| StereoVision
Entertainment Announces Agreement to Produce Hawaiian Tropic
3-D Film
 StereoVision
Entertainment, Inc. announced that it has signed an 18 month
option agreement with Hawaiian Tropic to develop and produce
a new feature length 3-D movie direct to DVD. The action comedy
will feature beautiful Hawaiian Tropic girls. The company
also has an option to produce a theatrical release version
of the movie. As part of the agreement, Hawaiian Tropic has
agreed to launch its own marketing campaign in cooperation
with StereoVision when the movie is ready for release.
Doug Schwartz, Chairman and Chief Creative Officer of StereoVision,
who negotiated the agreement, said, "I am extremely excited
at the prospect of producing this Hawaiian Tropic theme based
movie with my good friend, Ron Rice, founder of Hawaiian Tropic.
Along with the new 3-D technology the movie will have a comedic
tone set against a horror adventure background. I believe
that the 3-D format will be a huge success with audiences
of all ages. Filming will be managed by Daniel Symmes, a leading
expert on 3-D filming techniques and Director of Technology
for StereoVision. I have seen what Dan can create with his
3-D cameras and it is a truly remarkable viewing experience.
I believe that the combination of StereoVision's creative
and producing abilities with the worldwide brand awareness
and marketing strength of Hawaiian Tropic will make for a
resounding success."
Ted Botts, President and CEO of StereoVision, stated, "The
agreement with Hawaiian Tropic represents the first step in
our 'cornerstone for success' strategy, namely the production
and distribution of direct to DVD 3-D and 2-D high profile
low to medium budget films. This is a tremendous opportunity
for the company and an excellent deal for shareholders. In
conjunction with this project, the company is holding discussions
with major studios and distributors about co-funding and distribution.
Last year, $11.7 billion in sales of DVD's out grossed theater
ticket sales of $9 billion for the first time. The success
of Spy Kids 3-D, which rang up DVD sales of $38 million,
and the new surge in new 3-D IMAX movies proves that there
is great demand for 3-D. Our unique combination of 3-D technological
capability together with the track record of Doug Schwartz
as a highly successful producer will undoubtedly make this
project a tremendous success."
Avon
Books Using 3-D Images for Limited Edition Covers
 Harper
Collins imprint Avon Books is collaborating with Handbridge
Associates, National Graphics and Offset Paperback Manufacturers
to produce 3-D covers that will be available in limited edition
runs on selected titles.
James Rollins's action thriller Sandstorm will be
the first title to sport a 3-D cover when released in May
2005. The 3-D art is created using new software developments
in lenticular imagery permitting better interlacing of multiple
images that provide the illusion of depth on a flat service.
Avon said that the 3-D covers will be on initial orders only
and that "subsequent reprints will be produced using
traditional mass market special effects."
Big3D.com Worldwide
Wins Lenticular Industry Award for Spy Kids 3-D Poster
  Dr.
Tom Saville, Ph3D was awarded a Ph3D for outstanding lenticular
production for the Spy Kids 3-D poster, being praised
around the world as probably the best 3-D Lenticular poster
ever printed.
The poster was printed in three versions: Litho Reflective,
Litho Backlit and Photographic Backlit. The posters are so
outrageously cool, they are disappearing out of theatres and
found for auction on eBay.
The Ph3D award is given by FlipSigns.com, a club and trade
organization that is also the maker of lenticular software
used by the majority of lenticular creators worldwide.
The Ph3D award is given in honor of an excellent achievement
in the 3-D and Motion Print industry "that raises the
tide and lifts everyone's boat in the industry with it."
"The Big3D quality is so outstanding that all the Spy
Kids 3-D posters have the www.Big3D.com credit on them,
just like the other movie stars on the poster!" according
to Flipsigns.
2001: A Space Odyssey
Lenticular Posters to sell at auction
Two lenticular posters produced to promote Stanley Kubrick's
classic 1968 sci-fi film 2001: A Space Odyssey will
go up for auction on March 17 and 18, 2005. There were three
10 3/8" x 13.5" lenticular posters issued by MGM
to promote the 70mm Cinerama release of the film. The auction
estimates the poster showing the astronauts between $1,500
and $2,000 and the space station poster between $1,000 and
$1,200.
