Ultra High Resolution Monocular Video: The Future of 3-D?

With ultra high resolution monocular panoramic video attracting “casual” videophiles near the end of 2012, is high-res video for the one-eyed viewer the future of 3-D?  

By: Ringo Bones 

Around the winter of 2012 and in the 2013 CES show in Las Vegas, various video schemes offering better resolution than the current standard 1080p HDTV seems to be getting more interest and kudos from the public at large – as if the concept of 3-D at home and even glass-free 3-D video seems to be yesterdays news. But is the public at large simply fallen out of love with 3-D video? 

At the moment, there are two versions of ultra-high resolution video vying for consumer acceptance. There’s the 4K UHDTV with a 2160p or 3840 X 2160 / 8.3 megapixel resolution – 4 times that of current 1080p HDTV. At the moment, “native” 4K UHTV videos are few and far between but add-on video resolution enhancement boxes already exist (but still a bit pricey) to convert existing 1080p video from Blu-Ray DVD to 4K resolution. And at around the tail end of 2012, dedicated 4K resolution capable video and still digital cameras entered the market for those well-heeled video DIYers who want to create their own truly native 4K resolution videos and still pictures. Though the wide panoramic displays at the 2013 CES show that feature native 4K images are what mostly attracting new converts away from true binocular 3-D video. 

On the other hand 8K UHDTV is still a largely experimental “vaporware” from NHK Tokyo that offers 4320p or 7680 X 4320 or 33,2 megapixel resolution offers 16 times the resolution of current 1080p HDTV. Native 8K UHDTV videos and 8K UHDTV capable video displays had been wowing viewers during the 2013 CES show in Las Vegas too and seem set to compete and supersede any lower resolution rivals. But NHK says that their system will gain full bloom once very large (100-inch or larger) graphine-based flexible and transparent video displays becomes standard and affordable enough in the home. And NHK’s 8K UHDTV comes with a 22.2 (22 channels worth of left, center, right, wrap-around surround sound with 2 channels for the subs) surround sound as standard. 

Strangely, NHK’s 8K UHDTV has the same resolution as that of a dedicated 350-mm IMAX film and one of the reason the powers that be at NHK is also keeping their options open for a dedicated 3-D and even a glassless / goggle free 3-D video system for the home by 2020 or later. Sadly, many in the consumer electronics industry and consumers in particular had become jaded about 3-D in the home concept saying that it had been the most over-marketed product in the consumer audio-video market during the last two years. And some had even abandoned their quest of a much consumer friendly 3-D. Though our current austere fiscal post-subprime environment might not be so 3-D video friendly at the moment, the promise of an ultra-high resolution / ultra-high definition glassless / goggles free 3-D technology in the home with an IMAX like 8K UHDTV resolution that comes with a 22.2 channel surround sound / wrap-around sound could be the beginnings of a truly immersive Star Trek style holo-deck like virtual reality entertainment center for the home is just too tempting for the consumer electronic manufacturing giants to ignore.  

Queen Elizabeth II First 3-D Christmas Message: A Royal Keeping Up With the Jones’s?

It may be a “mere” icing on the cake of HRH Queen Elizabeth II’s Diamond Jubilee PR blitz, but is the queen’s 2012 Christmas message a sign of the traditional House of Windsor adapting to modernity?

By: Ringo Bones

Of all the annual Christmas messages being broadcasted on TV since her reign, the 2012 Christmas Message broadcast by HRH Queen Elizabeth II will be more special compared to her previous ones, not only because this year is the queen’s Diamond Jubilee, but also it will be the first time it will be seen on 3-D. Is this a sure sign that previously conservatively traditional institutions like the Royal House of Windsor is keeping up with the times?

It seems that a number of previously “conservative” traditional institutions have jumped on to the contemporary tech bandwagon. Even the Vatican had joined in as Pope Benedict XVI just started his own Twitter account a few weeks ago and attracted a million followers within the first 24 hours of opening. So why wouldn’t the British Royal Family be free in “Keeping Up with The Jones’s” like the rest of us?

