| New
York Stereoscopic Society Celebrates its 10th Anniversary
on Feb. 21
The New York Stereoscopic Society celebrates its 10th anniversary
at 7 p.m. on Thursday, Feb, 21 in the Kaufmann Auditorium,
in the American Museum of Natural History in New York City.
The event will feature a presentation of the 1948 slide show
Highway USA, narrated by Paul Harvey. The 30-minute
show was produced by the Barber-Greene paving equipment company
and shown at fairs and civic meetings around the country.
It is a classic piece of Americana created in praise of the
open road and pitching the idea that we can use a lot more
of it.
In its 10year history, the New York Stereoscopic Society
has produced more than 50 events focusing on stereoscopic
imagery. Most meetings feature polarized projection of a slide
show. At least once a year, an open night is held for members
to project images.
The society maintains a Web
site. The site contains news of events, exhibitions and
activities of interest in the New York area, along with links
to articles and product announcements that might be useful
to its audience.
Members of the society are photographers, collectors, historians
and general enthusiasts for all ways of creating and viewing
3-D images. View-Master®, anaglyph and lenticular images
are among the other formats covered, as well as an increasing
interest in 3-D filmmaking and digital projection.
The Feb. 21 event is free and open to the public. Guests
must enter the Museum's 77th street entrance, between Central
Park West and Columbus Avenue. 3-D glasses will be provided.
Information about the NYSS' events is available at http://www.ny3d.org.
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The
Orphanage 3-D Lenticular Movie Poster
A new 3-D lenticular one-sheet movie poster produced to promote
the movie, The Orphanage is now in theatres. The
image shows a woman alone and shifts to show ghostly children
behind her when viewed from another angle.
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3-D
TV Unveiled at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas
 Television
will enter a new dimension with the launch of the first 3-D
TV sets designed for use in the home. The televisions can
screen three-dimensional content, in which objects appear
to leap out at the viewer, without the need for the special
glasses used in theatres.
The TVs also contain technology that can add depth to two-dimensional
television, making scenes look more lifelike.
The world's biggest electronics companies hope to have their
products, which will cost thousands of dollars initially,
in the shops by the end of the year. The technology comes
as Hollywood studios are taking more interest in the 3-D format.
Animated 3-D films, such as The Polar Express and
Disney's Meet the Robinsons, have attracted large
audiences. Leading directors James Cameron and Steven Spielberg
are working on 3-D films, which are due out next year.
Experts have warned, however, that 3-D television programs
will need to be filmed carefully to ensure that the effects
are comfortable to watch. Tests on 3-D films have found that
some viewers find watching them disorienting and suffer headaches
and nausea.
The electronics companies Philips and Samsung showed off
their competing technologies at the Consumer Electronics Show
in Las Vegas.
The momentum will continue this month when manufacturers
and film production companies, including Sony, Mitsubishi,
Philips and Dreamworks, meet to plan a strategy for bringing
3-D into the home.
To see a three-dimensional image on a flat television screen,
the viewer's right and left eyes need to see slightly different
images, taken from different angles, to trick the brain into
thinking it is seeing a 3-D object.
Previously this was done by showing two images that could
only be combined into a three-dimensional picture when seen
through glasses with one lens red and the other green or blue.
Philips is expected to be one of the first companies to release
a 3-D television set that does not require glasses.
How the Philips set works
The technology uses a special lens on the screen to create
the effect. Philips is already producing 3-D sets costing
for the commercial advertising market. The company aims to
have cheaper domestic products on the market by next year.
Samsung has a competing 3-D television that will be on sale
by the end of this year, but it will require viewers to wear
special glasses.
Professor John Watson, of Aberdeen University, a member of
the European Commission's network of experts on 3-D television,
said, "I think it is inevitable that we will get a format
war with 3-D." "It will depend on how willing consumers
will be to wear glasses in their own homes."
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3-D Lenticular Cover
Edition DVDs
Several DVDs are available with limited edition 3-D lenticular
covers. Here are the box covers of some of the most recent
releases.
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Woman
Sues GAF Over Cancer
 A
woman is suing two companies that operated the former View-Master®
plant in Beaverton, claiming that contaminated well water
caused her kidney cancer.
Sandra Connel, from Vancouver, seeks more than $1 million
in damages from GAF Corp. and General Aniline & Film Corp.,
both Delaware-based corporations. In the same lawsuit, Burton
Connel, her husband, seeks as much as $100,000 in damages
stemming from her illness.
The couple joins others suing the former owners of the View-Master®
plant over chemical contamination for TCE at the site off
Southwest Hall Boulevard near Oregon 217. As many as 25,000
workers manufactured photographic equipment and then toy slide
viewers there for more than 50 years.
Already working through the courts are six separate cases
represented by the Portland firm Sokol & Associates.
Sawyer's Inc. opened the plant in 1951, and General Aniline
& Film, also known as GAF, took over in 1967. View-Master®
began operations in 1981 and merged into Tyco in 1989. Tyco
merged into Mattel in 1997. The plant closed the plant in
2001. The site is now undergoing cleanup work. It is owned
by Harsch Investment Corp.
Connel worked at the plant one year, from 1969 to 1970. She
was diagnosed with renal cell carcinoma in 1990; which metastasized
in her leg. According to the lawsuit, she continues to experience
significant pain from the cancer.
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Brendan
Fraser Says He Saw Star Wars 3-D
Brendan Fraser visted Lucasfilm and got a glimpse of the
efforts to turn the Star Wars movies into 3-D productions.
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Toy
Story 1 and 2 Returning to Theatres in 3-D
Variety reports that the first film is slated to
hit theaters on Oct. 2, 2009, a few months before its sequel
gets a 3-D release on Feb. 12, 2010.
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Missy
Elliot Going 3-D for Disney
Billboard reports that Walt Disney Studios has created a
stereoscopic 3-D music video combining two Missy Elliot songs
featured in the studio's upcoming Step Up 2 the Streets,
which opens Feb. 14. MTV will premiere the video in 3-D on
Monday, Feb. 4 during TRL. Glasses for home viewing
will be distributed via various promotions.
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Here are a few 3-D auction results from the past month
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