The Texas based auction house is allowing Internet bidding
prior to final bidding on the auction floor. Internet bidding
ends at 10 p.m. central time on March 16. Floor dates are
March 17 and 18.
Hershey's
Really Big 3-D Show
 Come
see the Hershey's product characters come to life as never
before. Hershey's Really Big 3-D Show will be featured
throughout the day in a new 250-seat, state-of-the-art theater.
Without giving too much away, the show begins as a glimpse
into the history of Hershey's chocolate, complete with a nostalgic
look at vintage packaging and advertising and a lecture on
the history of chocolate by the impassioned (fictional) chocolate
historian Don/Dawn P. Quigley. It ends up as something else
entirely.
Hershey's Really Big 3-D Show was designed and produced
by Landmark Entertainment Group, creators of internationally
recognized themed entertainment such as Universal Studios
Terminator 3-D and Star Trek: The Experience
for Paramount Parks and The Hilton Hotel in Las Vegas. The
30-minute experience immerses the audience in an interactive
musical adventure featuring the Hershey's product characters.
The young and young at heart will delight in the fun and excitement
of Chocolate World's new 3-D show.
Originally finished in spring 2002 and recently upgraded with
new hi-def video servers the Really Big 3-D Show at Hershey's
Chocolate World showcases Clair Brother's Systems expertise
in integrating multiple audio/video/lighting and control technologies
into one working system.
During this installation Clair Brother's Systems worked with
other companies to combine the audio visual experience with
moving props, water sprays, compressed air bursts, scent dispensers
and other surprises that are a part of the whole experience.
The audio part of the installation features a complete theatrical
sound loudspeaker package in addition to four Clair R3T loudspeakers.
The equipment racks hold a combination of audio, video, lighting,
networking, control and power equipment as well as computers
running show control specific software.
 The
Waiting Room and Pre Show area feature distributed audio systems,
remote controlled architectural lighting and their own video
feeds. Touch panels in each room allow the personnel to control
multiple aspects of the system and communicate with other
personnel. Additional audio impact and some special effects
are achieved through the use of Bass Shakers that are mounted
behind chairs and powered by over 60,000 Watts from 20 QSC
amplifiers. Dual 12,000 Lumens DLP projectors with polarized
optical filters deliver the specially encoded video to the
viewers. Polarized glasses are required to properly view the
3-D program.
Clair Brother's Systems is a comprehensive design and installation
company with expertise in the fields of audio, video, lighting,
staging and rigging. This department, a separate entity from
its renowned touring division, was set up in 1989 to cater
to the regional market by servicing institutions, churches,
theaters and entertainment complexes.
 Clair
Brother's Systems began providing professional audio products
and installations to the expanding market and the projects
region successfully expanded utside the U.S. The strategy
was to make available the same products that have made the
Clair Brothers touring division successful and to develop
new items that would be welcomed by the public, small touring
companies and various venues. As the demand grew, Clair Brother's
System focus was not merely sales, but systems, which were
completely designed, built and installed. Many famous venues
use Clair Brother's Systems including
- CBS-TV's The Ed Sullivan Theatre in New York, home of
The Late Show with David Letterman
- WSM's The Grand Ole Opry House in Nashville
- Mel Tillis Theater in Branson, Missouri
- NBC's The Tonight Show with Jay Leno and Late
Night with Conan O'Brien
Admission to the show is $4.95 for adults and $3.95 for children
(3-12). Discounts are available for seniors and groups.
IMAX NASCAR 3-D
The Soundtrack
 The
Nascar IMAX film is an impressive, immersive look at the stock
car racing phenomenon, with much factual coverage and a script
by Sports Illustrated correspondent Mark Bechtel.
The soundtrack CD is a nice fit to the film, if only it were
SACD for the true 3-D experience. It sounds mighty fine, however,
in Dolby ProLogic II.
The selection of songs ranges from the hard-firing Boom
by P.O.D. to a clear-pitched Star Spangled Banner
by LeAnn Rimes.
