Category Archives: 3D

VR 3D, VR 180 stereoscopic cameras shown at #CES2018

I will do a post at some point on re-formatting conventional 3D video for use in VR Cardboard viewers.

Conventional 3D video typically used side-by-side or top over bottom encoding of 3D content.  Top over bottom does not work at all for conventional VR viewing apps, and side-by-side displays a horizontally squished/vertically stretched image perspective. Consequently, neither works with standard VR viewers. Side by side is also sometimes called “half side by side”.

Some apps do correctly recreate a side by side image but do so only in a small portion of the phone’s screen centered in front of the cardboard viewer’s lenses. Unfortunately, this small image cuts the image resolution so low that the image quality suffers tremendously and the original 3D content is nearly useless.

IF Cardboard viewing apps provided reformatting of standard 3D formats into VR 3D formats properly, this would not be a problem. But for now, it is a big problem.

A possible solution, based on my tests, is to take one’s original stereoscopic 3D and recompress an output file as full size, side by side. Upload the full size, side by side video to Youtube.

When played back on the Youtube viewer, these videos display using most of the phone screen, such that image resolution remains very good. Each eye sees an original image in a 960×540 resolution (roughly) which is far better than perhaps half of that seen on conventional side by side Cardboard viewing apps.

More on this another time.

 

“This video is 2D and 3D Simultaneously: the Pulfrich Effect”

Tom Scott has created a brilliant demonstration video of the Pulfrich Effect. You’ll need a pair of ordinary dark glasses – use just one side to cover just the right eye. Then watch his video. You’ll see the video in full color 3D, event though it is a 2D video.

3D video enthusiasts may already know a bit about how this works. When a camera is panning across a scene, each frame records a “position” in time. We sometimes use this trick to convert a 2D video into a 3D video by recording in 2D, but then creating a separate left and right track with the tracks separated by a single frame from the original 2D recording. This creates a left image track – and a right image track – by taking advantage of the movement in the scene.

The technique works as long as either the camera is moving or one or more objects in the scene are moving laterally. It does not work if objects are moving vertically or if objects or the scene are stationary.

The Pulfrich Effect uses the same idea but incorporates the peculiar nature of our optic system. Specifically, our eyes process darkened images slightly slower than bright images. The darkened image seen through dark glasses covering one eye are processed with a delay of about 15 milliseconds which works out to about 1/60th of a second. (The actual processing delay depends on the actual darkness of the image and could be more or less.)

Tom’s Youtube channel is here. He’s always got fascinating topics and I encourage you to subscribe to his channel on Youtube.

Experiment: I suspect this works also for VR 3D. Take a VR 360 video but keep the camera slowly rotating during filming. Then, cover one eye with a dark glasses shade while watching the VR video using a VR set up. As long as the subject is slowly moving laterally, the 3D effect should be visible in 3D!

[The featured photo for this post is from Pixabay.]

 

 

34% of Star Wars The Last Jedi opening weekend watched in #3D #StarWars

“Before taking the lead this weekend at the domestic box-office, “Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi” proved fans are still as eager as ever to see films in 3D. This week RealD, the world’s largest 3D cinema platform, announced that Lucasfilm’s latest Star Wars installment earned an impressive 34% of its worldwide gross from 3D performances of the film.”

‘Star Wars the Last Jedi’ Proves that 3D is still a Selling Point with fans

IMAX to show less movies in 3D

Reality is IMAX is not as popular as it once was either. They went from big screens to pseudo big screens squished into regular movie theaters – and then turned the volume up to +11. I have not watched an IMAX movie in an “IMAX theater” since The Hobbit came out – and the IMAX experience wasn’t much there, on one of the IMAX squished into a theater screens.

IMAX is now working on “IMAX VR” (which presumably includes 3D)

Source: IMAX to show less movies in 3D as it realises cinema-goers don’t want it | The Independent