This month's email, influenced by my recent trip to the InfoComm trade
show, is focused on 3-D and how this technical effect could impact our
world of corporate, entertainment and theatrical presentations. To
begin, I pose this question: Are we breeding a generation of
movie-goers and video-game players that will accept the wearing of 3-D
glasses as easily as they have embraced the other manifestations of
personal technology such as the cell phone or personal music player?
If so, and I think the answer is yes, then 3-D visuals could be an important production element in any number of applications, particularly since current technology supports 3-D production and presentation more effectively than in the past. More often than not, the main objection to using 3-D visuals in the corporate or theatrical world is the donning of plastic or paper glasses, which are still necessary for effective 3-D viewing. As in, "My client will not want the audience to wear those silly glasses during the presentation". However, if that audience is already comfortable with 3-D viewing requirements because that's what they have in their homes, it won't be a challenge - assuming that there is a meaningful justification for incorporation of 3-D in the first place.
In addition to the growing acceptance of 3-D fashion eyewear in the marketplace, there are a few technical justifications for considering 3-D visuals in future presentations and these were sprinkled about the InfoComm trade show like funnel cake vendors at a street fair. These included great examples of digital cinema 3-D as well as specialized 3-D mapping apps and on-the-fly 3-D rendering of 2-D content.
The Musion Eyeliner system also had a big presence at the show and though I quibble with the description of this system as "Holographic" (it's not) and "3-D" (nope, not that either), there's no denying that it's an audience-grabber. It's been on a few of our shows and it can be cool but requires a good deal of technical horsepower and careful setup.
There were a lot of other interesting objects of desire at InfoComm this year and I'll be compiling my notes into a document pretty soon. If you'd like a copy of Josh Weisberg's Uncensored InfoComm Report, reply to this email and I'll send it as soon as it's complete.
One final thought in three-dimensions: high-quality, effective content is a must on all of these 3-D systems. Having that third dimension visible to the audience does not automatically improve content - it's just looks stupid in three dimensions, not two. But, think about a presentation where the presenter has gesture-tracking control over visual objects such as images, logo's, 3-D objects and video clips and can actually drop them in the laps of the audience members with a flick of the wrist. I'd put on the funny glasses for that presentation.