The first song, Boom is a true-blue, Southern Rock
number, dealing with the challenges, and opportunities in
the Nascar experience, although nominally about 'rocking the
masses, from madrid to calabasas'.
Firing Line comes from the 2003 Allman Brothers
Band album, Hitting The Note with hard riffs from
guitarist W.arren Haynes and smooth slides from Derek Trucks.
A great version of Lynryd Skynryd's Sweet Home Alabama,
another southern classic, almost made for the Nascar mood,
although somewhat contrary in sentiment. The song is played
at NASCAR races at Talladega Speedway, Alabama, and is a fine
rejoinder to racist perceptions of the fans.
Sheryl Crow's Steve McQueen is a song about "all
American rebels" and "fast machines," both
key themes of NASCAR
LeAnn Rimes provides I Got It Bad from her new album
This Woman, an apt theme song for NASCAR, with lyrics
like "I'm addicted to the fast life/I cut my teeth on
concrete dreams/The rush of no control gets me high/You know
what I think/too much of a bad thing/Is exactly what I need".
Frenetic, intelligent chords underlay LeAnn's awesome voice
to create a great song.
One of the nice things about soundtracks and compilations
is the introduction to one of new singers. Sounding like a
Chris Rea number, then taking off into fast-paced rock, this
is a neat song by Filipino (via Dallas) songwriter Wes Cunningham.
Originally a ZZ Top number, Wes blends multiple styles 'bout
'that shack outside la grange'.
Robert Belfour's instrumental Hill Stomp is a String
Cheese Incident-style jam reminiscent of classic Hill Country
blues
Eric Colvin is the composer for the film and provides a gentle
piece titled Earnhardt Remembered/.... The film never
shows the actual, tragic crash, but images surrounding it,
transcending the event itself.
Collective Soul contributes Counting The Days as
a bonus track to the CD. It captures the inner tensions of
a Nascar driver's heart, perhaps, "batten the hatches
down," and asking if you 'dig it what you are searching
for'?
Smash Mouth lead singer Steve Harwell provides You'll
Never Catch Me. He's a race fanatic and has done concerts
at places like the Indy Motor Speedway. An extremely fast-paced
song, capturing the danger and passion of the races. The Nascar
interview with Steve captures some of his motivations behind
the song, which also appears on the Cursed soundtrack.
Hot Wired is by The Shams Brothers, an Ohio 60's
garage-rock style band. It is a hard rock number with a powerful
bass.
LeAnn Rimes' rendition of The Star Spangled Banner
is voice only, very fine indeed.
Dave Robideaux's easily recognizable Thunder scene
was the official NASCAR theme for the 2004 season. Combining
majestic notes with a fast guitar theme, it effectively brings
home NASCAR pomp and circumstance.
Laporte
County Indiana Herald-Argus Prints 3-D Newspaper
 On
Feb. 5, 2005, The Herald-Argus, printed in Laporte
County, Indiana, celebrated it's 125th anniversary by printing
a 3-D edition of the newspaper. "Although we do not know
for sure, we feel that we may be one of the smallest newspapers
in the country to attempt this," said quality control
manager John Williams. The circulation of The Herald-Argus
is 12,500.
The photos featured in the edition are in anaglpyhic (red/blue)
3-D. The newspaper also included a free pair of 3-D glasses.
Advertising was included on the glasses from a car dealer,
a credit union and two optometrists.
The newspaper also posted the 3-D
photos on it's Web site.
Florida Times-Union
Prints Super Bowl 3-D Newspaper
 As
part of its Super Bowl week coverage, the Florida Times-Union
offered readers a 3-D photo section in the Friday Feb. 4,
2005 newspaper, complete with special glasses.
The 16-page special section was months in the making and
offered along with a Super Bowl section the paper has produced
each day this week. It includes 28 action shots from the past
NFL season and ads that are also in 3-D.
Readers can also use their 3-D glasses to view the photos
on the Times-Union's
Web site.
Dede Smith, the paper's director of photography, said the
project included six tests during the football season to tweak
the 14-step process of making the photos three-dimensional.
