D image processing technology is being provided by 3ality Digital Systems, a company in Burbank, CA, with previous 3-D experience.

Mobile production company Game Creek Video (based in Hudson, NH) will provide two of its fleet of HD trucks on-site at Dolphin Stadium in Miami — Yankee Clipper for the main FOX HD telecast and Freedom for the 3-D production. Both trucks feature Sony cameras, a Grass Valley Kalypso HD switcher and EVS HD servers — the same equipment that is now used for HD sports productions. They’ll work with 3ality Digital and its specially designed dual-camera rigs and separate image processing systems. The 3-D signals coming from eight of the dual Sony HDC-1500 camera rigs — located on the field and in limited locations throughout the stadium — will be converted to traditional 2-D inside the truck, transmitted as 2-D to save bandwidth, then decoded at the receive end for the full 3-D experience.

The point, according to Steve Schklair, CEO of 3ality Digital Systems, is to show that 3-D production can be accomplished with existing production trucks and established transmission methods. “In terms of production techniques, we understand the need to not reinvent the wheel,” Schklair said. “We’re out to show that 3-D does not require that much extra bandwidth to transmit, and that it can be practically produced on the field and at virtually any live venue. This [3-D production of live events] is now in the proof-of-concept stage, but we’re getting better with each telecast we do. We learned a lot of lessons at the first NFL broadcast, and we’ll use that experience for the BCS Championship game.”

The biggest game in college football will be transmitted from Dolphin Stadium to a special viewing party at the Paris Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, using Sony’s SXRD 4K projection technology. The Theatre des Arts inside the Paris Hotel has been outfitted with filtering technology from a company called RealD, which specializes in 3-D projection. The theater was specifically built and customized for the SXRD 4K projection system. Invited guests (wearing polarized glasses) will view the game live in 3-D during the annual Consumer Electronics Show.

The timing is not a coincidence because this year’s CES show will host several new HDTV sets that are capable of displaying 3-D programming, including those from JVC, Samsung and Sony. (Sony will introduce four prototype models that should hit the market in 2010.)

“I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised by the number of compatible technologies on the floor at CES this year,” said Alec Shapiro, senior VP of Sony Electronics’ Broadcast and Production Systems, adding that to date, every 3-D telecast has been captured with Sony HD cameras. “Sony sees opportunity to help the various sports leagues expand their fan base and bring this exciting new technology to the market.”

Shapiro said the event at the Paris Hotel provides a perfect showcase for the company’s 4K technology, which was designed to show 2-D or 3-D content in the highest resolution available — for motion picture releases, live events or other content. The Sony projectors’ 4K resolution is derived from a matrix of more than 4000 horizontal pixels, delivering more than four times the resolution of HDTVs used in home theater systems.

Like the NFL game before it, the college football telecast will use 3ality Digital’s image-capture technology; however, this time it will be transmitted live via Cinedigm’s CineLive satellite distribution network to Las Vegas as well as to the nationwide theaters. In a trial to test the value of such broadcasts, these theaters will charge fans about $20 to view the game. Without a valid business model, the technology will be prohibitive to produce most sports events.

“We’ve got to figure out if we can do this economically and practically, and I think we can,” said Jerry Steinberg, senior VP of field operations and engineering for FOX Sports. “I feel like we’re in the early days of the HD transition, which took almost 10 years to get to where we are today. It’s clear that 3-D has moved from a science project to a working technology that has enormous potential for all sports and entertainment on television.”

It’s the second such event involving Sony and the third public showing in the past year. Other sports networks, such as ESPN, have been quietly testing different workflows that will make the technology practical.

For the broadcast, 3ality Digital will employ Sony HD cameras specially modified for stereoscopic production and transmission of the game. According to the company, the 3ality Digital technology allows a camera operator to shoot in a style similar to traditional 2-D with pan-tilt-zoom control and provides continuously self-correcting software to deliver high-quality stereoscopic imaging.

To date, there are about 1500 3-D capable theaters in the United States (equipped by RealD and Dolby Labs), and 16 3-D theatrical productions will be screened in 2009.

