P3D Re: Polaroid didn't catch on?!?

[roberts@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (John W Roberts)]

>Date: Tue, 2 Dec 1997 18:43:02 -0700
>From: Marvin Jones <Campfire@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>Subject: P3D Polaroid didn't catch on?!?

>Polaroid didn't catch on?!? For well over half a century it has been far,
>far, far and away the most universal and popular form of 3D presentation!
>Virtually all slide and movie presentations utilize polaroid projection,

Over the period of time mentioned, that's "most universal and popular form"
*in stereo clubs*. I still think that most stereo enthusiasts not only
do not participate in stereo clubs, but are not even aware that stereo clubs
exist. Since polarized 3D IMAX came out (~1980's?) plenty of people have
been exposed to polarized 3D, but for a decade or two before that, I expect
that involvement in 3D *among those who did not participate in stereo clubs*
was mainly Viewmaster, Holmes, and anaglyph. A person who had been involved
in stereo clubs might think that what they had been using in the stereo clubs
was the main format, but overall, including the large numbers of
non-stereo-club people, I don't think polarized 3D was the dominant form.

In the 1970's, I knew about Viewmaster, Holmes, and anaglyph, but I don't
think I knew about the polarized projection systems. In the early 1980's,
a theater near where I lived at the time occasionally showed polarized 3D
movies as a novelty. If for some reason I had not learned about P3D or its
predecessor, and had not happened to visit Disney World or any 3D IMAX
theaters, I might still consider polarized 3D to be novelty that somehow
hadn't caught on.

It's important to keep in mind that at least since the 1950's, 3D has been
a highly fragmented field, with many groups of enthusiasts who don't
communicate with or even know about one another.

If a person claims to be a great fan of modern professional American
football, but never heard of Troy Aikman, John Elway, Dan Marino, etc.,
they could reasonably expect to be ridiculed - NFL fandom is more or less
mass-produced, centrally organized, and there's a large "core" body of
knowledge that just about every dedicated fan has. But 3D has many different
fields of knowledge, not very closely related to one another, and until the
explosive growth and increased versatility of the Internet, it was very hard
for people to find out about the different aspects of 3D.

Thus I think it's counterproductive to ridicule a person (I'm not referring
to Marvin, but to some of the previous posters) for large gaps in their
knowledge of 3D, especially if they just got involved in P3D.

>and the vast majority of projected television, video, and computer 3D
>presentations are likewise polaroid. 

I'd say frame (or field) sequential stereo, with shuttered glasses have been
the most common stereo format for those (though it could be argued that LCS
shutters contain polarizers :-). I would consider the VRex uPol system to
be a fairly recent arrival in the field (as a commercial product). I haven't
heard much about the polarization switching system from Tektronix in recent
years - at least it hasn't become a predominant format, and anyway it uses
circular polarization, so it's not quite the same as the traditional
polarized viewing systems.

John R


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