Variety reports that ESPN remains enthusiastic about 3D technology, despite its slow adoption (and AT&T’s recent decision to drop ESPN 3D from its U-Verse TV service).
ESPN is pushing its 3D effort by focusing on combining 2D and 3D production (nicknamed “5D”), which the network says brings costs down substantially. 2D/3D production includes slower cutting and more use of robotic cameras. As the production crews gain more experience in shooting sports beyond HD, the equipment, camera placement and general approach continues to improve.
“Some innovations created for 3D have even made it over to the 2D side,” reports Variety. “For example, 3D cameras need to be closer to the action than 2D cameras, so the high 50-yard-line shots that are a staple of football coverage are problematic. To get closer, ESPN put a 3D camera on a 22-foot mast on a small vehicle that goes up and down the sideline.”
ESPN stands by the technology, explaining that Twitter feedback has been overwhelmingly positive. And some play-by-play announcers have even indicated they don’t want to go back to watching 2D.
Researchers from Microsoft’s Beijing lab have developed a technique to automatically model human faces in 3D with a new level of accuracy.
According to the research, the new approach can acquire “high-fidelity 3D facial performances with realistic dynamic wrinkles and finescale facial details.”
The technique combines 3D scanning technology with a motion-capture system, in addition to what Geekwire describes as “a technique they developed to determine the minimal number of face scans needed to create an accurate model, which makes the system faster and more efficient.”
The research paper will be presented this week at the SIGGRAPH Conference in Vancouver.
ETCentric staffer Phil Lelyveld comments: “This more-accurate facial modeling, tied to game engine character behavior generation, will make for some very interesting experiences. There was a recent story on an emotional (versus Q&A response) Turing test. Would you hurt a visually realistic avatar?”
Panasonic, Samsung and Sony are throwing their support behind XPAND’s 3D glasses in an effort to create some market standardization.
XPAND’s active shutter glasses would also become the standard for computers and home projectors.
Development of the glasses under this new initiative will not begin until September so we may not see them on the market until next year, but Gizmodo suggests they will be backwards-compatible with all 2011 Sony, Samsung and Panasonic active shutter 3D TVs.
From the press release: “To-date, active 3D technology has proven to be the most popular choice for consumers in the 3D TV market. According to the NPD Group, Active 3D technology took an average of 96 percent share of the U.S. 3D TV market in the first half of this year; and this Full HD 3D Glasses Initiative will help further drive consumer adoption and understanding of active 3D — the technology that provides the clearest and most immersive 3D experience available.”
LG has announced a new 3D television that the Korean manufacturer says includes “flicker-free” technology designed to eliminate the headaches and dizziness sometimes associated with 3D sets.
The LW980S features a NANO Full LED backlit screen, a “magic motion” remote, TruMotion 400Hz refresh rate and conversion technology that makes 2D programs appear to be in 3D.
The LG sets will work with passive glasses that never need charging.
Pricing and availability of the 3D TVs, expected in 47- and 55-inch models, have yet to be announced.
CNET offers a largely positive hands-on review of Toshiba’s new glasses-free 3D laptop, the Qosmio F755.
A prototype of the 3D laptop was awarded CNET’s “Best of CES” award in January and Toshiba wasted little time bringing the concept to market (the post includes a video review of the prototype from CES 2011).
The $1,699 Qosmio F755 will be available in the U.S. starting August 16.
Toshiba’s new laptop “has a 15-inch 1080p display that uses special eye-tracking software to track the viewer’s head movement and adjust the stereoscopic image accordingly, via the built-in Webcam.”
Features include an Intel Core i7-2630QM CPU, 6GB of RAM, an NVIDIA GeForce GT540M, a 750GB hard drive and a Blu-ray-RW drive.
According to CNET: “Blu-ray content in 3D looked excellent, but took a resolution hit. Like a 3D TV, it requires a few moments to orient your eyes, especially if you’re not used to watching 3D content. But the eye-tracking allowed for a reasonable amount of freedom of movement, and the 3D effect worked from an off-axis side view.”
Comcast announced it will air special programming for its In Demand Xfinity 3D subscribers that features the final landing of NASA’s space shuttle Atlantis.
The 45-minute special, that also follows astronaut training in Houston and features 3D footage from space, is scheduled to air this Friday (August 5).
The footage was captured by Vertical Ascent Productions with a Panasonic 3D A-1 camera. The July 8 launch was recorded with unprecedented access, from just 500 feet away, and a Panasonic 3D A-1 was also on board the shuttle to capture the space footage.
The 3D special is part of In Demand’s “In Deep” series. Other In Demand affiliates will have access to the special.
Panasonic has announced its first full HD home theater projector that also handles 3D content.
The PT-AE7000U features a dual core image processor and 3D IR transmitter to sync up 3D shutter glasses (sold separately).
Digital Trends reports: “The PT-AE7000U is also the world’s first 3D projector with 480Hz transparent LCD panels, and the unit sports a new optical engine that offers contrast ratios of up to 300,000:1, along with 2D-to-3D conversion modes that processes 2D content with 3D stylish, with five different 3D effects modes.”
“The PT-AE7000U’s key 3D projection technologies were developed in collaboration with Panasonic Hollywood Laboratory engineers who are heavily engaged in the authoring and mastering of 3D Blu-ray discs,” explained Panasonic’s Art Rankin in a statement. “Through this joint effort, the PT-AE7000U has been redesigned from the ground up to achieve higher basic 2D performance and is packed with unique 3D features to deliver studio-grade 3D content to the consumer.”
The projector is expected to hit shelves by September, although the average consumer may not be ready for the $3,499 price tag.
Engineers in the UK have designed, built and flown a model aircraft, the entire structure of which has been printed (including its two-meter wings, control surfaces and access hatches).
