| Dolby
Digital and Infitec to develop a third 3-D Digital Motion
Picture System
 Dolby
has announced that they will be developing a digital 3-D system
for movie theaters.
Dolby has signed a deal with German company Infitec, a maker
of virtual reality systems, to develop a digital 3-D motion
picture system it hopes to debut in theaters by next spring.
Dolby claims that it's system will stand out above the other
two technologies available today as it will not require either
a silver screen (Real D) or battery-powered glasses (In-Three).
Recently Monster House 3-D out-grossed it's standard
film release. Indications are that the Hollywood studios believe
that digital 3-D may be the future of cinema.
Dolby says its Infitec-based system would be cheaper and
more flexible than that of the leading 3-D cinema company,
Real D, because it allows a 3-D image to be projected directly
onto standard white screens.
Tim Partridge, senior vice president and general manager
of Dolby's professional division, said the company got serious
about designing its own 3-D system during the debut of Chicken
Little.
Dolby worked with Disney and Real D to convert 100 cinemas
worldwide to digital 3-D systems for the film's run last fall.
"During that roll out we were able to see what an impact
3-D had on the experience," Partridge said. "We
learned about the drawbacks. We stood back and tried to figure
out what it would take to have an optimized 3-D system."
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Sensio and Universal
to release classic 3-D titles on DVD
 Sensio
Technologies Inc. will be releasing several Universal Home
Entertainment movies, including Creature from the Black
Lagoon, Jaws 3-D, It Came from Outer Space, Taza Son of Cochise
and Revenge of the Creature, on DVD, and in
its full-color, full-resolution 3-D format.
Sensio’s 3-D technology is found in the S3D-100 processor,
which has been designed for easy integration in any audio/video
equipment, like A/V receivers, HDTVs, satellite receivers,
and DVD players. It allows the high-quality distribution of
3-D content through conventional 2-D channels, and playback
on any display device, such as plasma TVs, HDTV and glass-free
3-D displays.
“Because of its universal video output, anyone in the
future who will own A/V equipment with Sensio’s 3-D technology
inside will be able to watch 3-D content on any type of display,
in 3-D or 2-D,” explained Nicholas Routhier, President
and CEO of Sensio. “Our goal is to become the world
standard in 3-D, such as Dolby and DTS have become for sound.
As such, the Sensio 3-D technology has generated great interest
from major consumer electronic manufacturers.”
Sensio has also garnered recognition in the film industry,
by working on such 3-D projects as the 2005 release of The
Adventures of Shark Boy & Lava Girl by acclaimed
producer Robert Rodriguez, and a special 3-D episode of the
NBC-TV series Medium.
“Sensio is being recognized by the entertainment industry
as the most advanced 3-D company, with techniques and technologies
that create the most immersive 3-D experience there is,”
Routhier added. “We have also received great reviews
from producers such as Steve Oedekerk (Bruce Almighty,
Santa vs the Snowman) and major studios including DreamWorks,
who use our 3-D technologies as well.”
"Sensio is obviously thrilled to be able to provide viewers
with 3-D movies from a major Hollywood studio,” said
Richard LaBerge, Executive Vice President and CMO of Sensio.
“Thanks to Sensio’s superior technology, these
movies will now be viewed in full colour and full DVD resolution
in home theatres. We’re convinced that the library of
3-D movies in Sensio 3-D will continue to grow”.
Founded in 1999, Sensio has built the world’s largest
library of 3-D movies for the home market.
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Komamura
Horseman 3-D Stereo Camera is now available
 The
Horseman 3-D stereo camera is now available according to Komamura's
Web site.
The unique appeal of this camera is not only
because of its 3-D pictures, but because of its unique integration.
It is one camera with two lenses mounted in a single shutter,
not two lenses with two shutters.
The camera has an electronically-controlled
focal plain shutter with speeds ranging from eight seconds
to 1/1000th of a second and takes stereo pairs 24 x 32 mm
in size on regular 135 film. The lenses are 38 mm f/2.8 with
the closest focus at 0.7 meters.
