Re: New 3D business opportunity -- let's get rick quick!!

[P3D Michael Kersenbrock <michaelk@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

> So, now in addition to taking scads of images (hey, they're free, right?),
> we have to sit by the computer and download all those flash-RAM cards.

Assuming it's using something reasonable (someday) like a PCMCIA RAM
interface or maybe firewire, "downloading" should be near instantaneous.

> Then we've got to preview the images, and throw away the losers; crop
> and window the keepers; and maybe retouch a few marginal ones.  When

"Cropping and windowing the keepers" should be instantaneous for 
"standard shots".  With a known digital stereo camera, mounting-to-infinity 
should be instantaneously and perfectly done by the software.  Even 
offsets or other abberations due to the particular camera should be 
automatically accounted for.

>From a user's perspective, they'd attach their "image-card" to the computer
and immediately look at the resultant "mounted" images.  Even images
that have close-up subjects can have pre-set "corrections" so most common 
out-of-the-ordinary abberations to infinity-mounting can be corrected by 
hitting a single keystroke (like hitting a digit 1~9 indicating the number
of feet to the closest object).  Real fast and brain-free. 

As to retouching, yes that could be time consuming ... but much less time
consuming than doing the same thing to a film based image.  :-)

> that's done, we have to write the whole shmear back out to CD-ROM or
> whatever, or risk losing them.  Hmm, this sounds like a lot more than

Sounds like "another chore" but it can be automated and done 
nearly instantaneous as well.  One also can optionally catalog/thumbnail 
all of one's  images and actually be able to find what one's looking for 
rather than just saying "where the <explitive deleted> is that image!".  :-)

> Well, let me put it this way.  I can play an LP record with a pin and
> a paper cone.  Can you do this with a CD?  Will anyone remember how
> to play back an audio CD in 100 years?  (I'd add "Will anyone care",

As many as will play a LP with a pin and a paper cone.  Does anyone
look at stereo-cards that are a hundred years old?  Yup!  Do 
people find it interesting?  Yup.  Lots and lots of old stereo photographs
are published in non-3D historical books with only one "side" printed.

In any case, being digital it can be converted (probably by the consumer)
to future formats when the new format comes about.  Much in the way that
the Library of Congress and other groups are digitizing old books and
photographs now.  I'm scanning some of my and my wife's old kid pictures
too.


> but that's getting off-topic).  I can look at that Kodachrome and
> see an image with my naked eye.  Can you do that with a PhotoCD?  Will

No.  But most people use Royal Gold or some other negative film and they
look terrible by eye, so negatives are unacceptable to the general
public for photographic use?  I dont' think so.


> you be able to retrieve those proprietary PhotoCD images in 100 years,
> 80 years after Kodak's demise?  The simpler technologies have one

Yes undoubtedly.  I'll betcha another quarter!

> advantage: you don't need complicated equipment to use them.  When
> you need a silicon foundry to homebrew a playback unit, homebrewing
> will likely go the way of the LP.

Although I live in Oregon, I'm not a back-to-minimialistic-nature
person. I think the technical infrastructure will survive and grow.
If nukes take it out, I won't care about the pictures anyway. 

> >Digital photography *will* dominate, it's only time.  I'll bet another
> >quarter on that too. :-)
> 
> I have no doubt of it.  But it sure will be a lot harder to hack.  Will
> you be able to fix your digital stereo camera when it breaks like you can
> your FED?  We'll sure be a lot more dependent on big companies to supply
> us with the equipment we want.  If 3D doesn't catch on big before then,
> THIS will have been the "golden age of stereo". :-(

I agree that it'll be the "Golden age in stereo" in the sense that the 
days of paper written letters was the "Golden Age in Communications".

People will always be able to "hack" things, but that which they "hack"
won't stay constant.


Mike K.


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