By Marshal M. Rosenthal
Supposedly, we all have the capacity to remember everything that has ever happened to us, but the reality is that few of us remember much of our childhood. I know I donÕt. As I get older, I remember even less. Still, IÕll never forget the day that the host of NBCÕs The Today Show announced that we were all going to drive flying cars in the future. He held up sketches of a George Jetson-like hovercraft. It was cool.
That our cars are still earthbound is obvious, but the moral of this story is that there's a certain amount of excitement that surrounds a new technology. It grips and holds the imagination like nothing else. Well, the following three devices all represent the direction of "things to come." Unlike flying cars, though, these products aren't flights of fancy. They're real, and they're around the cornerÉ..
3-D That's Easy to See
3D for your home theater? OK, get out the red and green glasses, and let's all watch the Three Stooges toss pies. It's not quite the same as those IMAX and Disneyland presentations, is it? The fact is, you can't watch whatever you want in 3-D; you can only watch content that has been specifically created for it. Out go most movies, TV shows, and-well-just about 90 percent of everything that's ever been made. So, 3-D really isn't such a big deal, right?
Well, Dynamic Digital Depth has developed a 3-D solution that not only works but is something that a home viewer can actually use. How did they do it? The answer comes in two parts: First, DDD developed a polymer screen that's custom-fitted inside the front panel of a display device; second, they created a new proprietary software that turns existing 3-D images into 3-D content.
To see an example on a big screen, I take a trip down to DDD's office in Santa Monica, California. Soon, I'm standing in front of the TriDef 3D TV-a 50-inch plasma display that incorporates the polymer screen and 3-D software and 3-D software-watching a demo reel being projected off of a hard drive. The examples consist of TV shows, movies, commercials, film trailers, and even a Madonna music video. The 3-D images don't shoot off the screen; rather, I see the same kind of natural depth that I would in the real world, with foreground objects appearing to be closer than background ones. As I move around, I can still see clear 3-D images-from Madonna dancing to scenes from the movie Shrek in which the characters definitely pop out from the landscape. Probably the best example is a bird's eye view of Manhattan skyscrapers shown in both 2-D and 3-D on a split screen.
Of course, to really appreciate this 3-D technology, you have to see it for yourself. A version of the software called OpticBOOM uses a computer to run examples streamed online, which requires the use of red-and-green or polarized glasses, but it's not as cool as standing here and looking at it. Plus, I didn't have to wear annoying glasses.
Technology-wise, here's the skinny: LCD and plasma screens are the only kind of displays on which you can create the 3-D filter needs columns of projected, vertically aligned pixels in order to function properly. This excludes CRT and rear-projection displays, as there's too much variation in pixel location over the screen. Also, since a CRT driver is analog, it's not possible to isolate individual pixel locations.
During my viewing session, I discover that the 3-D effect looks best from a sweet spot that depends on the screen's size. While the effect works well on a 15-inch LCD monitor from a distance of about 3 to 6 feet, you should be about 4 to 8 feet away from a 42-inch plasma for the effect to look its best (and the 50-inch plasma caught fire when I stood about 9 feet from it). Compared with previous attempts, DDD's 3-D technology offers a wider viewing angle in which you can see the 3-D effect, and the 10 percent or so of light transmission that the filter eats up doesn't dim the display at all.
Keep in mind that this is a fairly expensive proposition, even though the integration of the filter itself adds only about 20 to 30 percent to the cost of the display. Right now, a $15,000 50-inch plasma would cost around $22,000 with the filter installed, while a 15-inch LCD monitor would cost about $5,000. Prices are always dropping, though, so it's safe to assume that, within 2 years, a 3-D-enabled plasma display will be much more affordable.
Still, all of this technology is useless if there isn't a lot of content available for viewing. What makes DDD's 3-D conversion process highly valuable is that it works with existing content (like TV shows, DVDs, etc.) and existing broadcast technologies (NTSC and ATSC). The proprietary software decides which elements the film or video (each frame has been digitized) should be placed at the forefront and at what distance. It does this by creating depth maps, which are then rendered in eight views representing specific viewing angles; the red, green, and blue pixels carry these views sequentially along the lines of the LCD/plasma screen to generate the 3-D effect. The process is not completely automated, as there is human supervision, and it doesn't take a horrendously long time to do. In general, we're talking weeks, not months. It's even easier with computer-generated images because the depth data is already built in (as was the case with the Shrek trailer that DDD worked on with DreamWorks' permission for demonstration purposes).
DDD holds the patent on the software components that enable 3-D content creation, transmission, and display on a range of 3-D outputs. According to a DDD spokesperson, there are many manufacturers of automatic stereoscopic displays (all of the big names like Sony, Philips, etc., are working on screens that haven't been released yet), and DDD's technology will enable 3-D content on any brand of 3-D screen. So, it shouldn't be long before you can go into Circuit City or the good guys and choose from a range of 3-D-enabled displays. The trick, of course, will be getting that 3-D content out where people can see it in order to create a demand. DDD is helping this process along by placing 3-D displays in malls and other venues where they can create a buzz. All we care about is that it works, looks good, and doesn't cause eye strain. Plus, everyone sitting on your couch watching The Three Stooges won't have to fight over who has the best view of the Moe tossing that pie.
The 3-D software has an easier time converting 2-D computer generated images into 3-D since the depth data is already built-in.
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