The strereo base is 34 mm, which is suitable for close-up
photographs.
 DX-coded
films can be used. but the film speeds can also be set manually
from ISO 25 to ISO 3200 in 1/3 steps. The film is transported
by a motor-drive and there are three shooting modes: S (single),
C (continuous) and M (Multiple Exposure). The latter does
automatic bracketing.
At 166 x 86 x 66 mm, the Horseman 3-D camera is fairly compact,
but not a lightweight camera at approximately 900 grams. The
price tag is rumored to be around $5,000.
Horseman 3-D Stereo Camera Specifications
Type 35mm Rangefinder Focal Plane Shutter Stereo Camera
Film 135 (35mm film)
Format 24x32mm (European Size)
Lens 38mm F2.8 3-Groups / 4-Lenses x2
Filter Size f 62mm
Closest Focusing Distance 0.7m
Stereo Base 34mm
View Finder Bright Frame, Automatic Parallax Compensation.
Ratio=0.45
Finder Information Shutter Speed / Exposure Indication / Exposure
Correction
Rangefinder Split-image and coincident-image rangefinder
Shutter Electronically controlled Focal Plane Shutter / Shutter
Speed: B, 8s - 1/1000s
Exposure Control Through-the-lens (TTL) exposure metering
/ Range: EV4 (F4) - EV19 (F22) (ISO100)
Mode Aperture priority AE / Manual
Exposure Correction ±2EV, 1/2 step
Auto Bracketing 0.5EV / 1.0EV
Film Sensitivity DX Auto Setting / Manual Setting ISO25 -
3200 1/3 step
Film Winding Automatic Winding/Rewinding Mode= S(Single) /
C(Continuous)/M(Multi)
Flash Sync. Hot Shoe / Sync Socket
Self-timer 10s/2s
LCD Film Sensitivity / Shutter Speed / Auto Bracketing / Bettery
Warning / Self-timer / Exposure Correction / Backlit
Battery CR2 x2
Dimentions 166 x 82 x 66 mm
Weight 900g
Stereo Sets
36EXP : 20Sets
24EXP : 13Sets
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Fisher-Price's
View-Master® Virtual Viewer Earns Gold Idea Award
 Out
of more than 1,000 entries, the 2000 Industrial Design Excellence
Awards (IDEA) jury honored Fisher-Price's View-Master®
Virtual Viewer with a Gold IDEA Award, one of only 40 awarded
during that year. Two additional Fisher-Price products, the
Rock, Roll ‘n Ride Trike and Sparkling Symphony Gym,
received Bronze IDEA Award honors, making Fisher-Price one
of only six corporate winners to receive three or more awards.
Presented by the Industrial Designers Society of America
(IDSA) and sponsored by Business Week, IDEA award-winners
were selected based on five criteria of industrial design
excellence: design innovation, benefit to the user, benefit
to the client/business, ecological responsibility and appropriate
aesthetics and appeal. Entries were submitted in 47 subcategories,
ranging from cars and computers to museum exhibits and furniture.
“Fisher-Price met the challenge of reinventing a 60-year-old
classic and made it timely by emphasizing both the improved
high resolution and the whimsical impression that the child
will be immersed in a fun, visual, fantasy world,” raves
Dan Klitsner, IDSA, Klitsner Industrial Design Inc., regarding
the Virtual Viewer.
“Even more impressive is the low cost and backwards
compatibility with the millions of existing View-Master image
disks.”
“We're quite proud to be honored with three IDEA Awards,”
says Jerry Perez, executive vice president of marketing and
design at Fisher-Price. “The Fisher-Price brand has
been built on our reputation for creating high quality, innovative
toys. Our team of designers and engineers are among the best
in the country, let alone the toy and children's products
industries, and it's wonderful to be recognized by IDSA and
Business Week.”
