P3D Re: Stereoscopic Displays and Applications 1998

[Lawrence W Kaufman <kaufman3d@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Andrew Woods wrote:

> STEREOSCOPIC DISPLAYS AND APPLICATIONS 1998
> The full program is too big to include here but is available on the
web
> at the following locations:
>     http://info.curtin.edu.au/~iwoodsa/stereoscopic
> or
>     http://www.spie.org/web/meetings/programs/pw98/confs/3295A.html
> Other items of interest which are detailed at the above web pages are:

>  * Demonstrations of Stereoscopic Technogies - Jan 28,1998

About a month ago I said I would give a rundown of what
I saw at the Demo session of the conference (if no on else
beat me to it). Since no one else has jumped in with the report
and while we are waiting for Andrew to load all of his photos
onto his website, I will briefly (in Larry Berlin terms) run through
the products:

I visited the Photonics West Exhibit room. The room
was full of tables with every product imaginable
for laser, optronics and electronic imaging. There
were several tables with hologram related products,
some lenticular prints and a couple of 3D products.

Michael Starks’ 3DTV Corporation had a booth.
He had a demo of his new 3D Man, the world’s only
3D Video system for CD-ROM & DVD, TRI DVD (TM)
(3D DVD authoring & display system) and 3D Composer (TM)
(low cost high quality 3D Multimedia authoring & display system).
Michael had his Model IR Pro (TM) wireless LCS glasses,
they were lightweight and comfortable. (415)680-1678
http://3dmagic.com

The Hall of Holograms exhibit has some fabulous and incredibly
realistic-looking holograms. By 2:45 the huge conference room
for the demonstration session was full of people huddled around
all the tables of 3D equipment. There was a lot to look at:
Several individuals and a couple companies had demos of their
autostereoscopic imaging processes including Stereoskpische
Verfahren and  Mixed Reality Systems Lab. Inc. Mixed Reality
from Japan also presented a new type of 3D display, Rear Cross
Lenticular 3D (RCL3D). John Bercovitz was set up with several
slides discussing image perspective. QD Technologies, Inc. had
some hand outs explaining their Professional Stereoscopic Video
Enhancement Processor, which was being used in the adjacent
conference room to show video footage. Some of which I was
able to view and it was great.

Steve Aubrey of Aubrey Imaging in San Jose had a entire panel of
lenticular video covers for Sgt. Kabukiman N.Y.P.D. (1996). Plus,
a large selection of other lenticulars including a larger image of this
video box cover, not to mention the Species II poster, a T2-3D
image and sheets of the award winning Star Wars lenticular cards.
David Mark had several lenticular images.

Dr. Stephen M. Kurtzer with 3D Video, Incorporated was there
with his Nu-View video attachment. He had it set up to play live
video feed or he could switch to the demo tape or even some
underwater footage he had just shot. Ilixco was there showing
off there re-introduced i-glasses.

The Slide Factory of San Francisco, www.slidefactory.com
had dozens of StereoJet (R) Digital color 3D Prints
and Transparencies. The technology was developed by the
Rowland Institute of Science in Cambridge.StereoJet (R) has
greatly simplified the process of producing Vectographs.
David Qualman was one of several individuals from NuVision
Technologies, Inc. (www.nuvision3d.com) showing off their
3-D Spex and their NuVision 17SX/21SX display kits -
consisting of a stereoscopic viewing panel and polarized viewing
glasses. The viewing panels feature a high speed liquid crystal
modulator, and are easy to install, enabling your current 17
or 21 inch monitor to be conveniently upgraded for high quality
stereoscopic visualization.

Stereographics (R) had a table were they were displaying their
interlaced 3D computer images and their CrystalEyes (R) eyewear.
I finally met Leonard Lipton, Stereographics’ founder and Chief
Technical Officer. I have a couple of the books Lenny had written,
but I have wanted to meet him because of something else he had
written. While at Cornell University, studying physics, he wrote the
song, “Puff, the Magic Dragon.”

Andrew invited me to view the 3D video footage of the Titanic.
The presentation with the QD 7500 Professional Stereoscopic
Video Enhancement Processor was unbelievable. First, the Titanic
footage was a dual Beta source. But the QD7500 doubles the lines
from the input to give a flickerless full color RGB video at 120 Hz
vertical rate, creating a separate 60 Hz field for each eye. The
system interpolates a new line between each pair of lines not just a
replication of each line. The image quality is then improved by
digital signal processing, adapting on a sample to sample basis
providing edge enhancement, noise reduction and artifact removal.
The image was shown on the large rear projection QD black screen,
viewing was with standard polarized cardboard glasses. This created
what is without a doubt the best possible video image imaginable.
The image matched that of many multiplex movie theaters.

So, Andrew, John, anyone else...what did I leave out?

Thanks for the time,
Lawrence Kaufman, mailto:kaufman3d@xxxxxxxxxxxxx


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