 Well, at least the Queen’s 3-D Christmas Message for 2012 is more than just an empty hi-tech whiz-bang extravaganza. She did manage to hail the triumphant show of skill of both Olympic and Paralympic athletes during the 2012 London Olympic and Paralympic games, and the army of volunteers that made the games and her Diamond Jubilee a success. Given that the world’s TV and movie audience at large seems to be distracted away from 3-D and instead being currently seduced by 8K ultra high definition TV, the British Royal Family sticking with tried and true 3-D TV broadcasts that needs 3-D glasses / goggles to be viewed correctly is somewhat good news for the future of an imaging system that caters to us enthusiasts who still give a damn about true-blue binocular vision. Well, at least the 2012 London Olympics was broadcasted in 3-D. 

The Ronald Reagan 3D Hologram: Latest Political Campaign Gimmick?

Slated to be unveiled in the 2012 Tampa Republican Party National Convention before it was “upstaged” by Hurricane Isaac, is the Ronald Reagan 3D hologram nothing more than the latest political campaign gimmick? 

By: Ringo Bones 

Rumor has it that the Ronald Reagan 3D hologram wasn’t used in the 2012 Tampa Republican Party National Convention because the GOP top brass are afraid it might “upstage” a “one-dimensional” Mitt Romney or there was also a rumor that the GOP top brass never got time to obtain insurance for the “high tech” equipment to be used to run the Ronald Reagan 3D hologram during the Republican Convention in Tampa. Some US Republican Party insiders even say that the more “moderate” members of the GOP top brass are afraid that the Ronald Reagan hologram could be used for partisan purposes. But anyway, does the Ronald Reagan 3D hologram truly represent the latest in the somewhat arrested development of 3D holography technology – or nothing more than mere “political campaign gimmickry”? 

To older folks closely following development trends in 3D video technology, some of them might be mistaken that the Ronald Reagan 3D hologram could be the cutting edge in the still young science 3D holography because back in May 24, 1991, NASA first tried out its newly developed 3D laser scanning technology on Ronald Reagan – who was then happily retiring in his Santa Barbara, California home, making him the first ever US President to get a 3D holographic portrait. Whether the 3D data obtained by NASA back in 1991 was used on the 2012 3D hologram of Ronald Reagan the GOP top brass didn’t say. But an article in the New Scientist magazine says that the technology behind the 3D hologram of Ronald Reagan to be used in Tampa was the very same one used on the posthumous Tupac 3D hologram featured in the Coachella show. 

Both the Tupac and Reagan 3D holograms used a technique called Pepper’s Ghost projection technology – a holographic imaging technique which was already around since the 1800s. Both CGI and live footage mix were used by the 3D holography technicians at Digital Domain – James Cameron’s visual effects company – to create the Tupac posthumous concert 3D hologram and the posthumous “live action” 3D hologram of Ronald Reagan. Pepper’s Ghost technology works by partially reflecting light off a piece of glass from a hidden room. This kind of 3D projection technique only works well in convention halls or exhibition spaces that are not too brightly lit by ambient sunlight; although 3D holograms of some current controversial politicians are probably going to be frequently used as a crutch to steer the public away from their one-dimensional nature. 

The London 2012 Olympics: First 3-D Olympics?

Though high-definition 3-D TV sporting events broadcasts is already a technical – and commercial – reality as far back as 2009, will the London 2012 Olympics be the first summer Olympiad to be broadcasted in high-definition 3-D?

By: Ringo Bones

3-D enthusiasts – especially high-definition or HD 3-D enthusiasts – seem barely able to contain their excitement when NBC and Panasonic announced back in July 20, 2012 that they’ll be offering the “infrastructure” to broadcast the London 2012 Olympics in high-definition 3-D. Though HD 3-D broadcasts of top billed sporting events are already a technical – and commercial – reality as far back as 2009, if you can afford to buy one of those top-dollar HD 3-D ready large flat-screen TVs that are more at home in a dedicated home theater set-up than in your typically modest living room, the popularity of broadcasting live events – like top billed sporting events – seems to coincide with the visually stunning success of James Cameron’s 3-D sci-fi epic called Avatar back in 2009. Big league sporting events broadcasters - like ESPN – have billed their HD 3-D broadcasts as “just like being there in the middle of the action” in terms of video quality. But does the reality live up to the hype?

