In this connection one should keep in mind that the single camera, single projector simultaneous cross polarized technique used so successfully with 3D film for over 30 years may again appear for 3D video. LCOS and other modalities already have 4Kx2K resolution so a split lens with top/bottom images will give a 4Kx1K pair, sufficient for modest sized cinemas. SONY has recently started using a split lens for projecting LCOS 3D. It is well known that split lenses for cameras and projectors, either top/bottom or right/left, have been widely used for 3D for some 50 years. If one uses anamorphic lenses to film and project (e.g., as the standard CinemaScope format for theatrical 2D has done for decades), then one does not need to throw away any pixels or use complex image-degrading codecs. Anamorphic lenses have often been used for video and SONY even sold them for use with camcorders and consumer projectors a decade ago. I have described many of these formats for 3D in my previous articles and there are whole books and websites devoted to widescreen.

It is feasible to use a single imaging chip of 8Kx4K with high brightness lamp and high quality lenses to compete in terms of image quality and cost with the other projection approaches, and to create hires single chip or dual chip or frame sequential 3D lenses for video cameras that will avoid the horrific problems of matching all parameters of twin cameras.

CP and LP switching by multilayer LCD plates was specifically patented for 3D by many companies including StereoGraphics, the company I started in 1979, and marketed by them under the name “Z-Screen”, sometimes called “Z-Filter”. LCD shutter glasses and CP switching screens were originally developed and marketed by Tektronix in the 70’s and, after poor management destroyed their LCD division-- the USA’s finest LCD R&D facility--it was licensed to NuVision of USA and Delta of Taiwan. Independently, various companies worked on this, including the Japanese petrochemical company Idemitsu, who released an all plastic version (i.e., no glass whatsoever) that I used for some time in the late 1990’s (EP 0892563 A2 (1999)). A few years ago ColorLink began marketing one and Real D (the new name of StereoGraphics after some Hollywood hotshots bought controlling interest in 2004) solved the problem of competition from a superior product by buying ColorLink ( http://www.reald-corporate.com/story030807.asp ).

A little known aspect of this history is that Tektronix was sued by LC pioneer James Ferguson over pi-cell patents, and, despite assurances from their patent and tech staff that they would win easily, they paid him off rather than pursuing it, since they had a lucrative business selling high end devices such as time domain reflectometers and they did not want to interrupt the cash flow. Possibly this enabled StereoGraphics Corp. to survive since Tek might have sued them for patent violations.

 [This article may be reprinted or distributed freely provided the copyright notice remains and nothing is changed, added or removed.

World’s first stereoscopic motion picture camera made by William Friese-Green in 1893.There is no question that the current revolution in 3D imaging is due primarily to the commitment of Hollywood to the making of major 3D films and that this has been due principally to Los Angeles Corporation Real D’s spending of huge amounts of money to put digital 3D projections systems in place. From my point of view this happened because I saw Arch Oboler’s Bwana Devil in 1952 and began researching 3D in 1973 which led to the founding of StereoGraphics Corp in 1979 which was taken over by Real D in 2004. It is truly gratifying and amazing to see the vision I started to pursue in 1973 come to fruition.

I was told by several persons that the XPAND glasses broke frequently and that they did not fit people who had to wear glasses. Of course all glasses break eventually and none fit everyone. XPAND is making new ones with built in RFID tags and other features (e.g., you can now wave a special wand over them to determine remaining battery life) and they said that the batteries last 300 hours. This means ca. 150 movies and amortizing what they said is the average cost to the chains of $65/pair this means ca. 40 cents per film, assuming minimal breakage. They charge about $14K for installation.

One of the most surprising films at the show was Mummies 3D, which I saw at the Singapore Discovery Center in an SimEx-Iwerks theater, which uses their single projector 8 perf/frame above/below 70mm film and 7000 watt xenon projector with their own brand of 20x15M silver screen and CP glasses.

Journey To The Center of the Earth Poster“Journey to the Center of the Earth” again used some version of the Pace cameras and on the whole was reasonably well aligned and binocularly symmetrical, with minimal 3D gimmickry (in fact- as often with 3D films-some people complained about the lack of out of screen effects). Though clearly shot on a modest budget with (by current standards) limited special effects, I found it enjoyable and pleasant to look at. Just don’t go expecting to see a $100M epic.

Giants of Patagonia Poster “Dinosaurs: Giants of Patagonia” directed by Canadian Marc Fafard was the third large screen 3D dinosaur film I hav

3DX--the world’s first digital 3D movie festival was held Nov 18-23rd in Singapore. I was one of over 200 persons who paid $1000 and up to attend but some of the films were shown in the evening to the general public also..

Hollywood is taking 3D very seriously with some 40 films on the slate for the next 3 years and many others from majors and independents sure to come. Top execs from Fox, DreamWorks Animation, Disney and others, as well as reps from TI (the maker of the DLP chip that powers nearly all projectors used for 3D) and projector maker Christie (owned by 4600 screen global theatrical giant AIX) gave talks often accompanied by clips of upcoming films. Christie claims 80% of all digital cinema installations. I think they used two of their brightest (14fL) CP2000 SB’s here.