View-Master® Virtual Viewer
For over 60 years, children of all ages around the world have
delighted in peering through View-Master® viewers; while
it's the same basic toy we all remember from our childhood,
the View-Master product line has been updated for the millennium
with a much improved viewer design and a fresh, new line-up
of software including both entertainment and educational titles
for today's kids. The View-Master Virtual Viewer debuted in
the 60th anniversary year, 1999, with 3-D images that were
50 percent larger than ever before, a new wrap-around visor
and enhanced viewing quality. The Virtual Viewer is available
at mass market retailers nationwide in hot colors such as
neon green, electric blue, raspberry and purple, as well as
the traditional red. ($4.99/ages 3 and up)
Celebrating its 21st year, the IDEA has become the world's
most prestigious recognition of excellence in the profession
that is responsible for the form, use features and interactive
qualities of products, exhibits and software. The awards ceremony
will take place in New Orleans on September 23rd, as the closing
event of the IDSA's 2000 International Design Conference.
Winners were published in the Fall issue of Innovation:
Yearbook of Industrial Design Excellence and are featured
on IDSA's Web site at http://www.idsa.org/idea/idea2000/G7705.htm.
The virtual viewer was designed by Fisher-Price Inc. and
Priestman Goode, Britain.
Editor's Note: This news release was originally distributed
by Mattel in 2000 and is presented here for historical reference.
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The Balkans
gets its first 3-D cinema
The first IMAX three-dimensional cinema on the Balkans started
functioning on July 13 in Mall of Sofia.
M-Tel IMAX movie hall features a 37-metre wide screen. The
technology used enables viewers to see three-dimensional images
practically popping out of the screen. This type of screening
makes the viewing experience so realistic that audience feels
part of the action.
According to avtora.com the sensation becomes even stronger
due to the sound technology used. The speakers have been developed
specially for the IMAX movie theatres.
The two movies viewers can see for the time being in M-Tel
IMAX are Into the Deep, offering a glance into the ocean world
and T-Rex: Back to the Cretaceous, taking spectators back
to the time of dinosaurs.
The 12 regular cinema halls of the movie theatre will also
start functioning on July 13.
M-Tel IMAX centre also offers cafes and fast food restaurants,
a children’s playground, M-Tel GSM operator communication
centre and an internet café.
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Cinemark
Theatres to add Real D 3-D Cinema Systems
 Real
D and Cinemark USA Inc. announced a landmark deal to equip
up to 150 Cinemark Theatres with Real D Cinema systems for
the exhibition of digital 3-D content.
Once completed, this deal will enable Cinemark to offer
its customers more Real D Cinema screens than any other exhibitor,
clearly positioning Cinemark as the undisputed leader in digital
3-D cinema. This announcement underscores exhibitors' commitment
to Real D as the trusted digital 3-D format. This deployment
brings the total number of committed Real D Cinema screens
to more than 350 worldwide and gives Real D Cinema the world's
largest 3-D cinematic footprint
"Real D has rapidly emerged as the quality platform
for the delivery of digital 3-D entertainment to cinemas,"
said Alan Stock, President and Chief Operating Officer, Cinemark
USA Inc. "Cutting-edge technologies like Real D's are
dramatically altering the cinematic landscape, and Cinemark
is excited to work with Real D to deliver compelling, new
experiences to our audiences."
"Cinemark, one of the largest and most progressive exhibitors,
realizes the importance of bringing Real D Cinema to audiences
on a massive scale," said Michael V. Lewis, Chairman,
Real D. "Upon completion of this deployment, at least
one screen in every Cinemark market could be Real D Cinema
enabled, giving Cinemark a clear competitive edge in cinematic
entertainment."
The rollout includes 17 screens installed in time for the
Real D Cinema presentation of Columbia Pictures' Monster
House, which opened domestically July 21.
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DDD
Group awarded two patents for Dynamic Depth Cueing technology
 DDD
Group announced that it has been granted two further patents
from the United States and Canadian patent offices of its
key "Dynamic Depth Cueing" (“DDC”) technology.
DDC is a core DDD technology that enables existing photo,
film or video images to be converted for display in stereo
3-D.
The new US patent extends the existing US 2-D to 3-D conversion
patents with a series of automated image analysis and 3-D depth
calculation techniques designed to improve the productivity
of DDD’s high quality, offline 2-D to 3-D conversion process.
