Application of interactive 3D technology in the field of marketing and communication.

I’m proud to announce that Zero Creative will host the biggest 3D-only stand during the next IBC (10-14 September 2010, Amsterdam).

On the stand we will show the latest in:

• 2D-to-3D conversion
• Stereo to Autostereo conversion
• xyZ 3D Displays (no glasses / autostereoscopic)
• Interactive 3D visualizations/simulations
• and more!

You will find the stand in the northern part of Hall 9. Please come over.

If you feel you need to participate somehow together with us, please contact me via LinkedIn.

The problem with virually all autostereoscopic 3D displays is that the resolution of 2D content is dramatically decimised depening on the number of views. In most cases this is 5,8 or 9 views, meaning that the native resolution of the panel will be divided by this number, resulting in poor quality or unreadable text.

Zero Creative now showcases her first AS3D xyZ 3D Displays with ability to switch on/off the 3D lenticular lens electronically. In 3D-mode the display shows the 8-view 3D content properly and in 2D-mode the full native panel resolution is available without ANY concession. We already integrated this technology in a 2d/3d laptop and now we’re ready to release it for production.

We would like to ask the market which size you’re interested in most, to first start production of the most wanted size. For now we focus on ‘ desktop’ sizes like 19/22/24-inch. Looking forward to read your reactions.

Now, let’s think a moment about the role 3D can play to help the worldwide economic situation. And for this example I will be highlighting only one of the many industries that can profit from 3D: property development.

Since the crisis started, somewhere in 2008, many new property developments have been delayed and even cancelled. It’s important to understand that the effects of this can have a deep and widely impact on the lifes of many people. Let me explain: Because new projects are relatively rare since 2008/2009, many construction companies are now still working on projects started in 2009 or before. Since that time the total number of real estate projects have dropped significantly (only in the Netherlands it dropped about 30-50% since a year ago…). So, while construction of many projects is nearly finished now, only few new projects can start, hence a lot less work for the construction industry. But this is only the beginning, because some steps later this will also (negatively) affect installation companies, distributors and factories of building materials and their suppliers and even business such as in furniture and kitchens etc. are already feeling the pressure…

I think 3D can play a part in solving this issue, I’m not saying it will be enough, but in this time every small step can help at least a little

In the past years we have developped many new aaplications using 3D and interaction to better communicate, market, sell and even construct new properties. We did (and still do) this in partnership with many of our partners/clients from different sectors such as property developers, governments and consultants.

The results of our 3D solutions are e.g. better and faster decisions, less problems with all kinds of stakeholders, better communications and marketing and of course faster sales.

Looking back on the (recent) past we can define multiple projects where the investement in 3D was returned within only a few months already, after that it’s pure profit somehow you could say.

This means that the property development sector for sure can profit from using new high-end 3D solutions and applications and in that way reinforce their position on the market and survive this era.

I believe it’s very important to start distinguishing the differences between automated and manual 2d-to-3d conversion, such as we provide, and stop generalizing this subject.

About 15% (a little less or more) of human population have troubles watching stereo 3D, of course conversion is one of the factors in these, but I think partly this is also a matter of time and getting used to. On the other hand, in my personal opinion it’s also a result inherent to the STEREO technology, which gives some unnatural effect, wheter the content is OK or not, and which is not possible to solve. What I refer to is the effect that your brain expect the point of view to change when you move your head left/right, and this just doens’t happen in stereo: everything moves with you, as it is still the same content. So, there’s a great advantage in using autostereoscopic, like our xyZ 3D Displays, from this point of view.

Back to the 2d-to-3d conversion: In my opinion you cannot simply say that 2d-to-3d conversion is a recipe for headaches, actually I think careful handmade conversions will not cause any more headache than proper filmed stereo content. The main difference between will be more that the immersive effect will be less. HOWEVER when talking about automated 2d-3d conversion I do agree, ALL automated conversion demos I have seen sofar have a lot of errors and are indeed headache improving bacause a lot of depth doesn’t make sense and especially when left and right view become very messed up.

Also I need to say something regarding some other recent debates about the converted Clash Of The Titans featured film. SOME people said it was very bad and it supposed to be ‘destructive’ for the original, but for a project done in ~8 weeks it wasn’t bad at all. Obviously it did miss some immersive 3D effect, but I think this is mainly caused by the fact that the film wasn’t produced fully in the knowledge that it would be converted later on. However, it was still very entertaining to watch and worth the few extra euros/dollars for me, and THAT’’s what it’s about. Meanwhile the films’ revenues are more than USD 454M, with a production budget of ‘only’ USD 125M.