Well, the BBC has a dedicated HD 3-D Olympic channel given that the 2012 summer Olympiad is taking place on their home turf. And so does NBC and ESPN and 22 other that I currently seen so far. On what I’ve seen so far – thanks to our local electronics goods store who used the BBC’s HD 3-D Olympic broadcasts to test out their new batch of large-format HD 3-D ready flat screen TVs. The BBC 3-D broadcasts of the London 2012 opening ceremonies had a nice depth portrayal in them and really make you feel as if you are in the middle of the ceremony – even for a somewhat jaded 3-D movie enthusiast like me. Though, the level of “you-are-there” is only up to a point, given that it is still the main HD 3-D camera’s perspective. Another caveat worth mentioning is the continual swapping to 2-D cameras and the 2-D footage which spoils it a bit.

Given what I’ve seen so far, it seems there is a visually discernable – albeit incrementally - progress in HD 3-D image quality. The HD 3-D London 2012 Olympic broadcasts could be a benchmark of the technical progress made of HD 3-D broadcasts since they became a regular part of atypical up-market satellite dish package back in 2009. The so-called “diorama effect” is now minimal – like swapping from 150 US dollar Mainland Chinese made binoculars to 6,000 US dollar binoculars with Carl Zeiss equipped optics.

Can We Make A 3-D Movie From A 2-D Movie?

It’s not quite easy and it can cost a bit of money and yet an upstart post-production company managed to gain press attention for doing the seemingly impossible back in July, 2011 – will making 3-D movies from 2-D movies be the wave of the future?

By: Ringo Bones

Whether you love them or not, 3-D movies released by big-wig Hollywood movie studios are still a rarity despite of the runaway success of James Cameron’s epic 3-D science fiction extravaganza called Avatar back in 2009. And yet a rather upstart post-production company based in Los Angeles with branches in London and India managed to do the seemingly impossible of converting 2-D movies originally shot with a 2-D camera into a full-fledged 3-D movie. And even managed to gain mainstream press attention as far back as July, 2011.

A post-production company called Prime Focus managed to gain fame after it has successfully done the “impossible” of turning a 2-D movie originally shot with 2-D cameras into a bona-fide 3-D movie as good as one shot with dedicated 3-D movie cameras. But for all intents and purposes, the proprietary process – which has been kept a closely-guarded secret by Prime Focus – of converting 2-D movies into 3-D is no easy feat. It takes on average hundreds of CGI technicians eight months to convert a feature length 2-D movie – which average length of 90-minutes to 2-hours – into a full-fledged 3-D cinematographic masterpiece.

According to Matthew Bristowe of Prime Focus, their proprietary method of converting 2-D to 3-D had first been successfully tried on James Cameron’s 1998 epic remake of Titanic. On converting Titanic to 3-D, “negative reframing” was done to prevent visual artifacts that cause eyestrain to viewers when converting 2-D movies originally shot with 2-D cameras into 3-D. If it becomes commonplace, Prime Focus’ proprietary post-production techniques of converting 2-D movies to 3-D could increase the number of the still limited catalogue of 3-D movies already out on the market today.

Is the World Ready for an X-Rated 3-D Movie?

Even though such “erotica” used to happen only in real-life, but is the world now ready for an X-Rated 3-D movie?

By: Ringo Bones


The world-at-large may be asking why make such an “erotic” art-form given that real-life sex is way much better in comparison to its “reel” 3-D counterpart. Fortunately – or unfortunately, depending your point-of-view – it haven’t deterred a group of film makers from making the first ever 3-D pornography. Believe it or not, 3-D porn already exists as far as NASA’s Manned Lunar Exploration program, as in 1969’s The Stewardesses which became the highest-grossing 3-D movie of all time – porn or otherwise - before James Cameron’s Avatar despite of being shown only in the more libertine regions of the Free World during the height of the Cold War.