The 2-D to 3-D conversions were made using an Adobe Photoshop
technique.
"Our big thing is that we wanted to do something that
was visual eye candy for our visitors," Smith said.
Managing Editor Pat Yack said the Times-Union's planning
for Super Bowl week began about two years ago.
Sharp Releases
3-D Flat Panel LCD Monitor
 Sharp
has finally released its 3-D flat-panel LCD monitor, a 15-inch
version creatively dubbed the “LL-151-3D.”
Sharp, Sony, and other display manufacturers worked to develop
a standard for the 3-D monitors, though, which means that
investing in the $1,500 unit means it should continue to work
with future products for a while.
While the technology is intended primarily for gamers, Sharp
hopes to also sell units to scientists and bathtub chemists
who have a need to view molecular structures and the like
in 3-D.
No special equipment is required to see the 3D images, but
users do have to sit directly in front of the screen to get
the full effect.
True
3-D Research at The University of Washington
 The
goal of "True 3-D" research at the University of
Washington is to develop a visual display that mimics natural
3-D viewing, unlike most all stereoscopic displays available
today.
The eye captures two-dimensional images on the retina and
the human mind perceives distance or depth by using the many
available depth cues. Each eye can focus at various fixation
distances by changing the shape of the crystalline lens (accommodation)
to minimize blur and by changing the relative eye position
(vergence) to eliminate double vision.
Accommodation and vergence are the most important physiologically
driven processes of the eyes involved in viewing real three-dimensional
objects and they are linked with one another at a muscular
reflex level. An involuntary movement in one cue is triggered
when the other process is moved, such as converging the eyes
to see an object up close (vergence cue) triggers the eyes
to focus closer than previously (accommodation cue).
Current electronic 3-D displays do not match the accommodative
and vergence requirements of our human visual system for viewing
objects in depth and violate this linkage. Standard stereographic
displays provide two disparate perspective views that must
be actively fused via vergence by the viewer to display objects
that appear at distances other than that of the fixed-plane
image display. Users must uncouple the natural response of
accommodating in concert with these vergence shifts to the
changes in apparent distance and instead maintain a fixed
focus on the display surface. The conflict that occurs between
the accommodation depth cue and the stereoscopic depth cue
is documented as one of the leading causes for discomfort
when viewing 3-D displays. The elimination of this cue conflict
in prototype virtual retinal displays is hypothesized to be
able to alleviate fatigue when viewing 3-D displays.
The accommodative cue will be generated in hardware using
wavefront shaping deformable membrane mirrors. In addition,
software cues, such as blurring, relative size, occlusion,
etc., will be tested for triggering appropriate accommodative
responses in electronic 3-D displays. The prototype electronic
display that allow for both accommodation and vergence is
being called "true 3D" displays since it allows
the viewer to see in 3-D more naturally that current stereographic
displays. Researchers anticipate that these more natural true
3-D displays will reduce viewer fatigue and make a more compelling
visual experience.
Holland
Experience 3-D Movie Theatre
 Amsterdam
ArenA is offering travel packages including the Holland Experience
3-D Movie Theatre for an exceptional day out in Amsterdam,
Holland.
 Your
visit to Amsterdam starts in Holland’s most high profile
stadium. The 52,000 brightly coloured seats, the pitch and
the moving roof lend a certain something to the extensive
tour of the stadium and the Ajax Museum.
The Kid's Tour with lemonade, a football fame and quiz offers
fun and excitement for primary schools with an exciting treasure
hunt an option for secondary school pupils. From the Amsterdam
ArenA you travel by bus to the Holland Experience 3-D Movie
Theatre.
Holland Experience 3-D offers you a 30-minute tour of the
Netherlands that you will never forget. All your senses are
stimulated during your journey past the many typical faces
of Holland. The moving platform, comfortable aircraft seats
and the 3-D film make this trip through the Netherlands an
explosive and "exciting spectacle.
College Lessons
Go 3-D
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MCC President Walt Packard holds a check from SBC Illinois
for $30,000, the total amount given to three McHenry
County organizations. MCC is the recipient of a $9,200
technology grant as part of the SBC Excelerator program.