The Southampton University Laser Sintered Aircraft unmanned air vehicle (UAV) was printed layer by layer on an EOS EOSINT P730 nylon laser sintering machine.
The electric vehicle, the first of its kind to be completely printed, is capable of a top speed of nearly 100 miles per hour.
“The flexibility of the laser sintering process allows the design team to re-visit historical techniques and ideas that would have been prohibitively expensive using conventional manufacturing,” says University of Southampton professor Jim Scanlon. “This type of structure was initially developed by Barnes Wallis and famously used on the Vickers Wellington bomber which first flew in 1936. This form of structure is very stiff and lightweight, but very complex. If it was manufactured conventionally it would require a large number of individually tailored parts that would have to be bonded or fastened at great expense.”
“This is a great example of what 3D printers are making possible,” comments ETCentric staffer George Gerba.
We’ve seen another wave of press reports the last few days suggesting 3D viewing causes discomfort and fatigue.
For those interested in a detailed study regarding the prolonged viewing of stereo imagery, ETCentric staffer David Wertheimer forwarded this fascinating report published in the Journal of Vision (“The zone of comfort: Predicting visual discomfort with stereo displays”).
The study offers findings on three recent experiments and the relevance of these findings for the viewing of mobile devices, desktop displays, television, and cinema.
David’s comments: “A link to Marty Banks’ story on 3D and vergence-accomodation conflict, which has people buzzing (with the wrong conclusions) on the Web. I wish more people read the studies through before causing hysteria!”
Smartphone screens may continue to get larger. Hitachi announced it has developed a high resolution 4.5-inch, 720p display that the company hopes will be used for portable TVs, phones or handheld game devices.
The 1280×710 resolution may enable 720p HD movies to be viewed in native resolution on phones — and the backlit LCD would be an IPS-based display, allowing for a wide viewing angle like that on the iPhone.
Additionally, this new 3D-capable display uses a lenticular lens (rather than a barrier approach) that would enable glasses-free 3D.
ETCentric contributor Phil Lelyveld points out: “3D is driving the display industry towards higher and higher resolution phone screens, since 3D effectively halves the resolution. Resolution has become a marketing point in this highly competitive market.”
Japan-based SoftEther has developed a 3D motion-capture figure dubbed Quma, designed to create 3D computer graphics and animations.
Quma is essentially a doll with sensors on each of its joints that allows a 3D artist to articulate the motion of characters and capture the positioning in a more intuitive manner (hold up an arm, for example, and the 3D figure on your computer screen will mimic the action in real-time).
The figure simply plugs into a USB port (no drivers or external power required).
3D CG applications for Quma may include video games, robot applications, training and education simulations.
A release date and pricing has not yet been announced. The TechCrunch post features a video demo of the figure in action.
The Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) predicts that the consumer electronics industry will grow 5.6 percent this year and will surpass $190 billion. This prediction is higher than the estimate that CEA offered in January.
Significantly, tablet computers are projected to grow 157 percent in 2011, with more than 26.5 million units being shipped ($14 billion in shipment revenue).
“Newer, innovative product categories, like tablets, not only meet consumer demand but also help bolster our industry and strengthen the overall American economy,” says CEA chief exec Gary Shapiro.
“One year ago, tablets were a new and unproven market, and now they, along with other mobile connected devices including smartphones and eReaders, are leading the entire industry to positive growth,” adds Steve Koenig, CEA’s director of industry analysis. “The revenue boost from these innovative products is undeniable as a number of other CE segments are reaching maturity and sales are naturally declining.”
The trade association also expects the market to reach a record $197 billion in 2012, led by sales of smartphones, tablets and 3D TVs.
Sony’s Mick Hocking talks about what they’ve learned about 3D in the last year at Sony Computer Entertainment. Hocking has been responsible for spearheading the 3D games enterprise.
The main lesson involves the need to educate developers in how to produce quality 3D. “We’ve actually now got a guide with 10 points for producing technically correct 3D, it’s our 3D 10 Commandments if you like, and we also have lots of resources now to help developers creatively with 3D as well.”
Last year 3D had a “wow factor.” This year there are many 3D capable devices becoming available.
Sony has 50 million 3D-enabled PlayStation 3 units and over 50 3D games in the market. In addition, there are 3D Blu-ray, 3D MP4s and 3D Camcorders and 3D HDTVs. Sony may look to build 3D on a handheld. Virtual reality may come back with Sony’s head-mounted, twin-OLED 3D display.
Despite what critics are describing as waning interest from consumers, Hocking emphasized that 3D remains a long term strategy for Sony.
Dreamworks CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg discussed the current status of 3D entertainment at Fortune’s Brainstorm Tech Conference in Aspen, Colorado on Tuesday.
Katzenberg placed blame on the entertainment industry and lack of content quality for slow consumer adoption of 3D.
He explained that Hollywood executives have been short-sighted in their attempts to capitalize too aggressively on the technology without emphasizing quality. Katzenberg described the execs as driven by “that singular and unique characteristic that only exists in Hollywood, greed.”
“With time we’ll get back to success here but it’ll only come by embracing [3D] as a storytelling tool and using it to enhance the film experience,” he added.
Katzenberg’s full transcript is available from the Fortune post.
LG Electronics, a long-time supporter of the 3D TV market, enters a new product category with the introduction of its 20-inch 3D computer monitor that doesn’t require the use of 3D glasses.
A sensor on the D2000 detects the position of the user to shift the 3D imagery while the user is looking at games, movies or photos.
The company also points out that its eye-tracking technology works in tandem with LG’s 2D-to-3D conversion technologies to enhance 2D movies, games and other content.
“LG’s position has always been that 3D will and must eventually function without glasses. The D2000 is a look at what the future has in store.”
Expect the display to become available later this year.