Automation of the post-production 2-D to 3-D conversion process
is a key requirement in the emerging market for 3-D digital
cinema as studios seek cost effective methods to repurpose
new and existing films for release on 3-D screens.
The new Canadian patent complements the previously issued
DDC Canadian patent that describes the conversion of existing
2-D content libraries to 3-D. The new encoding component allows
delivery of 3-D enhanced content in a format that remains compatible
with today’s 2-D distribution formats. The patent addresses
the need for studios and broadcasters to transmit one broadcast
signal or produce a single content file that can be viewed
in 2-D or 3-D depending on the viewer’s preference and
display capabilities. The DDC encoding patent addresses a
growing range of emerging mass-market 3-D distribution platforms
including digital cinema, DVD and broadcast television.
DDC regenerates 3-D information that is not recorded when
a conventional film or video camera is used. Once the 3-D information
is recreated, it is then used to manipulate the underlying
2-D image, allowing 2-D images to be transformed to 3-D for a
wide variety of 3-D display formats ranging from large format
IMAX® films to the latest generation of mobile telephone
3-D displays.
Dr. Julien Flack, Chief Technology Officer of DDD commented,
"The automated image analysis and depth reconstruction
techniques are an important addition to our growing international
patent library. With the recent arrival of the 3-D digital
cinema market, automating the post production conversion process
reduces the cost of a feature length movie conversion, improving
the financial viability of releasing converted movies for
studios who are keen to take advantage of the growing number
of 3-D capable screens.”
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3-D Center
of Art and Photography to present Liquid Magic and 3-D Art
from New York City starting August 17
From August 17 through September 24, the 3-D Center of Art
and Photography in Portland, Oregon, will feature two new
exhibitions.
Liquid Magic: The Science and Art of Liquid Collisions
 Liquid
Magic: The Science and Art of Liquid Collisions is a
3-D slide show by John Hart. Combining stereo and macro photography
with exact lighting and timing, Hart was able to create beautiful
compositions that speak equally to the scientific and artistic
merits of liquid.
An artists reception with Hart will be held from 1 to 5 p.m.
on Saturday, August 19.
John Hart teaches atmospheric and oceanic science at the
University of Colorado in Boulder. As part of an effort to
present dramatic visualizations of the basic principles of
weather events to non-science students, he began photographing
interactions of liquid drops in 3-D. Drop collisions play
an important role in the micro-physics of clouds. This technically-challenging
photography captures incredibly beautiful (some have said
‘poetic’) fluid structures that exist on a scale
of only a fraction of an inch, and for only for a few thousandths
of second. Flash macro-photography, along with careful timing,
and innovative coloring and injection of fluid drops, reveals
intricate and unanticipated processes that make one marvel
at the organized complexity of nature.
Along with teaching, and doing research on such subjects
as the formation of vortices and jets on Jupiter, John has
been active in photography since leaving graduate school at
M.I.T. in 1970. For many years he concentrated on wildlife
work and photo-microscopy, both in 2-D. His images have been
published in nature magazines and scientific journals, and
have been exhibited at various locations including the Boulder
Museum of Contemporary Art and the Denver Museum of Nature
and Science. Desiring to try something different, he took
up stereo photography in 1999, and immediately found it a
match for his growing interest in climbing and canyoneering,
where the locations of such practices often have ‘depth’
to spare. Stereography also fit in well with his scientific
endeavors, and Prof. Hart developed techniques for acquiring
3-D pictures of very small subjects in areas of photography
sometimes called ‘extreme-macro’ or ‘photo-microscopy’.
His stereo imagery has been presented at the University of
Colorado, American Canyoneering Association (ACA) events,
and at National Stereographic Association conventions. Monoscopic
images taken from his 3-D efforts have appeared in Adventure
Sports and Outside magazines, and on the covers of Microscopy
Today and American Canyoneering Association Calendars. His
imagery has been honored with first-place awards in Weatherwise
and ACA photo competitions and with several citations in the
Nikon International Small-World contests.
 Brian
Loube's Depth and Motion: 3-D Art from New York City
will be presented in three parts.