By Michael Grotticelli, BroadcastEngineering

Wireless Shutterglasses Review

Are you asking yourself, “Which shutterglasses are the best value?” or, “Which are the absolute best shutterglasses money can buy?” Well, you are in luck. We’ve put the RealD CrystalEyes, NuVision 60GX, eDimensional and Samsung SSG1000 shutterglasses to the test. The test setup was the reference standard Samsung DLP 3D-Ready HDTV and a big honking PC with a recent nVidia card running Peter Wimmers’s Stereoscopic Player. All of the tested glasses are 100% out-of-the-box compatible with all 3D-Ready TVs from Samsung and Mitsubishi. The test images were shot through the shutterglasses lenses with a fixed exposure point-and-shoot digital camera.

Tested Products:
RealD CrystalEyes (Model 3 reviewed) - Most stereo enthusiasts have worn CrystalEyes at least once. Originally sold by Stereographics, these are the glasses that NASA uses to view stereo images coming back from space. They are time tested and have seen 3 revisions in the 20+ years they have been available. At $600 without emitter, these are the most expensive (by far) glasses that we have come across. Besides the price, we can find little to criticize – they are very good.

RealD CrystalEyes3

NuVision 60GX – These well-made glasses are marketed as a lower-cost alternative to CrystalEyes. They are 100% compatible with the CrystalEyes IR emitter. These shades use a large LCD Pi-cell which is cheaper than the CrystalEyes lens material, but suffers from a long warm-up time. This results in visible specks in your eyes for the first 60 seconds of use. The Pi-cells have an unusual bluish cast when powered off, but this does not impact the transmitted image quality. The 60GX’s retail for $450, sans emitter.


NuVision 60GX

eDimensional ED Wireless – The eDimensional are the smallest and lightest of the glasses tested. The formfactor has been around for years in wired and wireless PC CRT shutterglasses sets. The eDimensional shades are a fraction of the cost ($50 for the glasses) of CrystalEyes or NuVision, and it shows. The plastic frames are flimsy and the battery cover is just plain junk. There are a few more unfortunate annoyances as well. The automatic power-off that kicks in when the glasses loose contact with the emitter is way too fast. Just handing the glasses to someone can result in a power-off. Also, the IR emitter is on the same wavelength as household remote controls. For instance, when the emitter switches on, you cannot use the TV remote control to change the volume (bummer). Finally, the lenses are a bit too small for big-screen viewing. The effect is slight tunnel-vision, making you constantly aware that you are looking through glasses.


eDimensional ED Wireless

Samsung SSG1000 – These are the new kids on the block. Amazingly, they are the lowest cost glasses that we tested ($45 for the glasses). They are the least goofy looking of the four – looking a bit like ski goggles. They are built very solidly and are quite comfortable. Samsung has designed these with the home user in mind and they have, as usual, done a great engineering job.


Samsung SSG1000

Transmission Image Quality:




These test images, shot directly through the lenses of each of the glasses, demonstrate light transmission and color balance. While the results are not widely divergent, the NuVision and Samsung glasses produce the results most true to the original. The eDimensional glasses have the most distorted result.


Conclusions and Specs:



The best overall value are the Samsung SSG1000 glasses, hands down. If money is absolutely no object, you may want to spring for the CrystalEyes for the slightly better comfort and fit over prescription glasses. Otherwise, the Samsung are the way to go. There are some interesting new players on the hozion as well. Nvidia has bandied about a very stylish set of glasses. It's not clear if they will be out-of-the-box compatible with 3D-Ready TVs - or - will be intended for new high-speed, page-flipping LCD displays from Viewsonic and others.

By Raymond Gunn, 3D Roundup

Adding a New Dimension

Despite all the attention being paid to the creation of 3-D films, the immense catalog of existing 2-D movies ready for 3-D conversion provides a massive market ripe for exploitation. Techniques to convert existing 2-D images for 3-D presentation have existed throughout the entire history of 3-D, but few have been effective or even survived. However, today's combination of readily available digital and digitized source material along with relatively cost effective digital post-processing techniques has spawned a new wave of conversion products.

So far, though, the only legacy 2-D film that has been converted and re-released in digital 3-D is Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas, which Disney put out in October of 2006 in 168 theaters, grossing US$8.7 million. Disney reissued the film last October and plans to do so again in 2009.

