LOS ANGELES, CA / ACCESSWIRE / December 4, 2017 / 3-D media is on the verge of several groundbreaking advancements, according to longtime Hollywood agent and manager turned producer Rick Nicita. James Cameron's Lightstorm Entertainment, the studio behind Avatar 2, announced in March a five-year collaboration agreement with Christie Digital, a firm developing revolutionary new technology that allows for high-definition 3-D viewing without glasses. Nicita discusses these innovations and the possibility of mainstream applications beyond the movie theater.
When James Cameron's Avatar was released in 2009, the inter-galactic epic immediately revived the 3-D cinematic experience. Thousands of theaters around the nation integrated the technology solely for Cameron's film, which won three Oscars related to its design and technical execution. In 2020, Avatar 2 is hoping to invigorate the industry once again. Using Christie Digital's advanced projectors, Cameron is focused on developing a type of hologram that will allow for 3-D viewing - without glasses - with negligible motion blur and distortion at high frame rates. If successfully developed, the technology would fundamentally change the screen-based visual entertainment industry.
Beyond the theater, Rick Nicita explained that glasses-less 3-D has a host of potential applications, ranging from an alternative to virtual reality for gamers to a means for online shoppers to view products before purchase. In an effort to bring this technology into the home, MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab is developing an algorithm that allows for commercial televisions to produce a three-dimensional effect without any eyewear. Simply called Home3D, the system converts existing 3-D movies with what's called an automultiscopic display. Content is shown as three or more offset images at the same time, causing them to appear differently depending on the user's position and tricking the brain to see a clear image with a sense of depth.
"Automultiscopic displays aren't as popular as they could be because they can't actually play the stereo formats that traditional 3D movies use in theaters," said Petr Kellnhoffer, the lead author on the Home3D research. "Our system helps open the door to bringing 3D TVs into people's homes." MIT is still working on finalizing a prototype Home3D chip that can fit inside smart TVs and Blu-ray players. Once completed, the team will pursue commercializing the product with leading television manufacturers, which they are confident can be quickly achieved.