The idea of three dimensional (3D) movies has been around since the inception of cinema, with the goal being a more realistic and immersive experience than conventional 2D flat pictures. The early fifties saw the making of several 3D movies, which were monochrome, and required the viewer to wear special glasses with red and green lenses, but this restriction caused eye-strain, and they had little real impact on mainstream cinema.
The idea of TV in 3D has also been experimented with many times, but now, at last, serious interest in 3DTV is rising again due to new display technologies. In fact, Hollywood studios have a number of 3D movie projects in process, and Sky are actively investigating the provision of 3D movie channels.
Against this topical back-drop, a joint RTS Southern Centre and IET meeting on 3D TV took place on Wednesday 18th March 2009 at the Arqiva HQ, Crawley Court, near Winchester. The meeting was limited to a maximum of 50 people for technical reasons, and was over-subscribed. The attendees saw a presentation and demonstration of full colour, glasses-free 3DTV using the Philips system. This presentation was given by Ben Nicholls, ably assisted by Chris Gaughran, both from PPC3D, part of the Picture Production Company group and a Philips technology partner.
Ben started the evening by descibing how the technology worked, and how, in addition to shooting new material in 3D, existing "flat" material can be re-processed for 3D viewing. He also outlined the other potential uses for the technology in display advertising and computer gaming, in addition to domestic TV viewing.
The system works by using modern flat screen displays, but with a carefully registered vertically-striped flat "lenticular" lens bonded to the screen, similar in principle to childrens' picture cards that show moving images when you rock them slightly from side to side. In the case of the 3DTV display, the video processing and the accurate position of the lens elements present separate images to each eye, and hence convey depth information to the brain.
The demonstration was then shown on two 42" screens, and ran on a continuous loop, giving everyone a chance to experience it. The presenters were on hand to answer questions while the demo loop was running. The main observation was that there were several viewing position "sweet spots" where a viewer could get an excellent 3D effect, but moving slightly to either side of these gave a blurred image. Nevertheless the effect of depth was quite dramatic, depending on the picture content. Some objects gave the impression of being located in front of the screen. A particularly effective sequence was a cartoon of Pinnochio with his nose growing out towards the viewer, and seeming to come out through the screen. Ben explained that a lot of work was going on at Philips to reduce and merge the number of "sweet spots" and expected dramatic improvements in this area. Perhaps the most surprising information was that it is already possible to purchase displays of this type, for little more cost than that of a high-end Plasma TV a year or so ago.
Our thanks to Ben and Chris for this excellent opportunity to see into the future of 3D displays, and for providing answers to so many of our questions. Our thanks also, as always, to Bob Sparks and Arqiva for providing the venue, and the excellent buffet refreshments before the meeting began.
Peter Wright