In June 2006, IMAX and Warner Brothers released Superman Returns, which included 20 minutes of 3-D images converted from the 2-D original digital footage. George Lucas has announced that he may re-release his Star Wars films in 3-D based on a conversion process from In-Three, a 2-D-to-3-D conversion company based in Westlake Village, Calif.

In-Three
Organized in 1999 to pioneer research and development in stereoscopic reconstruction of two-dimensional images, In-Three developed and patented a process called "Dimensionalization" along with a suite of software called "IN3D" -- the "In-Three Depth builder" -- that make it practical to convert 2-D films into high quality, artifact-free 3-D films.

In-Three's innovative breakthroughs caught the attention of producer/director James Cameron's Earthship Productions, which called upon In-Three to Dimensionalize clips that appeared in Cameron's 2005 underwater IMAX 3-D documentary Aliens of the Deep. At the time, Cameron had this to say about the conversion process: "Though I still love 3-D original photography, the technical solution provided by In-Three was a welcome addition to our palette of stereo film-making tools." Speaking at the 3-D Entertainment Summit held in Los Angeles earlier this month, Cameron modified his earlier assessment of the process, remarking to the audience that "I don't get it" in reference to post-production 2-D-to-3-D conversion.

David Seigle, In-Three president and CEO, said that he understood Cameron's attitude: "Jim has had years of experience understanding how to use the complex geometry, optics and mechanics of dual cameras so he can operate within shooting's constraints to get good results. Other directors and producers we talk to haven't had this learning curve and don't want to work within the dual camera constraints. As a result, our approach is a welcome addition to the palette of options they have. That's why our 'Multiple Method Approach' to 3-D content creation is so appreciated."

In-Three will Dimensionalize George A. Romero's Dawn of the Dead to stereoscopic 3-D for a planned theatrical release. The project to convert the 1978 indie horror flick into 3-D is expected to be completed within a year. In-Three Dimensionalized the Star Wars 3-D demo clip that first screened at ShoWest in 2005.

Conversion of legacy material using the process starts at about $50,000 per minute and can reach more than $100,000, depending on the complexity of the imagery in terms of visual effects and other elements.

"We are seeing interest now that people realize there will be sufficient screens to justify the cost," In-Three senior account manager Neil Feldman told TechNewsWorld.

Developing Dimensionalization and IN3D
The painstaking development of In-Three's core technologies unfolded only gradually over time, according to Seigle. The company began as a small, several-person R&D group and worked for several years implementing and testing its ideas and then patenting the proven results. After this period, it took a five-man team a full year to re-architect and re-implement the original code to incorporate all that the company learned into a productive environment.

"Early on we knew generally how to implement Dimensionalization to be able to convert material from 2-D to 3-D," Seigle explained. "However, it took a many months and many sessions working with studio personnel to understand how to produce 'studio quality' 3-D. The results of this interaction have been very gratifying, because we can compete with stereo shooting and be competitive in both quality and cost. Until we worked closely with prospects and customers, we really didn't know all that we had to do in order to get the job done right."

In-Three software, according to Seigle, totals less than 250,000 lines of code. In-Three operates in a Windows environment using C++ and Open GL (Open Graphics Library), a 3-D graphics language developed by Silicon Graphics. C++, an object-oriented version of C that has been widely used to develop enterprise and commercial applications, is one of the most popular programming languages for graphical applications and is widely used or creating large-scale applications. OpenGL is the computer industry's standard application program interface (API) for defining 2-D and 3-D graphic images. Along with Direct3D (Microsoft's DirectX), OpenGL is the major 3-D graphics language in use today and is the popular standard for rendering 3-D images. All high-end 3-D display adapters include OpenGL drivers.

IN3D brings several resources to the creation of live action 3-D content. Fast modeling software allows programmers to efficiently create shaping and depth in a movie clip. It also provides the means of storing all the depth and shape data as metadata (data about data that documents data elements or attributes.)

"This allows us to change a scene's depth in real time and under the direction of a director or stereographer to ensure that depth proportions are correct and to maintain proper depth proportions shot to shot," said Seigle. "We do this without creating any discomforting disparities that you see in most shot material. That is why many people who see our work tell me that after watching it they forgot it was 3-D and just enjoyed the story."

