3-D TV Making Noise At CES

The big TV manufactures are all at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) demoing or promising televisions that "have three-dimension-enabled televisions, providing the same sort of immersive high-definition depth found in movies such as the box-office blockbuster Avatar."

There is so much hype that Sony chief executive Howard Stringer has said, "This whole thing is turning into the CES 3-D show." While Avatar producer Jon Landau said "3-D is not about gags coming off the screen, it’s about creating an immersive experience," he said. "It heightens the experience, it becomes a voyeuristic experience."

"It’s not just smoke and mirrors. It’s real," said Yoshi Yamada, North American chief executive for Panasonic.

Sort of makes you wonder if that HDTV purchase was a good idea or if next Boxing Day might have been a better option? I'll save my comments until I can actually see how the products preform. Besides, how much content is available and do we really want to watch everything in 3-D? Perhaps the makers of Gravol will be the big winner? Time to buy some shares...

3-D Coming To Your Living Room

It came roaring back into the theatre! Nary a week goes by that does not have a title on the marquee, and now companies are hoping to bring 3-D viewing to your home. The upgrade is possible, Panasonic has unveiled it's 3-D TV and much time and effort has been spent by the industry to make it happen. The big question is, are consumers ready to make the leap so soon after jumping on the HD bandwagon? I don't think I'm ready to make the investment... However, “This is what people want,” said Luc Duchaine, a senior brand manager at game company Ubisoft who's hedging their bets on 3-D. “These things will happen very fast, we believe.”

Globe and Mail story here.

Expert Says CNN Hologram Not Technically A Hologram

During Tuesdays CNN coverage of the US Election, anchormen Wolf Blitzer and Anderson Cooper conducted live interviews "via hologram". Blitzer told CNN reporter Jessica Yellin that "You're a terrific hologram," during a segment where he spoke with a 3-D representation of Yellin, or so it would appear. Okay, I'm envisioning you reading this quote in a Simpson's Comic Book Guy voice..."They were quite sophisticated, no doubt," said Hans Jürgen Kreuzer, a theoretical physics professor at Dalhousie University and an expert on holography "But I immediately said to my wife that I don't think it has anything to do with holograms."

Kreuzer believes the images were tomograms or images that are captured from all sides, reconstructed by computers, and then displayed on screen much like the way that computer-generated special effects are added to movies.

Holograms, technically, are projected into space.

CBC story here.

Holodeck technology a reality in Edmonton?

Researchers at the University of Alberta's computer science department have partnered with Hewlett-Packard, and Edmonton's TRLabs, and are working on 3-D virtual reality technology that they say resembles the holodeck on the Enterprise or Voyager. The application is meant to be more of a high definition video conference than the virtual holiday's enjoyed by the crew of Voyager, but the researchers say the technology "will be so realistic users will be able to see an eye twitch or a bead of sweat". So much for racking up the air miles on the company's dime... CBC story here.