Category Archives: 3D Tech

Marvel Digital shows no-glasses 3D Display tech at CES 2017

Source: Glasses-free 3D display – marveldigital

Marval Digital demonstrated glasses-free 3D displays for up to 65″ 4K 3D displays, and also for 3D phones and 3D tablets. The 4K 3D TV displays feature up to 140 degree viewing angles.

Marvel Digital also sells (price unknown) VisuMotion, a software tool for professional conversion of 2D video to 3D.

StreamTV Networks also showed new 360 degree VR technology, plus their glasses-free 3D technology. When I attended CES in the past, the StreamTV technology was the best glasses free 3D technology that I saw at the time.

 

Snapchat Spectacles support 3rd party prescription lenses

Snapchat’s Spectacles are dark glasses with integrated camera, for recording life’s activities. Interesting idea. Like most dark glasses, they are for those who do not need corrective lenses.

On the plus side, the lenses in Spectacles may be swapped out and replaced with corrective lenses prescribed by an optomerist. You then end up with prescription dark glasses integrated in to the Spectacles:

“To swap out Spectacles lenses for prescription lenses, consult a professional ABO-certified optician for guidance.

Please Note: Rx total power cannot exceed -5 diopter”

Source: Spectacles Support

Those who ordinarily wear corrective lenses typically buy snap on dark lenses that go over their existing corrective lenses. Or purchase a set of corrective dark lenses.

Snapchat Spectacles are targeted at a specific demographic (from the Snapchat web site):

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Snapchat recognizes the need to support those wearing corrective lenses, including with in this demographic, by making it possible to use prescription lenses in their product.

Tech companies that miss these large market opportunities risk alienating customers by providing unsatisfactory viewing experiences, which may translate into negative online comments and general disinterest in their products. And that will not be good for profits! I will continue to explore this topic in future posts.

Related: Snapchat Spectacles are not water proof or water resistant which restricts their use cases for those living in wet climates such as the the U.S. Pacific Northwest.

Virtual Reality Contact Lenses 

Contact lenses that enhance normal vision with megapixel 3D panoramic images are being designed by scientists using military funding.

….

Innovega’s contact lenses could effectively generate displays with a screen size “equivalent to a 240-inch television, viewed at a distance of 10 feet.”

Moreover, by projecting slightly different pictures to each eye, the display can generate the illusion of 3D. “You get full 3D, full HD, fully panoramic images,” Willey said.

Although some might balk at using contact lenses, “100 million people already do, including 20 percent of the key target group of 18- to 34-year-olds, those involved in gaming and using smartphones,”

Source: Virtual Reality Contact Lenses Could Be Available by 2014

Eliminates the VR helmet and 3D glasses, apparently.

iPhone app and 3D glasses for converting 2D video into 3D effect

Creator says they have a new secret sauce for 2D to 3D conversion, and when used on your iPhone with their glasses, will add a 3D effect to your existing 2D videos.

But of course, the obligatory 3D quote:

Remember 3D TV? It flopped. Turns out nobody wants to wear silly glasses while watching prime-time sitcoms. Who woulda thunk?

Source: These $50 Glasses Bring Anything On Your Phone To Life In 3D | Co.Design | business + design

Of course, the same author thinks VR helmets are cool but then also said that “people in VR look dorky“.

I do not understand this bias – ordinary glasses used in 3D are  called “silly” or “goggles”- yet Virtual Reality helmets are not a problem at all. If 3D died because of “silly” “goggles”, then VR is dead on arrival due to having to wear helmet headsets!

In the real world, 3D died not because of glasses but because there was almost no 3D content for consumers to watch on their new 3D TVs. But for some reason, the media perpetuate the myth about “3D goggles” halting 3D sales. (Meanwhile, cinema 3D, which also requires glasses, continues to thrive…. hmmmm.)