Seigle said that In-Three software is unique in that the company's approach is to deal with each object in a scene from the perspective of what developers want viewers to see if they happen to look at an object.

"Therefore, an audience can savor the experience of 'being there' when shown our work," he said.

In contrast, some programs use a dual-camera paradigm to render left/right eye views, which forces certain constraints. One is that getting the depth correct for one object may involve not getting it correct for another object. CG stereographers using "perfect" dual virtual cameras correct for this by using several virtual dual camera rigs and compositing the scene fragments together afterward.

"And there are other companies that tend to focus on other niches," Seigle said, referencing DDD Group in Santa Monica, Calif., which has a patented "Dynamic Depth Cueing" (DDC) technology that enables conversion of existing film images for display in stereo 3-D.

"DDD, for example, produces software that can be embedded in chips and used to convert some implicit depth cues to depth. This gives a semblance of 3-D and can be effective sometimes on handheld devices," Seigle explained. "I know of no company, however, that has created a factory for taking 2-D in one side and sending 3-D out the other. That's what we do."

By Ned Madden, TechNewsWorld

TDVision to Show World's First 3D/2D Compatible Full HD Stereoscopic Broadcast and Blu-Ray Format

TDVision Systems will be showcasing the TDVCodec encoding and decoding system for High Definition 3D Digital Video streams that supports Blu-Ray and broadcast at up to 1920x1080p resolution per-eye at CES 2009. The theme of the demonstration is “encode once and deploy anywhere.”

“Stereoscopic HD3D is here. TDVision set the bar almost a year ago at CES and then in April 2008, presenting the working implementation of the TDVCodec running on a Blu-Ray disc and a 3D Ready DLP at NAB. Now we have optimized our systems and we are proud to demonstrate that this can be in your home today, working over existing pipelines, running on every existing and future 3D display at the best native resolution, even in 2D HD for backwards compatibility.” said Manuel Gutierrez, President and CEO of TDVision.

“TDVision's patented technology has also been implemented as Intra-view coding in the MVC MPEG-4 H.264 extension recommendation initiative by comparing the difference between left and right channels. This eliminates redundant information and optimizes the bandwidth required for a given infrastructure such as cable, satellite, ATSC 1.0/2.0 and Blu-ray disc. The TDVCodec is the best and only way to deploy HD 3D with no loss in color, quality, frame rate or resolution. All other existing technologies like spatial squeezing or display pre-formatted techniques defeat the purpose of realistic 3D imagery by cutting resolution in more than half and at times showing only 25 percent of the original pixels after formatting and presenting to a 3D Ready Display. TDVision has simply created the first class and preeminent codec that provides full 100% 1080p per eye as close as possible to the original content,” he continued.

Attendees at CES 2009 will experience at the show high quality cinematic content encoded in the TDVision format playing back on a variety of devices including Texas Instruments enabled DLP, provided by Mitsubishi, in conjunction with high quality shutter glasses from XpanD, 3D enabled LCD (passive glasses) from Hyundai, a Planar display and all the way up to a Dual Projector System provided by Scalable Display Technologies running at full 1920x1080p per-eye. TDVision will also be showing the TDVirtualCam gaming technology which accurately emulates the way the eyes and brain perceive 3D information allowing for a very comfortable and engaging gaming experience on the XBOX platform.

Source: Yahoo! Finance

Dimension 3 2009: 3D Comes to the Paris Area!

Dimension3, the international forum on 3D images, will hold its third edition in June 2009 in Pantin. This year, about fifty international experts will be present to share experiences and talk about innovations and new products on the various markets of 3D, with a greater emphasis put on feedback from actual experiences. Manufacturers, publishers and contractors will present the latest innovations in 3D, from filming to post-production and display, within a more comfortable showcasing environment. Visitors will be able to discover, test and enjoy the equipment in optimal conditions.

“The general public will also be catered for, with free screenings at the Dimension 3 Festival, including a preview. People will also have the chance to discover Dimension 3 Immersion, the ideal event to find out about 3D video games, new screen technologies or virtual reality environments...” explained Stéphan Faudeux before concluding: “This 2009 forum aims at being a friendly event where a great variety of talented people, whether technical of creative, come together with a common goal in mind: showing visitors how tomorrow’s images will be born!”

