"There is no real life; you're either online, or AFK"- Ramzi Yakob
Posts tagged 3D Technology
Nintendo’s 3D handheld might make big waves
Mar 23rd
As soon as I booted up my computer today I saw a lot of noise around Nintendo’s announcement that they’ll be releasing a glasses free 3D handheld console which will be able to play the DS’s back catalogue of games. Within an hour of the story being posted on Engadget, the topic was trending on Twitter (as the image above highlights) and the response to news articles around the web are showing that there’s massive anticipation and excitement for this type of technology.
This announcement from Nintendo has thrown a curve ball in my thinking of how 3D technology adoption would play out – but if for anything then perhaps to speed up adoption and cultural shift to acceptance of 3D. Glasses-less 3D technology has a lot of limitations – but something it is very good at doing is catering for an audience of 1 as you don’t have to take into account a range of viewing angles – by creating a mass audience for home 3D experiences, its possible that Nintendo will help spark an expectation of 3D in-home entertainment which could result in this happening.
Nintendo has a recent history of selling its wares like hot cakes – and if this trend is continued with the 3DS (or whatever it might be called) then how long will it be before Apple sees the value of it and jumps on the wagon by creating a glasses-less 3D iPad experience which will only add to the above theory that it’ll speed up cultural change and expectation.
I’ll throw it out there – expect to see a 3D version on the ipod touch/ipad – even if the tech only kicks in for games in the near future.
3D Cameras, TVs and Arguments
Feb 23rd
It has been a particularly busy week in the world of 3D – I thought I’d summarize the good stuff for you here.
- Sony is ‘keen’ to release consumer friendly 3D cameras – how long do you think it’ll be before people start uploading their 3D holiday pictures to Facebook? Obviously there’s 2 sides to the technology, people need to start buying 3D ready displays / computer systems so the desire to post 3D pictures won’t come until there is greater incentive for people to buy all parts of the tech chain.
- Sony has also announced that Playstation 3 owners can expect a FREE firmware update which will enable their consoles to play 3D Blu-Ray discs. With over 33.5 million Playstation 3 owners globally, this will boost 3D tech adoption and could potentially give Sony a competitive edge in the on-going console war.
- Samsung has announced that they’ll be giving away free copies of Monsters vs Aliens on Blu-Ray 3D with their latest line-up of 3D TVs. We can expect these to launch in the UK as early as March ’10.
- Odeon UK are boycotting ‘Alice In Wonderland’, a new Disney Film; over a dispute with the film’s director, Tim Burton. The typical arrangement between theatre chains and film makers includes a stated 17 week delay between a film’s release in the cinema and its initial release on DVD, however Tim Burton is insisting on a shortened delay of only 12 weeks. Odeon are taking a financial hit, to make a point – having invested heavily in 3D projection technology they expect to be able to generate a decent return by allowing popular 3D films run for prolonged periods. This unfortunately means that distribution for the film in the UK is going to be gimped and people might struggle to find local theaters that are capable of 3D showings of the film.
Konami showcases 3D arcade game
Feb 19th
Akihabar News has posted videos and pictures taken at this year’s ‘All Nippon Amusement Machine Operators’ Union Exhibition’ (AUO Expo for short) – detailing great excitement at Konami‘s stand in particular. They’re currently showcasing a 3D arcade version of the massively popular Metal Gear Solid series. As you can see from the image above – the standard 3D glasses are accompanied by a head-mounted sensor that will interpret your head movements, giving you the ability to widen your peripheral vision within the game.
As with any content – not all games will be suitable for 3D rendering (really… would anyone WANT to play Bejeweled in 3D?) but for immersive games which generally capture the biggest market share such as Modern Warfare 2 – 3D will be a perfect accompaniment.
Increasingly, gamers are using headsets for voice communication in games like this anyway – so having to wear headgear won’t be a problem, and integration of earphones + microphone into 3D headsets should be simple enough.
Is 3D going to revolutionise the web?
Feb 9th
Google in 3D
I’ve been thinking about this blog post for a long time now, and originally had hoped to write up the ideas in a polished deck to share on slideshare. Sadly, after 4 years in the industry – I’m still rubbish at making beautiful decks and prefer explaining things in long hand written format. Unfortunately for you (and me), this means it has now turned into a monster of a blog post.
