Liberty Global unveiled a new video delivery platform at IBC in Amsterdam that the company claims will reinvent television by combining the interactivity of the Web with cable and personalized content.
The multimedia gateway will create a wireless network that connects the TV to personal devices such as computers, tablets and smartphones, reports Communications Technology.
The technology, dubbed Horizon, centers on a PC as “the heart of the digital home,” includes a 3D user interface, and is presently undergoing field trials in the Netherlands. Liberty Global suggests it will be commercially available next year.
Sixty content providers — including YouTube, Facebook and Twitter — have already signed up to develop applications for the platform.
The platform has a number of tech partners including Samsung, which built the multimedia home gateway, powered by the Intel Atom CE Media Processor.
NAGRA Media Access will provide the conditional access solution that will support MoCA and Wi-Fi, and participate in the Digital Living Network Alliance (DLNA) ecosystem.
Community partnering initiative School Safety Summit, established by Colorado State Senator Steve King, has announced that a new 360-degree 3D motion picture camera rig developed at MIT under two NASA contracts is being tested by Colorado education leaders and community partners.
The panoramic rig is also available for Hollywood experimentation. According to the press release: “The Summit’s 3D Task Force invites filmmakers and 3D TV producers worldwide to join the experiment and develop scriptwriting and directing approaches that take full advantage of the 360-degree stereo 3D experience made possible by the new system.”
The press release adds: “Participating industry leaders will have a first look to evaluate applications in theatrical and home entertainment, special events, education, and enterprises that would benefit from omnidirectional robotic vision and depth perception as well as an unprecedented level of image and sound processing.”
The stereoscopic system synchronizes multiple cameras to create a “high resolution, wide field of view image database from which images can be combined in real time.” Image blending technology collects data wirelessly and generates an “extended panoramic view in which the combined images form a full circle, or movie cyclorama. Images can also be combined so that the cycloramic view extends upwardly or downwardly to create a continuous, unobstructed, omnidirectional image that extends a full 4 pi steradians.”
The inventors cite applications ranging from the control of robots on planetary surfaces to the control of firefighting drones to event filming and dramas that place the audience at the center of the story.
For those who may be interested, sign up at www.3DTaskForce.org for an orientation kit and schedule.
Market research firm Pacific Media Associates estimates that approximately 185,000 3D-ready projectors will be sold to U.S. schools (grades K-12) this year, which would be more than double the number sold last year.
“Schools are trying to keep up with the multiplex, keen to find ways to engage students in an age of 3D movies and gadgets that make traditional classroom materials look dated,” reports The Wall Street Journal. “And the technology and equipment makers are eager to create a new market for their 3D products.”
Teachers who are 3D proponents find that introducing 3D experiences in the classroom are beneficial in explaining a wide range of topics from understanding what cartilage in a skeletal system looks like to how math works in real life. “You don’t want to turn away because you don’t want to miss anything,” said one middle school student of the approach.
It should came as no surprise that younger generations are drawn to 3D, the iPad and mobile devices, but despite new technologies interactive teaching techniques remain the key. This makes 3D technology different in the classroom than it is in the multiplex. “Anyone can watch 3D, but you need to interact with it to really learn,” says James Mayrose, associate professor at Buffalo State College and chief executive of Tactus Technologies Inc., a company that offers a 3D dissectible-frog program.
Early studies indicate 3D projection dramatically increases test scores, and it is interesting to note that, unlike TVs, many 3D-ready projectors typically cost the same as regular projectors ($600-800).
According to WSJ, some schools are evaluating budgets while some are “waiting for more 3D materials that are in compliance with testing and graduation standards.” The article also points out that “few if any of the leading academic publishers, including Pearson PLC and McGraw-Hill Cos., have created their own stereoscopic course material, but Texas Instruments’ DLP says it is currently in discussions with various publishers.”
ETCentric staffer Phil Lelyveld suggests this is a potentially huge market for monetization and marketing opportunities.