Dimension 3 2008: a few key numbers
- 325 professional visitors (up 62% from the first edition)
- 3,900 viewers at the public screenings (50% up from the first edition)
- 25 companies present on the exhibition hall (audio-visual, cinema, games, display, digital signage)
- Over 50 expert speakers
- 150 attendees per day at the conferences
- 20 participants to the training course (in English and French) on 3D production (AFDAS certified training)

Samsung 3D-Ready Plasma

When Samsung announced a series of 3D-Ready plasma TVs at last year’s CES, our expectations were high, but tempered with a healthy dose of skepticism. After all, it is commonly understood that plasma display technology suffers from less-than-excellent refresh. When the first sketchy reviews emerged for 3D plasmas, we were disappointed, but not surprised, to hear that ghosting was an issue.

Samsung 42A450 Plasma 720P HDTV
When the Samsung plasmas started streeting at incredibly attractive prices, 3DRoundup decided to put one through its paces. Our test setup was a 42” Samsung 42A450 Plasma 720P HDTV ($689 delivered), a big honking PC with a recent nVidia card running Peter Wimmer’s excellent Stereoscopic Player (if you don’t have it, you don’t get it) and Samsung’s own SSG 1000 shutterglasses. The test images were shot through the lenses of the Samsung shutterglasses with a fixed exposure point-and-shoot digital camera.

Our first test compares the ghosting (stereo extinction) between plasma and our reference standard Samsung 3D-Ready DLP:



Note the heavy ghosting areas to the left and right of the black and white squares in the plasma image. These are completely absent in the DLP image.

Our second test uses the extinction test pattern supplied with the TriDef DDD software:



Note the ghost of the “R” in the center of the plasma image and the smaller circled R’s on the right of the image. This is bleeding through from the right-eye image and should not be visible. The DLP image exhibits a very small amount of this as well.

The test images above, by design, are worst-case scenarios for ghosting. They have the maximum possible contrast variation between the left and right eye views. Real-world results are less clear-cut. While the trailer for the 3D animated movie Fly Me to the Moon had considerable ghosting in one scene, the overall impact of the ghosting was very slight. In fact, a stereo novice would likely not notice at all. In the following real-world stereo pairs, the high contrast of the dolphin’s snout has a high potential to ghost:



There are, however, no ghost snouts here.

Ghosting aside, the plasma display delivers very solid picture quality. Brightness, color balance, and color saturation (qualities often diminished the by fast switching and shutterglasses required for 3D) are every bit as good, if not better, than DLP displays. Additionally, the viewing angle of the plasma is wider than that of a rear-projected DLP display. There is, however, a small amount of video noise introduced by the required checkerboarded 3D input signal. The checkerboard interlace format was originally intended for wobulating DLP-based displays and is not native to plasma technology.

Conclusion
Plasma is not DLP. If you have seen a Samsung or Mitsubishi DLP 3D TV, you have seen the current penultimate in home 3D viewing. It’s hard for the pickiest 3Dstereofile to find fault with a 3D-Ready DLP. Plasma, like almost all other 3D display technologies, is a second-class citizen to DLP. The ghosting is noticeable, but, if you’ve lived with green-lagging-phosphor CRT/shutterglasses combos or with an iZ3D display, you can certainly live with plasma ghosting.

On the whole, Samsung has done a great job making plasma work with stereo 3D. They obviously have an engineering group that understands stereo. The quality is darn good and the price is fantastic. For 3D movie viewing or gaming, dollar-for-dollar, plasma is hard to beat. And, it’s wall mountable (unlike DLP), if you care about such things. Let’s hope Samsung preserves 3D compatibility as they evolve the plasma product line.

Score Card
- Ghosting (lack of): 5
- Brightness: 9
- Color: 10
- Viewing Sweet Spot: 10
- Platform Support: 5 (will be 9 when XBOX 360 solution is available)
- Gaming Support: 5
- Value: 8

Editor’s Note: A very interesting bundle combining the 42” Samsung 42A450 Plasma and an XBOX 360 was recently available at Circuit City for $799. It’s not just the price that is interesting, if the persistent rumors of an XBOX 360 3D movie player and download service are true.