Over a year ago – I posted about 2009 being a turning point for 3D technology adoption on the basis that CES was teeming with news about 3D technology and because Activision Blizzard had released a patch for World of Warcraft which allowed players to experience the game in 3D if they had the latest NVidia technology and a compatible display. At the time, I wasn’t certain that 3D was really going to take off – and thought it could go the way of the HD-DVD format. Even after the first few feature length films came out in 3D, it was a guessing game as to whether or not people would enjoy the experience enough to pay the premium ticket prices which in turn would justify cinemas investing in 3D projection technology. After all - throughout the 2000′s, there had been a few sporadic 3D outings such as ‘The Polar Express’ in 2004 – but these visits to the 2D world were few and far between; nothing hinting at 3D becoming a common part of life.
2009 saw a change in tempo. In late 2008, the first 3D film I had ever seen (not including 3D films watched in Disney World Florida as a child) was an animated feature called ‘Bolt’. In 2009 this was followed in quick succession by Aliens vs. Monsters, Coraline, Up and of course… Avatar which has broken more box office records than I knew existed. Little did I know as I watched the film – that this was anything but a bit of good luck. An article in Wired explained that James Cameron has spent the best part of a decade amassing teams to make 3D technology GOOD whilst convincing the cinemas across the US that they needed to start installing 3D projection technology (which he helped to pioneer), and it worked. Despite James Cameron’s tale feeling a bit like every sci fi film from the last 20 years mashed together with a pinch of Pocahontas’ plot thrown in for good measure – I’ve not met a person who’s seen the film who didn’t feel a bit like they’d experienced something wonderful and the interwebz has buzzed with news stories of people actually suffering from depression after watching the film due to real life suXX0ring compared to the Avatar universe (although many people think that these people were depressed before seeing the film and are using Avatar as an outlet to express their dissatisfaction with life… a bit similar to people who spend a lot of time playing MMORPGs).
To top this off – technology blogs as well as CES (for the 2nd year in a row) have started reporting on new 3D technologies with increasing frequency over the last year, noticeably accelerating in the last few months. Brands with influential reach such as Sky, have announced 3D products to be launched in the UK in 2010, and if they can achieve a similar adoption curve to that of HD – then we can expect 3D channels on Freeview within a few years when the passive massive will truly be tempted to go out and buy 3D ready TVs. Of course these possible futures hang in the balance. People might decide that 3D porn isn’t a good thing and it could easily go the other way with the technology bombing.
However… thinking about what could be if the technology does take off. Imagine we get to a stage where 3D tech adoption reaches the levels that HD has today (which still isn’t great by the way). Imagine… 3D glasses are cheap, and a dozen of them lying around the house.
How long would it be before 3D technology jumps to the web? I’m not talking just about YouTube, and BBC iPlayer in 3D – I’m talking about a complete overhaul of the user interface of major websites to incorporate interactive 3D elements.
This idea kept me thinking for a while. In fact for the last couple of months, a I’ve still not thought of a comprehensive answer to this question. I’ve finally accepted that it isn’t on my shoulders to do so – this is an idea that needs to be interpreted by the masses, by the web developers of tomorrow, and the Twitter founders of next year.
What I have been able to do is ask more questions.
- Will Google Chrome be the first web browser which renders 3D websites?
- Will Adobe Flash natively support 3D (if the platform is still used by then)
- How would website navigation work in 3D? Will it be the death of the top and left hand nav bars? If not – will the way these nav bars render change drastically?
- How will 3D affect social networking? Will it be as basic as people posting 3D photos (taken with cameras you can already buy today) or will it change it on a more fundamental level?
- How will the public react to 3D images on major news portals of events around the world (imagine the aftermath of earthquakes, images of war etc)
- Who will make themselves famous by creating the first 3D YouTube viral video?
- Will 3D banner ads create a mini boom in the digital media industry due to a spike seen in click through rates that they would generate
- Mini boom due to the CTR’s being inflated by the novelty factor – similar to the high click through rates being enjoyed by mobile banner advertising today (they will decline steadily over time)
- Will Google offer 3D Sponsored Links (as crudely illustrated in the main image for this post) and charge a handsome bid premium for it, adding to the digital media industry boom?
I’m sure there are more questions – and I’m sure there are people out there who can answer them.
For the foreseeable future, I’ll be spending part of my time at Hyper investigating 3D technology and keeping abreast of developments as they happen – hopefully by talking to the right people I’ll be able to help answer some of these questions or hopefully ask even better ones. Ideally, I’d go to organisations like Google and Adobe and be able to ask some of these questions directly. If they can’t answer them – I hope they spend some time thinking about them and are interested enough to escalate my search.