Kind regards,

Jean-Pierre van Maasakker

www.zerocreative.com/blogs/jpvm

3D TVs, 3D broadcast channels and 3D cinemas pop up like daisies,  people are paying more to see 3D, hence 2D content has less value than 3D content. 3D movies already accounted for 33 percent of the box office this year and this was achieved by only four films! Wow!

This means 2D to 3D conversion is an interesting subject and that’s why we’re continiously developing better ways to handle this. I believe quality conversion can ONLY be done manually, that is by people. There’s absolutely no computer algorythm that can achieve the same 3D perception as the human brain, at least not until there’s real AI on the market. So for now, doing good 2D to 3D conversions we have to work day and night, converting everything manually frame by frame, second by second, minute by minute. And the more efforts (time) we put in it, the better the result.

Converting 2D to 3D is a delicate process it’s in our business’ best interest to deliver high quality 3D. If we don’t deliver the highest quality of 3D conversion, chances exist that the audience could be disappointed about 3D in general, we can’t risk that to happen.

Filming directly in 3D can be great but can also turn out catastrophic without proper equipment and experience. Don’t forget that too. Though appropriate filmed 3D movies, are of course better than conversions, no doubts about that.

Below some results of our conversion methods, please notice these are just Anaglyphs versions to make it easy to show them, of course I also have side by side (full colour) stereo pairs! Let me know what you think of it.

It seems that almost all big time (media) electronic companies are going to do something with 3D. Not only JVC, LG, Sony, Samsung, etc. Also specific PC manufacturers are starting with it.

After the release of Asus and Acer 3D laptops and ofcourse the products of Alienware, also specialized game consoles are going 3D. Not only PlayStation, but rumours are also about XBox and a 3D version of the Nintendo DS becomes available.

Of course allmost all of these 3D products do require the use of 3d-glasses to see the 3D effect. Only the little Nintento DS will have an autostereoscopic 3D Display. However this one is based on a parralax barrier technology from Sharp, which failed in 2003, so I don’t know about the quality of this.

In the past months I had the pleasure to demonstrate our unique 3d digital signage system to various people all over the world. These meetings have proven that it is possible to create real 3D advertisements (for our autostereoscopic 3d displays) in just a few minutes.

The good news is that this has meanwhile triggered some bigger companies that are planning to cooperate with us in this field. I think we’re really breaking down the biggest bottleneck in the AS3D industry, which is what I like to call the “3d content vs 3d display paradox”.

Using our 3DZignage software (which is continuously improving btw) everyone can make exciting 3d presentations from anywhere, using the included webbased interface, which is just as easy to use as Gmail…

Some of our relations are already planning to install our displays in their receptions and create personal 3D messages for the customers they’re receiving that day. A very good idea, certainly in these times. Show your clients your commitment…

For those who want to experiment with our tools, just contact us through our website contact form.

2010 has definetely started off great for 3D. Many products and other announcements were made during the CES conference and more news is still spreading.

Forecast for our company is that glasses-free 3D Display sales will grow with at least 300% this year. But I will certainly keep you up 2 date about this.

Finally some price info is released regarding consumer stereo 3d displays, which seem to be ranging from 2,000 - 6,000 euros and the first ones will appear this summer in Europe.

Meanwhile the buzz around 3D Hollywood productions is increasing, with rumours about Gremlins 3 and Ghostbusters 3, both in 3D.

It’s a good week for 3D!

• ESPN announced their plan to broadcast (some) football games during this years World Cup match in 3D
• Avatar 3D already made a lot of cash and it seems that 4 out of the 10 3D movies last year were noted in the Top 10 best visited movies
• New 3D camera’s have been announced during CES
• New 3D displays, all stereo (with glasses!!) have been introduced during CES
• And of course: new 3D productions are announces, as well as new ‘conversion’  projects of existing 2D into 3D.

Reasons enough for a lot of press people to call, email and visit me this week to talk about the current 3D trends. Here in The Netherlands, football has always been the NR1 major sport, so the ESPN new’s about the World Cup in 3D was pretty exciting. This lead to some questions about how this will affect 3D penetration, at least in the Netherlands.

In my opinion we’re going to have a beautiful year for 3D, but it’s not going THAT fast. To really make a significant difference we need more than a handful of films and some football matches in 3D before 3D displays massively will be sold. So we will need more content, more shows, more movies, more 3D TV channels to really get this started. I concluded together with some journalists that the 2010 World Cup is just a bit too soon… for the 3D industry it would definetely be better if it took place just one year later or so.

However, I do believe we will see a quite big group of early adopters this year, everywhere around the world. Meanwhile we will also here internally do our R&D to make our autostereoscopic (no glasses…) 3D displays ready to also easily view the content as described above. At this point we can even already demo some of this.

The 3D train has departed!