By Raymond Gunn, 3D Roundup

Nvidia Picks the Wrong 3D Glasses Technology

Nvidia is banging the 3D drum with their new glasses called GeForce 3D Vision, but they are entirely missing the point. In typical fashion they are going about it not only the wrong way, but trying to counter the direction of the entire consumer electronics industry.

The technology they are using is active shutter glasses, something that went out of style when sane companies realised the costs involved. This is not to say it doesn't work, it does, but they are jacking the costs up for consumers in a way that doesn't make sense, halving the effective frame rate, and inserting a host of other problems as well.

Stepping back a little, there are several types of 3D technology that can be used. Some put the technology in the glasses, others put it in the monitor itself. Some require active components, others do not. Each has ups and downs, and depending on the situation, may or may not make sense for the specific application at hand.

You may be familiar with the old red and blue glasses, one of the first types of consumer 3D. It worked somewhere between badly and really badly, was monochrome, and had a lot of ghosting. The technical term for this is anaglyph, and it is dirt cheap to implement. Since these came out, things have gotten a lot better.

The next most common version is polarised glasses, with each eye being polarised at 45 degrees to each other or circularly in opposite directions. You have probably seen these before at Imax or other 3D cinemas. They work pretty well, but usually require two projectors in a theatre or a few additional layers in a monitor. This adds cost, sometimes a lot, but it is a one time event, and the glasses cost marginally more than anaglyph glasses.

Closely following that is the active glasses technology. These are basically glasses that have LCDs in each eye, and turn black every other frame. They also work pretty well, but you get half the frames in one eye, and half the frames in the other. This can lead to headaches as your eyes try to compensate for the on/off light, low frame rates for gamers and synch problems. Active glasses need a transmitter that is synced to the frame rate, usually through an IR transmitter. If you are out of range, turn your head, or have any obstructions, it may stutter or simply not work. Worse yet, they are battery operated, so you have to replace batteries or charge them, and in general spend time and effort keeping them working. The cost of active glasses is many times that of passive glasses, tens of dollars vs dollars or even cents for polarised or anaglyph. The more glasses you need, the more expense climbs.

Next up, we have screens that are 3D in and of themselves. There are several technologies used to do this and they are usually lumped together, but they all have two traits in common. The first is that they use multiple screen layers like the polarised glasses, adding to cost, but you don't need glasses. The drawback is that they have a very narrow viewing angle, so the sweet spot is generally good for only one person, a handful at best. While they sound nice in theory, implementation troubles have confined it to a shrinking niche.

The last one, Dolby 3D Digital Cinema, is not applicable to PCs because current monitors don't work in a compatible way. This is a shame because it is by far the best of breed, and you will be seeing more of it in the future. The short story is that it slices up light into spectrum bands, and each eye gets half of the colours. There are about 50 bands, so you don't see anything other than a very clear and clean picture. It works amazingly well if you get a chance to see a movie using it, it is well worth the extra few dollars.

With that not-so brief overview in mind, Nvidia chose the active 3D glasses route, quite possibly the worst of the modern lot as far as the consumer is concerned, especially if the end result is gaming. Why? For several reasons, from cost to headaches.

First there is cost. To buy the setup, you need to purchase a transmitter and glasses, and sync it up to the video. This isn't terribly complex, and the drivers will likely be bundled with NV's video card drivers. Positioning the transmitter, basically a simple IR LED isn't that tough either, you put it on the monitor or near it, like a Nintendo Wii bar.

The problem here? Well, the transmitter blinks in sync to the monitor is it attached to, and since it is very simple to keep costs down, it uses a set frequency. They have to make it reasonably powerful, enough for viewing in a normal TV environment, say 10-20 feet, and with a decent broadcast angle so you can get the couch and a chair or two on either side.

Think about that at a Lan party, or with more than one PC in the same room. Twenty-five transmitters blinking on and off within the same broadcast area is not a terribly bright idea, don't you think? If gamers are not the target audience, I am not sure what kind of creature is, and the first Lan party where they try and use this will end up in hilarity. To quote the philosopher B. Bunny, what maroons.