ESPN has announced an eight-year extension of “Monday Night Football” that includes 3D broadcast rights, expanded NFL studio programming, highlight rights for TV and ESPN.com, continued Spanish language rights, the Pro Bowl, the NFL Draft, and rights to simulcast network coverage on tablet devices through the WatchESPN app.
The deal, which runs from 2014 to 2021, “should help quell ideas that ESPN 3D might be axed after its removal from U-verse,” suggests Engadget.
According to the press release: “The extensive package of NFL rights will fuel the continued growth of ESPN year-round, boosting its core television business while at the same time supporting the company’s ‘best available screen’ strategy with NFL programs on TV, online and on mobile devices via authentication and digital rights.”
The agreement will also lead to “Monday Night Football” celebrating its 50th anniversary season on ESPN in 2020.
Dr. Raymond Soneira of DisplayMate Technologies has concluded that current Passive 3D HDTVs provide a better viewing experience than Active Shutter technology, despite the lower retail price and seemingly less-advanced technology.
Dr. Soneira conducted extensive testing between four high-end 3D LCD HDTVs, two with Active Shutter glasses and two with Film Pattern Retarder (FPR) Passive glasses. (The findings are detailed in the Gizmodo post.)
According to Soneira, both technologies have their perceived strengths and weaknesses: “For Active Shutter Glasses the main issues are excessive flicker, image crosstalk and ghosting, insufficient brightness, problems with viewing comfort and cost of the glasses. For Passive Glasses the main issues are questioned resolution and sharpness, restricted viewing distances, angles and positions.”
However, following the shoot-out, Soneira concluded that “Passive Glasses TVs delivered substantially and demonstrably better all around 3D imaging, 3D contrast and sense of 3D depth, better 3D sharpness, better overall 3D picture quality, immersion and realism, and freedom from 3D ghosting, image crosstalk, and flicker.”
The debate over Passive vs. Active Shutter 3D technology has been ramping up since the introduction of Passive 3D, which has led to division within the industry and confusion amongst consumers. Currently, Samsung and Sony manufacture Active Shutter 3D TVs, while LG and Vizio make Passive 3D sets.
IBM and 3M have announced they will partner to build 100 layer silicon towers that promise a “computer chip 1,000 times faster than today’s fastest microprocessor enabling more powerful smartphones, tablets, computers and gaming devices.”
“That’s a heady claim for a tech that doesn’t yet exist, but is already taking swings at current faux 3D transistors,” comments Engadget.
Under the agreement, IBM will provide its experience in packaging the new processors, while 3M will develop an adhesive that can be applied in batches and allow for heat transfer without damaging logic circuitry.
If successful, the companies would create commercial microprocessors composed of layers of up to 100 chips. According to the press release: “Such stacking would allow for dramatically higher levels of integration for information technology and consumer electronics applications. Processors could be tightly packed with memory and networking, for example, into a ‘brick’ of silicon… The companies’ work can potentially leapfrog today’s current attempts at stacking chips vertically – known as 3D packaging.”
Toshiba announced its new flagship 3D TV, the ZL2 series, which offers glasses-free 3D, 4096 x 2160 resolution, upscaling of low-res to high-res 3D, and facial recognition used to customize viewing angles.
The TV uses lenticular “lenslets” that can be modified for up to nine different viewing angles.
Check out the article for the author’s impression after watching 3D on the ZL2. Introduction: “I got a chance to watch the TV’s 3D mode in action, and it’s pretty great. It’s not magical, however. Instead of the typical dimming of shutter-based 3D TVs, it feels like you can see the black lines dividing the pixels. It’s not that the picture is actually low resolution, however, there’s still plenty of detail on screen, it just happens to ‘show the seams’ more than I’d like. It’s very pleasant to watch, and I didn’t get a 3DS headache or any nausea.”