Fast forward to the 21st Century, the 3-D porn move that an overwhelming majority of the world’s movie going public has mistaken as the first ever X-Rated 3-D movie that was shown in Taiwan and Hong Kong during the start of April 2011 got so much buzzwords from the established press and “new media” – i.e. Facebook and Twitter – that even the famous American comedian Conan O’Brien had joked about it in his talk-show. Titled “3-D Sex and Zen: Extreme Ecstasy”, the plot is based on a classic Chinese erotic novel. Directed by Christopher Sun, the 3-D erotica movie uses the same 3-D cinematographic techniques used in James Cameron’s Avatar.
During a promotional interview of the movie, director Christopher Sun said: “Somehow when you’re doing a 3-D movie, you always want to make an impressive image because the viewers… are going to buy tickets with double or even triple the ticket price to get into a world that you’ve never seen before. Its not just erotica, they want some wow factor!”

The producers of 3-D Sex and Zen are also hoping that the Chinese erotic period drama will prove a titillating hit with the 3-D glasses wearing audiences and help develop a lucrative niche film market. That’s quite a big if given the rather “conservative” film board censors in the rest of Asia will allow an X-Rated 3-D movie to be shown in the 3-D IMAX theaters in their major shopping malls. At least Conan O’Brien is already promoting the first ever 3-D Chinese erotic period drama in America and as of late, it was nicely received in the 2011 Cannes Film Festival as the first ever Chinese erotic period drama shot in 3-D cinematographic techniques.

2010: Year of 3-D?

Though a few years before 3ality’s digital systems’ proprietary 3-D system had manage to make 3-D movies and other 3-D related visual extravaganza popular again, can 2010 be called Year of 3-D?


By: Ringo Bones


Even though Hollywood movie moguls may beg to differ due to 3-D movies’ failure to raise box-office earnings for much of 2010, for those of us closely following 3-D related press releases, it is still valid to conclude that 2010 is the “Year of 3-D”. Back in March 9, 2010, Jeffrey Katzenberg of DreamWorks Animation had collaborated with Samsung to use their New York exhibition at the time as a launching pad for their 3-D animated DVDs. Sony also rode the people’s “wave of interest” on anything 3-D at the time due to the runaway success of James Cameron’s Avatar.

Then came last year’s 2010 IFA exhibit which IFA director Jens Heitheker says that will be dominated by everything 3-D. IFA did became a major high-profile platform to promote anything 3-D – make that digital 3-D. From 3-D still and video cameras aimed at consumers. After being fascinated by the myriad of 3-D still and video cameras in the 2010 IFA exhibition, one can be forgiven for not knowing that D.I.Y. 3-D photography – albeit the analog / film-based sort – was already invented 180 years ago and was a rage during the Victorian era, as opposed as a newfangled consumer item in the 2010 IFA. Like Panasonic’s HDC-STD750 3-D capable hand-held stills / video camera which is primarily a 2-D camera with an attachable 3-D lens to make it into a 3-D capable one – though its 1,200 US dollar MSRP makes it only a hand-held 3-D stills / video camera for the well-healed masses.

Then came last year’s 3-D network TV broadcast by ESPN, Virgin Media and Sky which launched their first 3-D TV broadcasts aimed at those already having 3-D capable domestic flat-screen TVs. Unfortunately, 2010 failed to become the year of domestic 3-D TV because high prices and a lack of quality 3-D broadcast content have made domestic 3-D TVs almost stillborn. Add to that the slower-than-average penetration of 3-D capable wide flat-screen TVs in the home because buyers tend to buy new TVs only when their old one gives up the ghost. Those HD-capable wide flat-screen TVs bought 4 to 5 years ago are still going strong. Even my Sony CRT-based 14-incher from 1989 is still alive and kicking, which my current girlfriend jokes that my “Room / Porn TV” is a few years older than her.

So does 2010 pass muster as the “Year of 3-D”? Well, given that most home entertainment technologies launched during an American recession – i.e. Pacific Microsonics’ HDCD and Sony’s Super Bit Mapping system both used to make Redbook CDs sound better (like analog) later became a brisk money-maker and still with us despite being introduced during the Bush Senior era recession. And despite high prevailing unemployment around the world, the steadily rising gains on Wall Street will eventually trickle down to the masses in boost our buying power (we hope) so that we can indulge our curiosity of everything 3-D – in 2011.