At You Not With You
At You Not With You is an enclosure of life-sized
lenticular faces which stare at the visitor and laugh. It
is a surrealistic experience which forces the viewer into
the position of an object to be viewed. The faces are young
and old, men and women, all cut off at the neck and floating
on a white background. As the viewer turns, it feels as if
the laughing faces follow. “It’s kind of like
a junior high school nightmare,” comments Loube.
Subway Series
Subway Series is a collection of underground street
photography in Manhattan which emphasizes motion and time.
A set of candid photographs shot in subway cars captures the
detachment of travelers passing through time.
9/11 3-D
9/11 3-D is a unique collection of stereo
slides taken during the September 11 World Trade Center disaster
and aftermath. Loube ran into the streets with his camera
with the first reports of the disaster. From his home in Manhattan
to the streets near the World Trade Center, Loube was able
to chronicle a world of shock, grief and confusion.
Loube says of this collection, “The World Trade Center
was the crown jewel of my neighborhood,almost every walk I
took brought me through it. I went to the bank there, I bought
my bread there, and, once or twice, on a warm summer night,
I kissed a girl there, standing by the Hudson River with the
massive towers patiently glimmering over our heads. My neighborhood
was good, it was safe; I felt privileged to live in Tribeca.
As I slept on September 10, I could never have dreamed the
next day the world would change, thousands would lose their
lives down the street from me, and I would be put out of my
home as a war refugee. I awoke that morning to a phone call,the
buildings were on fire. I flipped on the TV and saw the video
of the airplane as I quickly dressed, then I grabbed my camera
and went outside. It was chaos, fear, confusion, bewilderment,
people everywhere. Watching the disaster unfold, I tried to
minimize it in my mind. They'll get out, I hoped....but after
just a few minutes, the reality set in. It became worse and
worse, and as I walked closer to the Towers, general panic
increased. Suddenly, I was caught in a stampeding crowd screaming,
"Run! Run!" as they raced away from the buildings.
Even the police had fear on their faces. When the first Tower
collapsed, something told me to just hold my camera over my
head and shoot. I'm still surprised the pictures came out
at all, because I hadn't set the exposure or focused the lens."
An artists reception with Hart will be held from 4 to 8 p.m.
on Friday, August 18.
The 3-D Center of Art and Photography is located at 1928
NW Lovejoy in Portland, Oregon. Hours: Thursday through Sunday,
1 to 5 p.m. First Thursdays, 6 to 9 p.m.
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Phantograms:
a 3-D Photography Exhibit to open Aug. 5 at The Front Porch
Gallery in Carlsbad, California
The Front Porch Gallery at 2903 Carlsbad Boulevard in Carlsbad,
CA is presenting Phantograms: a 3-D Photography Exhibit
starting August 5.
The exhibition will be on display from Aug. 5 through Sept.
1, 2006, and is open Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays from
noon to 6 p.m. and Saturdays and Sundays from 11 a.m. to 5
p.m. This gallery features artwork by members of the Front
Porch retirement community.
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3-D
Auction Results
Here are a few 3-D auction results from the past month.
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A set of Skin Clinic
stereocards showing various skin diseases sold for $349.99
with one bid. This 132 card set is dated 1914 by S.
I. Rainforth, A. M., M.D. - New York Medical Art Publishing
Co.. Each card has information about the different skin
and sexual diseases on the back. |
A collection of approximately
50 yellow-mount stereoviews of Mexico by Kilburn Brothers
sold for $400 with two bids. |
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Three Stereo Cameras, a Bellieni Stereo
Jumelle, for 9 x 18 cm. stereo plates, in leather case;
an Ica Polyskop No. 35944; and a 45 x 107 mm. Zionscope
sold for $425 with 13 bids. |
An original 11x14 title lobby card for
the 1953 3-D movie It Came from Outer Space sold
for $500 with one bid. Back of poster is stamped From
the Collection of Ronald V. Borst twice, and Theatre
Poster Exchange, Inc., 184 E. Calhoun St., Mempis, Tenn. |
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