Next up is cost. A decent 22-inch 1680 by 1050 monitor costs about $159 right now, so the panel itself is not that expensive. Adding a second one or a few coatings to the monitor won't add that much cost if volume is there. iZ3D and Zalman have been at the forefront of this technology, with iZ3D selling its 22-inch version for $349 even without huge Samsung-esque volumes. Basically, they can be had now, quite cheaply. Scaling up the size is only a matter of adding a bigger coating layer to an existing panel, not exactly rocket science. They also require no syncing, no transmitter, and are entirely passive. Currently, the only cost is a $200 or so monitor premium and extra glasses have an MSRP starting at $.60 retail.

The shutter glasses on the other hand are fairly cheap, adding an estimated $20-30 per pair to the cost. If you have a family of four, this basically evens out the cost between an inherently 3D PC monitor, and a bunch of shutter glasses plus transmitter. Batteries are probably included, but the next set won't be.

So far it is a wash, unless you step on a pair of glasses, drop them, or have a dog with a taste for LCDs. Each additional set jacks up the cost by an estimated $20-30 for the NV active glasses, $1 or less for the passive polarised ones, going up to $10 for the real fancy versions. Not a good start.

Then there are the monitors that you need for the shutter glasses. Nvidia seems to have once again taken the moronic route and required 120Hz monitors. While this does reduce flicker and headaches a bit, it is almost assuredly done because of frame rates. Remember, shutter glasses effectively halve the effective frame rate so if you have a standard 60Hz monitor, you are stuck with gaming at 30 FPS, aka chunky and barely playable. The other option is to shell out many dollars for a fast panel. Requiring 120Hz panels effectively blows out the cost of shutter glasses systems. Dumb dumb dumb.

Last up is headaches. The shutter glasses blink on and off at half your frame rate, 60Hz or 120Hz depending, and this can lead to shooting pains in the eyes and migraine headaches. Think 60Hz CRT monitor under fluorescent lighting, blink blink blink blink... I know they will say it doesn't happen, but what do you expect them to say, they won't even tell you what GPUs are faulty after six months.

This is a real problem, and after using the glasses for a bit, you will realise why no rational company has deployed the technology over the polarised or Dolby systems. Things have come a long way since I got my first pair of StereoTek glasses on the Atari ST in the early 90s, but the fundamental problems remain. You will get a headache if you use it for long periods, like say raiding in WoW. Once again, what were these people thinking, if they were at all?

So, there has to be an upside to the glasses, right? Sure, they work fairly well for short periods of time, and the price tag isn't all that crushing on the store shelf. As long as you have a 120Hz monitor, you don't need to add much at all. The best part is that Nvidia can sell it, while they don't have a monitor line. This is the real reason they picked the technology, it is the one that makes them the most money. I never said the upsides were to you, the consumer, you lose on this one if you take the Nvidia route.

If you are even marginally following the consumer electronics world, you will know that these Nvidia glasses will debut at CES in just over a week. So will 3D monitors from just about everyone under the sun. I have seen press releases from iZ3D, Samsung, and about a dozen others out there touting their new 3D monitors for CES. Basically everyone in the world that makes monitors is going to make a 3D version, and prices are going to plummet.

All of these are going to be polarised-glasses versions, incompatible with the Nvidia way. Guess which system will have the higher volume? Guess which one will crater prices faster? Guess which one will be compatible with the majority of peripherals? Guess which one will use cheap glasses that you can buy everywhere? Guess which one won't need batteries? Guess which one will have easy clip-ons for existing eyeglasses? Guess which one won't give you blinding headaches? Shall I go on?

The answer to all of the questions is not Nvidia. Nvidia is using a technology that is not only inferior in several key ways, but also is bucking the prevailing consumer electronics trend. When you have almost every panel maker on the planet going one way, and Nvidia the other, one side is going to be left out. Call me crazy, but I am willing to bet that side is not going to be Samsung, Sony, Panasonic, Mitsubishi, Casio and the rest.

Why are they foisting a second-rate technology that halves a game's frame rate on consumers? Because they can make money directly from it. They are once again selling you short to line their pockets. Would you expect anything less?

By Charlie Demerjian, The Inquirer