3Discover

[P3D Gabriel Jacob <jacob@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

>Dr. George A. Themelis writes

>>
>>From the reactions of the people at work, I see that the system has the
>potential.  It is all a matter of marketing and price.  With VM being
>labelled a kids toy, this might be the only serious adult substitute.
>
>I do not recall seeing earlier postings regarding 3Discover.  Can any one
>give us more information on:
>

> 
>Thanks! -- George Themelis
>
>
>------------------------------
>
Yes actually there was a brief mention about it about two months ago here
in the digest. Coincidently it was a day after I saw a news clip on  
television about a local company that was marketing this novel 3d viewer.
They said it was going to be targetted initially to tourist places first.
Someone on the digest did mention that they had some contacts with the 
company or president when they were in California. 
I tried getting some info from the company since it is in Montreal, where I
live also and its a local call. What happened is I decided at the last minute 
that I was going to the Rochester convention, so I called them up to get some
info. The president was not there till the next week
so I talked to a rep. I told her I was going to the show and offered to show 
samples but she said they heard about the show and she was pretty sure they
were sending two people there. As everyone knows that was at the convention,
they were 
not there. What she told me is that presently (this was Thursday day before the 
convention) they have not yet started widely distributing the viewer yet except
for one place presently in the states where it can be ordered for $29
dollars US.
She gave me the toll free number where it can be ordered but have to look for it
if anybody is interested. I guess from the recent posting here that this price
must be for the viewer only. She also said the in September it will be more
widely available. It seems for a 3d viewer with primarily tourist locations
marketed first they missed the summer crowd. Anyways this looks promising.
I also asked her will any camera be available for it. She did not know but said
it might be possible. The company by the way is known all over the world for
their other famous 3d product, namely their 3d puzzles. These are puzzles
like the picture
puzzles but except they are not flat but actual miniture models of famous
buildings
from around the world. You snap piece by piece like the flat picture puzzles.
The name of the company is Wrebbit and they acquired another 3d company that I
think actually invented the product. Little is known about that other company
by me so far. You can check their web site at http://www.wrebbit.com/

Also you can find the very scant info about the new viewer at 
http://www.wrebbit.com/Company/produits.html 
Below is what it says on that page.

     In 1995, Wrebbit acquired a new subsidiary company, 3-D Vision
     International Inc., which developed a new concept in
     three-dimensional viewers. This avant-garde design novelty
     called 3-D Vision should revolutionize the 3D viewer market. 3-D
     Vision's innovative internal film-advancing mechanism as well it's
aspherical
     lens mobility guarantee a promising future for this new product whose
     applications are numerous and diverse.  
 
Also
>When you see the system you will wonder "why didn't I think of that?" and
>some of us will try and adapt the viewer/cartridges for other purposes,
>like viewing our own full-frame slides, etc.  Someone (John Dukes?) might 
>even make a gadget to project the cartridges with a stereo projector.  Who
>knows?

I might be missing something here but is it really that hard to view full
frame slides with viewers? I have converted my viewmaster toy to view full
frame slides years ago. What I do is take 3d full frame slides with 
my SLR camera by taking two side to side pictures and then have them 
developed and mounted in regular 2X2 mounts. Then I mount these two mounts
on one large cardboard mount with glue. Then I view them with my viewmaster.
I took out the whole part of the front of the viewmaster and mechanism inside
and adapted it to hold the large cardboard mount. In front of that I have the
viewmaster diffuser. It works very well. You can view both slides fully in the
viewer and the quality of the slide and 3d effect is very good.

Bye for now.
Gabriel Jacob
jacob@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx  


------------------------------