The ZL2 is not for everyone: current pricing of the 55-inch model is equivalent to $11,424 U.S. dollars.
Sony announced it will launch a head mounted display dubbed the “Personal 3D Viewer” HMZ-T1 in Japan this November (some of you may have seen the prototype at CES 2011).
The wearable display is designed for viewing both 2D and 3D on a “movie theater-like virtual screen,” equivalent to a 750-inch display, according to Sony.
The device uses twin 0.7-inch OLED panels with 1280×720 resolution and 5.1 surround sound. It is expected to sell in Japan for around $700 (possibly higher when it makes its way to the U.S.).
ETCentric staffer Phil Lelyveld comments: “Online chatter discusses this as an alternative to 3DTVs versus the social aspect of viewing. The health warning at the bottom of the press release is rather strange, given the target market.”
Health warning from the Sony press release: “Considering the protection of the growth and development, we ask children (age 15 and younger) to refrain from using this product.”
Sony Ericsson is adding Google Talk and video features this fall to its Xperia smartphone line.
The features will be available courtesy of an upgrade to the Android 2.3.4 Gingerbread platform.
The phone maker is also adding 3D camera features and increased social networking capabilities such as making Facebook access easier and quicker.
According to eWeek, key features include: “The ability to let users turn their Xperia smartphone into a mini PC by connecting mouse, keyboard or game controllers via USB to the Sony Ericsson LiveDock multimedia station, or to a TV via HDMI; Swipe text input (a competing technology to Swype on Android handsets); and screen capture from anywhere in the phone, a valuable tool for Web publishers.”
Expect the Xperia line to be available by October, possibly before the iPhone 5 fall launch.
MasterImage 3D is developing a 3D screen for smartphones and tablets that doesn’t require special glasses.
The screen uses what the company calls “cell matrix parallax barrier” technology, which it claims is more sophisticated than the autostereoscopic technology currently available.
GamesBeat lead writer Dean Takahashi points out that the viewing experience is vastly improved as compared to disappointments such as the Nintendo 3DS: “But the glasses-free experience MasterImage 3D has developed is something altogether different. From what I’ve seen so far, it’s going to offer an outstanding 3D experience on smartphones and tablets.”
Roy Taylor, executive vice president and general manager for MasterImage 3D, demonstrated a working prototype for Takahashi, who was very impressed: “The quality blew me away. On a 4.3-inch WVGA screen, Taylor showed a 3D movie running in stereoscopic 3D. I didn’t need to wear glasses to see the sharp 3D imagery. When I moved my head, it didn’t get blurry. And if I moved my head too far to the side, it gracefully transitioned to a two-dimensional image.”
Japanese R&D firm KDDI Labs announced it has developed 3D audio technology that enables people to change their listening position in a 3D space.
“Multiple microphones are used to record the audio and a unique method of audio signal processing, called virtual sound source reproduction, is used to map out the sound in a virtual 3D space in real time,” explains Akihabara News. “This can generate an unlimited number of listening positions, even in locations where there are no microphones. This technology also lets you change where sounds come from or remove them from the 3D space altogether.”
KDDI Labs says it has made the large database required to synthesize 3D audio much smaller (down to a few hundred kilobytes in size) so that the technology can be used for mobile devices such as smartphones.
According to KDDI Labs: “For example, suppose you’re watching a band on screen, and you want to get close to the guitar. As you get nearer to the guitar, the sound of the guitar gets much louder. The effect we’ve achieved now is that, if you move, for example, left from that position past the vocalist, the sound moves left. Another thing you can do with this technology is to change the position of instruments. So you can make the vocalist sound further away, and the guitar closer. Specifically, in music promotion videos, we’d like to enable users to get close to their favorite instrument, or eliminate just the vocals, and to do these things on a smartphone or cellphone.”
KDDI is developing an application that runs on a Web browser with hopes of commercializing the technology. The report includes a video demo.