The grant will support a 3D Virtual Reality Lab enhancement
at the college. Pictured, front row, l-r: Lillian Roy,
MCC faculty development chair; Nancy Loomis, assistant
vice president of Human Resources at MCC; Walt Packard,
MCC president; State Rep. Jack Franks and Brad Jensen,
director of external affairs, SBC Illinois. Back row,
l-r: Wendy Moylan, director of Resource Development
at MCC; Marla Garrison, MCC biology instructor; Jim
Gray, MCC vice president for Learning and Student Support
Services and State Rep. Mark Beaubien. |
McHenry County College near Chicago is the recipient of a
$9,200 technology grant as part of the SBC Excelerator program.
Funded by the SBC Foundation, the philanthropic arm of SBC
Illinois, the grant will support a 3-D Virtual Reality Lab
enhancement at the college. These labs will enhance student
learning by using three-dimensional visualization of math,
science, architecture and other vocational technology concepts.
Students will use 3-D eye glasses and software, silver projection
screens and digital models that “float” independently
from their backgrounds.
According to MCC President Walter Packard, “The 3-D
lab will allow students in math and science to see what they’re
learning in a new way. It will help students remember lessons
because they can see the objects in life form, not in flat
textbook pages,” he said. The college is the first community
college in the state that has the designation of a regional
training center for this technology. The grant allows the
college to purchase 3-D models so faculty can integrate the
virtual lab into their lessons as early as this spring semester.
SBC Excelerator is a major philanthropic initiative that
connects the nation’s neediest residents, including
at-risk youth and underserved urban families, to important
community resources. The program empowers nonprofits to use
technology to expand the reach of services and heighten the
impact those services have on people in the community. This
year, the SBC Foundation awarded $840,500 in SBC Excelerator
technology grants to 59 nonprofits throughout Illinois.
McHenry County College is one of three McHenry County non-profit
organizations to each receive grants totaling $30,000. This
is the second time the college received the Excelerator Grant
Award. The first one in 2003 was to purchase projection equipment
for staff training in the Professional Development Teaching
and Learning Center.
“The first time the college received the Excelerator
Grant Award, we saw a lot of promise in the program and innovations
in training teachers,” said Brad Jensen, director of
external affairs for SBC Illinois. “The second grant
is an offshoot of the first grant because the college did
a good job of being accountable and showing progress. We were
very open to funding future projects like the Virtual Reality
Lab,” Jensen said.
According to Jensen, more than 250 nonprofit organizations
throughout the state have used SBC Excelerator grants in the
past three years to build their technology capabilities and
deliver more services at the local level.
State Rep. Jack Franks, who helped identify MCC for the grant,
said, “I think MCC is one of the finest community colleges
in the state of Illinois. With an educated workforce, we’re
able to attract industry and employment. My goal is to have
the smartest, well-trained workforce in the state. This (technology
at MCC) is one way to get it,” he said.
Since the program’s creation in 2002, more than $4.1
million in SBC Excelerator grants have been awarded to Illinois
organizations that connect people with little or no access
to technology.
The SBC Excelerator program was founded on the premise that
technology access and resources can improve the lives of people
in communities across the nation. To qualify for an SBC Excelerator
grant, an organization’s major focus and project proposal
must emphasize education, community development, health and
human services, or arts and culture. Grants, ranging from
$2,500 to $25,000, can be applied toward data communications
services, hardware, software, technology training, personnel
and application development.
The SBC Excelerator program is the largest special grants
program undertaken by the SBC Foundation, one of the top corporate
foundations in the nation, according to The Foundation Center.
Since 1984, SBC Communications and the SBC Foundation have
contributed more than $1 billion to nonprofit organizations
across the country.
Lilo and Stitch
Pleakley View-Master® Pin
  The
Disney Store produced a limited edition run of Lilo and Stitch
pinbacks. The pin featuring the Pleakley character is shown
holding a View-Master® viewer.
The weirdest thing about this pin being produced is that
Pleakly only has one eye but is holding a stereoscopic viewer.
Only 3,000 of limited-edition pins were produced.
Original retail price for each pin was $15.99.
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