Hollywood continues its frustration with the Chinese government’s limits on how many imported movies can play in its theaters in addition to how box office receipts are shared. Now, prominent American film producers are seeking change through ambitious deals that provide alternative routes into China’s market.
Success with the Chinese may prove crucial. With traditional distribution models such as DVD sales presently slumping, China could become a much-needed revenue source.
“It’s not about détente, it’s about making money,” suggests the Los Angeles Times. “The partnerships give the American firms better access to the country’s growing movie market.”
According to the LA Times report: “China’s box-office receipts surged 64 percent last year to a record $1.5 billion, and they will likely bring in about $2 billion in ticket sales this year. By the end of the decade, industry experts predict China will grow from the world’s No. 5 movie market to No. 1.”
Although lobbyists and the World Trade Organization have been unsuccessful in getting the Chinese to relax import restrictions, smaller American film companies such as Legendary and Relativity are partnering with Chinese-based companies in co-production and exhibition deals. Through the partnerships, companies are not subject to restrictions and find they can dramatically improve upon percentage of box office receipts.
Major Hollywood studios have not formed long-term partnerships to co-produce with Chinese firms, but have discovered other alternatives, such as making Mandarin-language productions in China and pushing digital product, including 3D: “To boost the rollout of high-tech projectors in the country’s theaters, China in 2007 began allowing several pictures per year into the country on a revenue-share basis if they played only in digital theaters.”
The ultimate goal is to eliminate the restrictions, but for the time being Hollywood is finding ways to work around them.
LG announced its A530 3D notebook with 15.6-inch stereoscopic display and built-in 3D webcam this week.
The A530 features native YouTube support and 3D Space Software, a built-in editing suite for 3D content.
The notebook’s options include Intel Core i3, i5 and i7 processors with up to 8GB of RAM and a choice of two graphics cards: an Nvidia GeForce GT 555m with either 1 or 2GB of built-in memory.
“The screen also has what the company calls Film Patterned Retarder technology, which it claims produces brighter and flicker-free images compared to screens that use shutter-style glasses,” reports Digital Trends.
No price announcement yet, but the device is expected to ship to Europe later this month.
LG Electronics launched the next leg of its Cinema 3D “Take The 3D TV Challenge” campaign last week at New York’s Grand Central Station.
New York City marked the first stop on a new tour (that will also include Chicago and Los Angeles) designed to educate consumers regarding the benefits of 3D LCD TVs and passive glasses.
The campaign began earlier this year in Houston “where consumers allegedly overwhelmingly selected LG’s passive 3D glasses-based TVs when matched against similarly sized active-shutter 3D TVs from Samsung and Sony,” reports TWICE.
“I think the most important thing we’re doing here is keeping the visibility up on 3D and step-up products in our industry,” said Jay Vandenbree, LG Electronics home entertainment sales and marketing senior VP. “Everything we’ve done has been to get consumers to talk about it, think about it, and to go find out about it. If we can get them to do that and see what their options are in the television business, they might make that choice to spend their discretionary income in our industry.”
What’s next for mobile devices now that capacitive touchscreens have become the standard?
According to Synaptics technology strategist Andrew Hsu (and inventor of modern touchscreen technology for mobile handsets), the answer could be haptic technologies that allow us to feel individual touchscreen elements.
“Where I see the next frontier of user interface control is that we now want to try and recreate the tactility we lost from traditional hardware interfaces,” says Hsu. “Now that we’ve gotten dynamic touch and visual interfaces, it’s time to look towards dynamic touch feedback.”
Hsu hasn’t make any final judgements on 3D technology yet, although VentureBeat sees it as less significant than haptics at this point: “There’s plenty of potential in mobile gaming (imagine actually feeling buttons and joysticks again), and it would also make modern touchscreen phones more accessible for the disabled and elderly. I’d much rather the mobile industry move towards screens that can dynamically generate braille text for the blind to touch, rather than focusing on making us cross-eyed with tiny 3D screens.”